I really dislike working with bamboo. It looks great, but machines poorly and the splinters are a nightmare.
I did two staircases with bamboo tread and I need to cover the screws. I spent an hour cutting plugs that I will install this week, then apply a little filler and finish. Will be happy not to work with bamboo for a while.
I completed some fabrication tool box organization this weekend. Four 4-drawer rolling boxes under the fab bench. All the drawers are shadowed in as well. Originally used the label maker, but that was WAY TOO small.
After snapping a belt a few months ago, I ordered extra drive belts. At the same time I considered ordering some additional hold downs, but they were pricy for a few screws and hunks of plastic. I decided to draw out my own in Easel and cut them out of some 1/2” plywood.
Thirty minutes of engineering/drawing time and 1.5 hours of cutting and I am good. I love making tools with my tools!!
Hold-down cam cutting in progress.
I love my anvil. I don’t baby it, but I don’t abuse it either. I have some projects coming up that will require some serious team sledge work and having either my 8-pound or my behemoth 14-pound sledge slip and hit my anvil face could be catastrophic. Solution: build a striking anvil.
I ordered the 2-part 3 inch thick face already laser cut from Uncle Buck’s Forge on Etsy and had it in my forge after just a few evenings of cutting, welding, grinding, prep, and paint. It is 24″ high, the face is 3″ thick by 5″ wide by 13″long with a 1″ hardy hole.
Total cost was less than $200 with the ordered parts, recycled oil, sand, steel for the legs, primer/paint, and electricity/fluxcore wire used to weld it up.
I have been doing a lot of rainy day work to add to my fabrication tooling and ability in the garage.
SWAG Off Road provides some really nice “build it yourself” kits for a finger press break (and other things, that I welded up in a couple of hours and the new capability is being used almost daily – I bent some shelf brackets up the first day and that one job paid for the entire kit.
Needing the room, I removed my JD2 tubing bender from of my welding bench and built a rolling stand for it. Again, SWAG came through with a air/hydraulic conversion kit. No more mistaking a 90-degree bend in 2” square 3/16 wall tube for me!
The second tools build took a little longer than the first. Welding together the stand took a bit and then the SWAG conversation took most of an evening with the disassembly of the ratcheting bender arm, moving the bender, and because I did not clearly read the directions, I had to refit and remove the Harbor Freight 8 ton jack 3 times. Read the directions!
I also bought the gooseneck break dies from SAWG to help with thin gauge (up to 1/4”!) box and bracket building. They come in a laser cut flat pack and need to be cleaned up and welded, but that means that you can space the or group to you specific needs.
They got a layer of clear poly after the weld up and final clean.
Finally built a permanent steel stand for my blacksmith post vise. Made from I-beam and 1/2” plate steel. Crazy heavy.
I ran out of welding gas and as I was headed out to get a refill, I realized that I did not have a safe way to transport the full bottles, so I made some bottle holders that mount on the side of my trailer out of some scrap plywood and 2X4s. After I used them for the first time I painted with HiVis orange so I would not lose, runner, or toss them. Side note, when you are hauling use more than 1 strap and/or use a chain attached to a static point with a a lock link.
Be REALLY safe with gas bottles!
I ordered a large hammer rack from Kens Custom Iron and because of the distance to span, I special ordered an additional end piece to place in the middle.
On Friday I picked up some 1/4”X1” steel flatbar for the rails along with some other steel pieces. Cutting it up and cleaning the cut ends took all of 10 minutes and I had a piece of scrap 3/4” ply for the backing – mostly to keep the tongs from dinging the metal siding. Finished with 3 coats of satin polyurethane to keep the metal rust free.
As of today, the tong rack is done! Hung some stuff up temporarily to show it off. Very happy with how it turned out and Ken’s Custom Iron has top notch products and customer service!
