Dedicated space 4

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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!!!

Building blocks

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These things are awesome. Very simply, they are blocks of solid steel. I actually paid for these things, odd as that may seem, but when it comes down to it, and a job has to be done, well, these chunks of metal do it well. They’re square and heavy, and sometimes that’s exactly what you (I!) need!

These are going to be every so useful in the future. I can use them to prop things up, hold things down, and as the base for clamping pieces together in a pretty immobile fashion. No more piling up pieces of (flammable) wood and clamping things this way and that. I’ll just prop them together with these things, and I’ll be on my way. Hard to believe a block of metal can actually function as such a valuable tool. It was also vaguely staggering to hear the cost for them. Metal isn’t cheap these days, even if it’s just a plain old block of it. I think a single one of these ran be about 12 or 13 bucks. I was going to get six. Yeah – that plan changed quickly. Four will do good now. You’ll be seeing these in many photos to come, I’m betting.

Dedicated space 3

Ah, more work on the work space! Sweet! Now this picture may appear darker than the ones before it, but I want to point out that the light that is in the photo is coming from a different source this time: directly over the work bench! It took a lot more time and effort than I thought it should have (isn’t that always the case?), but the lighting is finally getting into shape. Rock on!

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Dedicated space 2

More work on the work bench/shop space today! In this picture the astute among you will note that it looks…worse. In doing all the related work on the bench and work space, I ended up piling all kinds of tools and supplies about the area, but it’s going well, I assure you. I would like to point out one very small, but important, addition to the layout, and that’s the small post to the immediate right of the work bench. See the little box on the post? Electricity, my friends. Juice! I can now plug stuff in over in this little corner without running extension cords everywhere. The welder will plug in there. This is important. This is a very small but important step forward. There’s another outlet up in the rafters as well for lights. *Lights!* It’s gonna be cool.

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Dedicated space

So you’ve been seeing all this stuff I’ve been welding, and you no doubt have said to yourself, “Tom, why on earth do you continue setting random scraps of wood on fire and clamping fifty different things together while you’re welding on your general-purpose work bench? Why?”

You’re smart, smarter than I, actually…until today. It has been rolling around in my brain that I’m really making things harder for myself by working this way. In the beginning when I just started practicing, it was okay. I only needed a little space, and I was just sticking random bits of stuff together, plus I was just starting to get the hang of the machine.

Now, however, it occurs to me that the speed and quality of my work will go up if I have a real work space designed specifically for metal work. I didn’t want to take the time to do that first off, because I was simply too excited to be welding, and I didn’t think it would make *that* much of a difference. I’ve since changed my mind on that. Remember the edge weld photo from the other day? Yeah, that’s actually the way I had that thing clamped up on the bench, and that was the *easy* way of doing it. That box I made took a bunch of weird clamping using pieces of wood and whatnot, and it just occurred to me that I was spending a lot more time setting the work up than I actually was welding it.

So here we are. Something had to be done. It was time to move forward, make some changes, affirm that I’m really getting into this whole deal. I looked to my left, and there sat a steel-framed workbench that my dad had brought over one time a few months ago. It had been left in my folks’ house when they moved in. It was really rather crappy for a wood bench – too small, kinda wobbly, crappy presswood top. But I could change all that, though I. I could pull off that top, mount a steel one to it, stiffen the legs with some braces, and I would have myself a really good starting point for a dedicated metal working bench.

But first! (there’s always that “but first”) First I needed to make the entire area a little more conducive to performing work. There was no readily available electricity in that corner, and no decent lighting. These things had to be addressed first. Well, that and the fact that the workbench had tons of crap piled on it. So I went to work cleaning and prepping the area, and at the end of the evening, I had this:

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It ain’t much to look at, kids, but it’s going to be pretty friggin’ cool once it’s done. It’s going to become the basis from which some seriously kickass work will be accomplished. Stay tuned. Lots more coming on this.

Cagey

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I brought the little square from the day before into work this morning. We have a little plastic figurine that she got out of a gumball machine, and she stuck him in the box. She said, “It’s like a cage! You should make a cage for him!” and I thought, “Yeah, that would be funny if – hey! I can do that!” And so I did.

So square

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Holy crap! Tom welded something that’s *gasp!* a three-dimensional shape!

Don’t get all giddy, kids. I just got bored. This isn’t any kind of major deal. Really, what it is is I’m practicing my corner welds using the coupons I stuck together when I was practicing my butt welds. (Laugh – you know you want to. Butt weld. Butt weld, butt weld, butt weld. You’re welcome.)

Need a coupon?

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They call these things “coupons” in the welding world. They’re two-inch long pieces of eighth-inch thick steel. You just put two of them edge to edge longways, and then you weld them together. Then you frown at the result, throw it on the floor, and do another. You do this until you stop frowning at the result. It’s a little boring, but it’s kind of cool too. It’s a good way to consistently practice the exact same thing, so it’s easier to track your results and figure out what you might be doing wrong (or right!). This pile of coupons was made by yours truly from for pieces of four-foot long flat stock. I cut them up using a reciprocating saw one at a time. Oh sure, it would have been easier to use a band saw, but I don’t own one. For now long, noisy, and slow is the way I have to do these things. Fun, right? You’re jealous, admit it.

It seems so easy

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You think when you weld something that you just…weld it! Not so. What do we have here? Well, there’s a big sheet of steel on the workbench, and there are some two by fours on that, and there’s a special aluminum clamp on there, and then the standard quick-clamp holding the small “U” piece, and then at the far end is the clamp for the ground for the welder itself. Then, consider that all this stuff had to be lined up and steadied so that it wouldn’t fall or move while it was being welded. Then, of course, there’s always the chance that the weld itself is going to be lousy (in my case), and none of the aforementioned work will matter anyway.

Just…weld it. Sure!