- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 6,055
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Aux Fuel Tank, Excavator Bucket, AirBoat & Tool Box.
OK guys update time.................................
I spent the whole of last weekend practicing my welding.
Sunday evening I decided to do a bit more on the fuel tank project.
Welded the fuel sender unit boss next.
Welded the 2 main sections of tank together.
That was as much as I got done on the fuel tank last weekend.
At work this week I had an unusual project.
My boss had bought the perfect sized bucket he needed for his 5 ton excavator. Only issue was it wouldn't fit, so my job was to make it fit.
I got him to bring a bucket that does fit in, so I could copy the mounting system.
My first job was to cut off the mounts on the new bucket.
The oxy torch worked well for this.
New mounts.
I gave the template to a local steel company that we use. They specialize in cutting sheet steel and have got sheets of steel up to 400mm thick x 12ft square!
Its where I got my bench top from.
Anyway......................
They cut me 2 pieces out of 20mm plate.
Cleaned up the bucket ready for welding.
I cut some 90mm squares of 12mm plate and hole-sawed a 40mm hole in the center of each.
Beveled the edges to ensure good weld root penetration.
Welded the squares on.
The 40mm round bar I had picked up turned out to be 43mm.
I cut the 2 pins and spun the ends down in the lathe to 40mm to fit the 90mm squares and 20mm side plates.
I ground the edges of the 20mm thick plates to again ensure good root penetration on the welds.
Tacked the pins in position.
I then hung the bucket on the vice and fully welded it.
He has a quick hitch on his machine, so no need to remove the pins to fit the bucket. I welded the pins in position with 3 small welds so that if the pins do ever wear and need replacing it shouldn't be too hard to cut them out.
All done.
A quick coat of paint.
I brought my TIG in to do some more on the air-boat project.
I welded the huge piece of tube onto the front.
I then fully welded all the external seems/butt joints.
The back of the boat cracked when we folded the 5mm thick sheet of alluminium.
I chose to cut out the crack before fully TIG welding it.
For this I picked up a special blade for the angle grinder which is basically a small circular saw blade.
Normal cutting and grinding discs quickly clog up when cutting or grinding alluminium, but this little blade was awesome!
I was expecting a lot of kick back but there was virtually non and it cut so quickly and smoothly. It also worked amazingly well for grinding down the alluminium in places where I had got far too much penetration.
Cut out ready for welding.
TIG'd.
I also welded the tube on on the back of the boat, meaning all of the welding was now done and the hull should be water tight.
I decided to lift the boat up into the air so I could weld the front tube to the hull in a more comfortable position.
I could then put the boat back the right way up on its pallet.
The next job is to start adding the ribs inside the boat which should stiffen it up a lot.
I spent half an hour on the lathe turning a piece of the 43mm bar down.
Not quite up to Chris's standard of lathe wizardry but I was pleased with the end result.
Can you guess what it is yet?
Cut it to length on the brobo saw.
My boss gave me a load of rusty old clamps that were covered in concrete which he got in a job lot of tools from an auction.
I cleaned all the rust and concrete off easily with the wire wheel on the big 3 phase bench grinder.
But one of the Record clamps was missing a piece and that was what I turned up on the lathe.
Good as new!
I've wanted to bring my big tool box home from work for a while now. I've got a nice little workshop setup in my garage but I was always finding that I needed tools that were at work or that I was using shitty old screwdrivers and pliers when I had really good ones at work.
I also found that I didn't use half of the tools in my box at work and didn't need anywhere near as much tool storage at work, yet I did at home.
So I've brought my big tool box home and I will take a smaller one into work with a selection of the tools I use the most.
I also picked up a metal cabinet to lock all my power tools in.
I machined up loads of pieces of pipe on the oxy pipe beveler at TAFE the other night so I can keep practicing all weekend.
And finally back to the fuel tank.
I attempted to do some more welding on it this afternoon.
It really is horrible stuff to weld.
Even after trying to grind the layer of alluminium off and wiping it all clean with thinners it still doesn't weld nice.
It has also warped and twisted in places from the heat of welding it. In hindsight normal steel would have been better and then I could have just got it electroplated.
But then I got thinking........................
I'm using 2mm thick alluminiumised steel that Brown Davies use for all of their tanks that go underneath vehicles and cop a lot of abuse off road.
Where as with my tank being inside and reasonably well protected I should have just used alluminium.
It would be a hell of a lot lighter, easy to machine, cut and drill and would weld beautifully.
So I'm thinking of scraping what I've done so far and starting again in 3mm alluminium.
If a job is worth doing its worth doing right, even if that sometimes means admitting you've made a mistake and costing yourself more time and money.
OK guys update time.................................
I spent the whole of last weekend practicing my welding.
Sunday evening I decided to do a bit more on the fuel tank project.
Welded the fuel sender unit boss next.
Welded the 2 main sections of tank together.
That was as much as I got done on the fuel tank last weekend.
At work this week I had an unusual project.
My boss had bought the perfect sized bucket he needed for his 5 ton excavator. Only issue was it wouldn't fit, so my job was to make it fit.
I got him to bring a bucket that does fit in, so I could copy the mounting system.
My first job was to cut off the mounts on the new bucket.
The oxy torch worked well for this.
New mounts.
I gave the template to a local steel company that we use. They specialize in cutting sheet steel and have got sheets of steel up to 400mm thick x 12ft square!
Its where I got my bench top from.
Anyway......................
They cut me 2 pieces out of 20mm plate.
Cleaned up the bucket ready for welding.
I cut some 90mm squares of 12mm plate and hole-sawed a 40mm hole in the center of each.
Beveled the edges to ensure good weld root penetration.
Welded the squares on.
The 40mm round bar I had picked up turned out to be 43mm.
I cut the 2 pins and spun the ends down in the lathe to 40mm to fit the 90mm squares and 20mm side plates.
I ground the edges of the 20mm thick plates to again ensure good root penetration on the welds.
Tacked the pins in position.
I then hung the bucket on the vice and fully welded it.
He has a quick hitch on his machine, so no need to remove the pins to fit the bucket. I welded the pins in position with 3 small welds so that if the pins do ever wear and need replacing it shouldn't be too hard to cut them out.
All done.
A quick coat of paint.
I brought my TIG in to do some more on the air-boat project.
I welded the huge piece of tube onto the front.
I then fully welded all the external seems/butt joints.
The back of the boat cracked when we folded the 5mm thick sheet of alluminium.
I chose to cut out the crack before fully TIG welding it.
For this I picked up a special blade for the angle grinder which is basically a small circular saw blade.
Normal cutting and grinding discs quickly clog up when cutting or grinding alluminium, but this little blade was awesome!
I was expecting a lot of kick back but there was virtually non and it cut so quickly and smoothly. It also worked amazingly well for grinding down the alluminium in places where I had got far too much penetration.
Cut out ready for welding.
TIG'd.
I also welded the tube on on the back of the boat, meaning all of the welding was now done and the hull should be water tight.
I decided to lift the boat up into the air so I could weld the front tube to the hull in a more comfortable position.
I could then put the boat back the right way up on its pallet.
The next job is to start adding the ribs inside the boat which should stiffen it up a lot.
I spent half an hour on the lathe turning a piece of the 43mm bar down.
Not quite up to Chris's standard of lathe wizardry but I was pleased with the end result.
Can you guess what it is yet?
Cut it to length on the brobo saw.
My boss gave me a load of rusty old clamps that were covered in concrete which he got in a job lot of tools from an auction.
I cleaned all the rust and concrete off easily with the wire wheel on the big 3 phase bench grinder.
But one of the Record clamps was missing a piece and that was what I turned up on the lathe.
Good as new!
I've wanted to bring my big tool box home from work for a while now. I've got a nice little workshop setup in my garage but I was always finding that I needed tools that were at work or that I was using shitty old screwdrivers and pliers when I had really good ones at work.
I also found that I didn't use half of the tools in my box at work and didn't need anywhere near as much tool storage at work, yet I did at home.
So I've brought my big tool box home and I will take a smaller one into work with a selection of the tools I use the most.
I also picked up a metal cabinet to lock all my power tools in.
I machined up loads of pieces of pipe on the oxy pipe beveler at TAFE the other night so I can keep practicing all weekend.
And finally back to the fuel tank.
I attempted to do some more welding on it this afternoon.
It really is horrible stuff to weld.
Even after trying to grind the layer of alluminium off and wiping it all clean with thinners it still doesn't weld nice.
It has also warped and twisted in places from the heat of welding it. In hindsight normal steel would have been better and then I could have just got it electroplated.
But then I got thinking........................
I'm using 2mm thick alluminiumised steel that Brown Davies use for all of their tanks that go underneath vehicles and cop a lot of abuse off road.
Where as with my tank being inside and reasonably well protected I should have just used alluminium.
It would be a hell of a lot lighter, easy to machine, cut and drill and would weld beautifully.
So I'm thinking of scraping what I've done so far and starting again in 3mm alluminium.
If a job is worth doing its worth doing right, even if that sometimes means admitting you've made a mistake and costing yourself more time and money.
might come in usefull for something at home.
