Anyone doing any actual metalwork?

Welding is just like learning to play the piano. After a few thousand hours, you will improve or give it up. I've been welding since 1974. Just do what you're doing. Practice, and weld on dirty crooked "stuff". Most anyone can weld on clean plate or machine cut goods. And use that personal protective gear. Wear UNFRAYED cotton. Don't skimp on a good hood or good safety stuff. Don't forget about earplugs. Keeps out the dingleberries. (those little molten BBs) Learn to use 7018 rods.

Steve

We used to get teenagers that played mailbox baseball. After losing a couple to bats, I lined one with plate steel. Put it on a steel pipe post and wrapped it with 1 bys. Looked like a good wind would make it fall over. Every new crop of mailbox baseballers got to play with it. Even found a couple of stubs and splinters of Louisville Sluggers. That had to hurt. Never did have a car hit it.

Steve

A company that I worked for used gloveboxes for welding similar to ones shown here:

gloveboxes are just lightweight plastic designed to be purged with inert gas. Some heavier metal ones are designed to withstand vacuum before backfilling with argon. (Saves time & argon.) Using a metal glovebox for welding might give you better protection from stray fields. The downside is that they=92re usually big awkward monstrosities and your argon requirements might go up. Still you might design something more suitable for yourself or find some tech company or R&D lab discarding one. A big advantage is protecting the weld backside from oxidation. I don=92t know if you=92ve considered this option. It might be a bit farfetched or overkill for your purposes.

[ ... ]

Well ... I'm stuck not able to do any work for the moment. I had cataract surgery about a week and a half ago, and am under instructions to not lift anything over twenty pounds -- which locks out a lot of what I would want to work with. A few days more and I am free, until the next eye.

However -- as a potential benefit for welding in the future -- the replacement lenses are UV blockers. The eyeball could still get a flash burn, but the retina is protected.

Enjoy, DoN.

I know somebody who had a problem with kids bashing mailboxes with baseball bats. He filled a mailbox with concrete and set it at a random location on the street. A couple of nights later....

Whap! Whap! Whap! Whap!

*THUD* "@#$%^#@@@!!!!!"

and they went off to bother another neighborhood.

I did some research, apparently SolidWorks has a sheet metal function that allows one to unwrap an object and get the sheet metal layout. Plan is to get a 10 day license to have at it. Word is I should be good to start late Thursday.

OK, I NEEDED to get up to speed on SolidWorks but I didn't plan to do it on an urgent project.

I suppose I could do it with cardboard, I stockpile corrugated material for such things. But this would work better with poster board. Hmmmmmmm do it right with SolidWorks or do it quick with cardboard. Hmmmmmmm Decisions, decisions.

By the way, the double direction offset is a stinker. I had to do a bent wire model to be able to wrap my braincells around what was going on.

Side story: I st>> I'm not doing metalwork because I can't figure out how to lay out the

I built a couple of ring rollers. Kind of a slip roll for plate, rod and bar stock. Works pretty good on square tubing too!

A fair share of machining and welding:

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

it's a series 6019 (look on

click on hobbies, then cars) - some day I'll finish it. It is the smallest of the V-8s of that year, 4 doors, dual side mounts, should be nice if I ever get it finished.

by the way, I"ve posted images and a diagram of the part I need to the drop box using the file name "36-cad-hinge-*" they should show up "real soon now"

When I worked on Senior Son's '68 Firebird 6, I used a flat plate with three holes to match the Puller bolt pattern with a chain drilled opening for the retainer bolt. The end of the plate rested against the frame. this was the only way I could see to hold the crank from turning other than dropping the pan or using rope in a cylinder. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:42:34 -0400, "Keith Marshall"

Hey Keith,

Super job!!

I don't know this car, but the usual way to lock the crankshaft is to remove the starter and replace it with a piece that has a couple of "gear teeth" on it that engages with the ring gear. I bought one for working on 944s, works great. looks easy enough to build too

">>>

here's the links to the images in the dropbox

The file 36-cad-hinge-3.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "36-cad-hinge-3.JPG".

file 36-cad-hinge-drawing.jpg has been added to the Drop Box as "36-cad-hinge-drawing.jpg". file 36-cad-hinge-1.jpg has been added to the Drop Box as "36-cad-hinge-1.jpg". file 36-cad-hinge-2.jpg has been DEFERRED for manual handling as "36-cad-hinge-2.jpg-1". It was deferred because: because it is too small (min size = 5000) The file 36-cad-hinge.txt has been added to the Drop Box as "36-cad-hinge.txt".

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:34:11 -0500, the infamous Terry scrawled the following:

Be careful. In some (Blue?) states, those baseballers have more rights than you do. You're made liable if they get hurt. Google RCM and the Wreck for more info on the "mailbox" threads.

Check with your AG and/or local Sheriff for details in your area. Logic doesn't work here.

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:11:20 -0400, the infamous Brian Lawson scrawled the following:

Ditto! What about specs or dims for it, Keith? Gonna put 'em on your site like the great little powerfeed sometime soon?

Interesting idea. Mary also sews...

That certainly does seem reasonable, but they do have those field specs and I'm real low on bravado here. The unit itself is just under the skin so at least the beginning of the lead is also quite close to the surface.

I wonder if shielding the cable might help significantly. Haven't tried that yet. Just knowing I can get there from here seems to have relieved some of the urgency.

Alibre Professional also has a sheet metal function. I have Alibre standard, which unfortunately doesn't have that capability.

A company that I worked for used gloveboxes for welding similar to ones shown here:

gloveboxes are just lightweight plastic designed to be purged with inert gas. Some heavier metal ones are designed to withstand vacuum before backfilling with argon. (Saves time & argon.) Using a metal glovebox for welding might give you better protection from stray fields. The downside is that they?re usually big awkward monstrosities and your argon requirements might go up. Still you might design something more suitable for yourself or find some tech company or R&D lab discarding one. A big advantage is protecting the weld backside from oxidation. I don?t know if you?ve considered this option. It might be a bit farfetched or overkill for your purposes.

How about just a plate with a couple of holes to reach through? Maybe nonferrous. You could make it tall enough to be able to see over. It may take some adjusting to use, but MAY (and I emphasize that word) work.

Steve

Just get real good equipment and learn to become anal about using it all the time. Sure, things happen, but my experience has been that guys who really watch the safety aspects have fewer "incidents."

Hope you're back at it soon. I know it gets to grind on me when I have a backlog of "stuff" because I'm feelin puny.

Steve