Buck's random home-made things.

[daniel_buck]

Since the bench grinder that I picked up was missing the cover and tool rest on the left side, I made a tool rest and managed to get the cover from my old bench grinder (the one with a wobbly spindle) to fit onto this one I'll put some small spark deflectors on the top of the openings, and then it'll be done

I have to say, ever since I got the little band saw and band saw table, I've been constantly using that thing. I can't believe I got by without one before! It makes real quick work of cutting out little shapes for brackets and things out of plate or angle, or simply cutting down a bolt length, or what have you.









and the handle on the bench vice that I picked up was bent (someone probably trying to use the vice as a press, haha!) I happened to have some solid rod the same diameter. Fixed.




I'm going to leave things clamped to the stand for a little while, and use them for a few weeks until I like how they are arranged. Then I'll drill and bolt them down proper.


The small vice on the stand will be used for small things. If I need to pound on something, or work with something heavy, I have a larger vice that's mounted to my work bench.

[daniel_buck]

I'm happy Man, both welders burn quite a bit hotter with 220

I installed the outlet upside down because that's the direction the power cables go (at a 90 degree) otherwise I'd have to loop the cables up and over the outlet, seems silly.

[daniel_buck]

Not quite home made, laser cut and pre-bent by SWAG offroad, finally getting around to new body mounts for the TJ. I figured with 220 power, this is probably a good first project

And since there's 6 of them to do, I figured I'd try various welding types on them for some more experience. Flux core on the 1st, MIG on the 2nd, and TIG on the 3rd. The flux core, meh, it never looks good. The Mig, I'm happy with. The Tig, could use work. I'm going to TIG the rest of them because that's the one I'm the least confident with, it's penetrating well, but I'm not consistent enough yet to get a nice even looking weld. Also I think I need a thicker filler rod for the greater amounts of power now. this was 1/16" I think, I probably need to be at least 1/8" filler rod, maybe even thicker. The mounts are 1/4" thick.

When it's time to weld these to the frame, I'll probably MIG them, since I'm the most familiar with that, and it'll probably just be alot easier than TIGing laying on my back.









(edit) and the rest of them done

[daniel_buck]

I got started on my neighbor's driveway gate today. This is the base that will saddle over top their short concrete wall, the main post will be welded to this, and the saddle will be bolted into the concrete wall. Frame will be 1 1/4" square tubing, and then they will screw wood boards to the frame. Saddle is 1/4", the square tubing for the frame will be 1/16", not sure what we'll use for the main post, I've got some stuff here that might work, but it's going to either be way over kill, or possibly a little underkill. 3x3" 1/8" wall square tube might not be strong enough? I always seem to under estimate how strong tubing is, it'll probably be fine?

[daniel_buck]

Got the gate post finished. Not yet mounted to the concrete, but the post is done

And I am.... TOTALLY digging the drop down tail gate.

Debated on putting the gussets going all the way to the main post, instead of just staying on the thinner arms, but I think it's plenty strong enough as is. Made the arms 90 degrees, so that the flat surface on the sides can easily mount wood on both sides.

Enjoying the 220

[6spdYJ]

I'm happy Man, both welders burn quite a bit hotter with 220

I installed the outlet upside down because that's the direction the power cables go (at a 90 degree) otherwise I'd have to loop the cables up and over the outlet, seems silly.

That's actually the recommended installation. It reduces the chance of arc flash if something conductive happens to fall across the plug while it's partially inserted. If a piece of metal hit the ground lug and glanced off, it would be no problem. Even if it arced between ground and one hot leg it would trip the breaker and only flash from one leg of 120. If the receptacle was flipped over you run the risk of arcing across 240 which is a bit more hazardous.
It looks like your receptacle is fed using BX. Do you know the wire gauge? The welder I have is rated at 20 Amps but has the NEMA 6-50 plug for the convenience of using a dryer outlet. It's best though to use a breaker that suits the rating of the equipment. A 20A welder won't trip a 50A breaker without first causing some very hazardous conditions. As long as the wire is 12ga or bigger and you are using a 20A breaker you'll be fine.

[daniel_buck]

The I think we went with 10 gauge. We fed it through the sheath by hand, we couldn't find BX in a 50 foot length (we needed about 35 feet), we didn't want to buy 100+ feet, so we bought what we needed, and fed it thorugh ourself. We knew 12 gauge was good enough, but we werent' sure on the length, so we went with 10 just incase.

[daniel_buck]

Made the gate structure and tied the post into the wall today It's pretty damn solid, haha! The wood that's going to be screwed onto the frame is really light weight, this thing isn't going anywhere

The straps on the concrete wall were an altercation to our original design, we found out that the cinder blocks on the corner of the wall are NOT filled, they are hollow. We originally had planned on using threaded inserts, but as soon as we started drilling, we found out that the wall is hollow. We were both under the assumption that the corner and every 3rd block was filled, but apparently whoever put up the wall didn't do that. So, I bent up some straps and we put a threaded rod all the way through the wall with a nut and a large backing plate/washer on the opposite side of the wall. It works well enough, just not what we had planned on.

I may put a bar going diagonal in the frame, but honestly I don't think it needs it.

Just have to put in the box for the door handle

[Tumbleweed13]

Looks good. Did you put a caster at the bottom to help catch the weight of the gate?

[daniel_buck]

No, it doesn't seem to need it. That, and the driveway slopes down, so it wouldn't help when the gate was open anyway, since it wouldn't be touching the ground. Hard to tell in the photo, but the entire driveway is down hill

[6spdYJ]

Your upper brackets are a very tasteful overkill and the use of the curb bracket is sheer genius. If you used .088" tubing that will be plenty strong for the application. It looks like it growed there. Nice work!

[daniel_buck]

Thanks My landlord helped/supervised the work, which I'm thankful for, since I've never worked with concrete stuff at all. He's done alot of construction, but not really worked with metal much (I think), he helped with measuring everything and figuring out how to mount everything, and I cut and welded everything up.

The curb bracket is 1/4" thick, the upright post is 2.5" tubing with 1/8" wall thickness, and the arms that reach out to the wall are 1.25" square tubing with 1/16" wall. Straps that are bolted to the wall are 3/16" thick. It's a bit of a mixture, but it seems to be quite solid. The frame of the gate itself is 1.25" square tubing, 1/16" wall.

[6spdYJ]

Worst case, if it sags you can block up the swinging end and burn in a diagonal from the upper hinge side down to the bottom open side. Good to see you enjoying what you do.

[daniel_buck]

Yea, we had originally intended on putting a diagonal in there, but we didn't have QUITE enough metal to do that, haha! We ended up using more metal on the arms than we originally though. I think we still may try a diagonal going from the bottom corner on the latch size, to the upper corner on the hinge side.

It's been fun for sure! I don't know if I'd want to make gates and fences very often, but it's different, and it's been fun so far And it's nice to help out neighbors too.

[daniel_buck]

I've been needing a larger welding cart, now that I have two welding machines (MIG, and TIG), and two bottles. After having my first cart for at least a year now, I've learned two things. #1, I don't like small hard casters, they roll like crap over even the smallets cracks and bumps. and #2, I need some drawers to keep things in! So this one will have drawers, and 6" air filled tires.

Got most of the frame on the welding cart done! The top is a little larger than 2'x3', which is considerably larger than my old welding cart.

In the last image, you can see the two welders (the bottles will go behind the welders) and the drawer above the welders. Originally planned on stacking another set of drawers under those drawers, but then I realized I wouldn't be able to get any long clamps in towards the middle of the table. So, I'm going to lower the drawers and just use one set. However, the cart is wide enough that I could put the other set of drawers on the opposite side. Would be a little odd having drawers on both sides, I may forget which side things are on. We'll see, if the single set of drawers isn't enough, then I'll put the other set on the opposite side as well.

Man, it rolls so much better with the larger air filled tires. The tires aren't even all that soft, but it rolls so much better.

Tubing is 1.25x1.25" .120 wall. Top is a bit more than 2'x3' 1/4" plate.