.
The Indiana Historical Society has an exhibit on the Model T Ford. This kind of car is what used to be called a “delivery.” If you wanted one of these, you ordered the frame, running gear, brakes – all that stuff – from Ford, and then you went to what they called a “coach builder” and had them make the wood body for it. Yeah – they don’t make things like they used to!
.
.
Here’s the plate all by its lonesome – wait! What’s that you can barely see around the edges? That’s right – it’s tonight’s work! Wires, pieces of bent wire. I guess that’s not bad considering I did it in 45 minutes, but still – bent wire? THAT’S my big accomplishment? Okay!
.
The thing to really focus on here is that plate with the hole in it underneath the other crap. I guess I put the other stuff in the photo to make it look a little fancier, because, really, all that I did the entire evening was make that plate with the hole in it. I needed this piece, so I cut it off of a giant sheet of extremely rusty metal, then I smoothed off all the sides and rounded the corners, then I ground off all of the rust, then I cut the hole in it. This doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that will consume 2.5 hours, but I assure you, it is. I got done, looked at my watch, and went, “What?!” Well, there you go. I guess sometimes the simple-looking stuff takes a while.
.
I am at once both ashamed and proud of this photo. I built the bench that these clamps lie on. I have also purchased every single one of these clamps since I took that steel fabrication sculpture class just – what – one month ago? This is but a small sampling of where a large portion of my spare (and not so spare) cash has been going. Yet, I tell you that I need every one of these, and I’m sure at some point in the not too distant future I will find myself in a situation where every single one of them is in use and I’m saying, “If only I had one more!”
I’m a little concerned about these expenditures, but it seems to be what I really want right now. I think this is part of what they call following your muse. I’ll let you know if it starts to get out of hand. More than likely, if it does, you’ll see it here before I realize I’m in it.
.
Scrabble is serious business. Please do not be taking my picture while I wage the war of words!
Sunday, a banner day! Things a-happenin’ all over the place!
Once I got those gussets welded on at each end, I turned my attention to the front of the table. There was no way to fasten it to the top of the frame unless I wanted to drill holes in it and bolt it through, and there was no way in hell I was going to drill holes in my nifty sheet of smooth steel. The only thing to do, therefor, was to weld a piece of flat stock at a perpendicular angle underneath the top at the front of the frame, and then drill through that and bolt it down. Below is one of the welds from that piece.
.
I did not just make a weld that went all the way across the front, tempting as that sounds. When you weld, you generate a lot of heat, and when you generate a lot of heat, you warp things. If I’d just made one great big long bead across the front I would have warped the hell out of both pieces of metal, and it would have been impossible to get the thing to fit flat on the frame after that. Instead, I made four welds across the front like so. And you know what? I still warped it. The top arched up in the center about a quarter of an inch. If you look back up at the first photo you can see the little black dot that I made at the bottom edge of the steel before I welded it. Post-welding, and you can see it has obviously arched upward. I put a straight edge on the bench top, and it wouldn’t lay flat, meaning that I’d never get any of my sculptures to sit flat on it either. Ever. That was NOT going to work. I had to do something. What next? This:
.
Here you can see two things. Well, you can see, like, twenty-seven, but there are two *main* things. One is my bit of welding the four spots under the bench top and the bolts now running through it into the frame. The other main thing is the dozen or so very heavy items I had to stack on top of the bench top to get it level again so that I could drill the holes for those bolts. There are, let’s see: four bricks, a bottle of detergent, a gallon can of acetone, a large piece of 1/2″-thick steel stock, four blocks of solid steel, and two halves of the differential of a 1967 Chevelle. Yup, it took all that. I thought of the bricks last, otherwise I think I would have just made a brick ziggurat and left it at that, but this is more entertaining anyway. Actually, to do it all over, I would have weighed everything down to begin with, lined it all up, drilled all the holes, run the bolts through, and THEN welded it – but I didn’t. Learn something new every day. Rest assured, I’ll not forget this little lesson.
That’s how we tied things up for the weekend, kids. I was so beat from all those shenanigans that I didn’t even bother to take any more pictures after that. More later, rest assured.
NOTE: I fully realize that I have ruined the “one” portion of “one-pic-a-day” here, but, really, you absolutely adore pictures of welded stuff, don’t you? Thought so.
Okay, here we are. Finally, after all this prep work, after all the sweeping, scrubbing the floor, running wiring, moving crap, throwing crap out, and all that other lameness, *finally* we have reached the good part: welding the bench!
.
I realized that my original plan for the bench was going to have to be modified. The back stop was going to need some way to brace it or affix it to the top. Taking a look at things, it seemed like a good idea would be to add a corner piece below where the bench top met the backstop on either side. Triangles are structurally very sturdy shapes, and this would provide a good amount of rigidity to the joint as well as simply keeping the back stop from kind of wobbling on its flimsy sheet metal mount at the back of the bench. I was fortunate to find some small scraps of sheet stock that just so happened to be the perfect size, and this from an aborted project from at least five years ago. Coincidence? I think not.
I was actually kind of worried about this whole setup. I had never welded anything this thick before. Someone told me, “Better turn that up all the way,” on the amperage settings for my welder. I got out my little chart, saw that this was correct, and then I cranked the welder up to 150 amps and made sure I had the correct size tungsten. I got out some filler rod for the job, made sure that all my pieces were spotlessly clean and ready to go, and then I pretty much just held my breath and flipped the switch. It turned out fairly decent for my newb status, if I do say so myself. It’s not pretty, but it won’t fall apart any time soon. The other side looks a little prettier, but not much. Good enough to get the job done, I say.
This took a long time, even though it looks like all I did was buzz things together. Getting the pieces cut, fitted up precisely (always an issue), and getting them spotlessly clean – all that took a long time. Then I had to get things clamped together securely. The welding itself took maybe five minutes, but the whole operation surrounding it took all my free time for Saturday afternoon. I was pleased with the results, though. Big stuff coming on Sunday!
.
I’ve got a way to go yet, but we’re getting there! I put a ton more time in on things, and now it’s really starting to look like I’m making progress. The back stop is now drilled for the mounting holes and is clamped in place. I laid the top on it to see how things were going to line up before I start bolting and welding pieces together. Looks good doesn’t it? I’m getting chills just thinking of how awesome this is going to be! A real place to do metal work! It’s going to make so many little things so much easier! I’m going to have a REAL space to create metal sculpture! Kickass!!!
Missed a day again. Sorry!