I drew the pattern I wanted on graph paper, super glued the paper pattern to a piece of galvanized flashing and cut it out. Then I have a nice tin pattern for future uses. I paint some blue dyekem on my steel, lay the pattern down and scribe around it.
Made this deck for Mom's trailer. (She stays in it when she visits.)
It's completely free floating and can be moved away from the trailer when needed.
It's completely free floating and can be moved away from the trailer when needed.
Hehe, reminds me of a project the boss gave me when I worked for an oil field service company (I was the mechanic/welder).
He'd won a bid on laying several miles of 8-10" pipeline (don't remember exactly), and bought a side-boom for his Case 450 dozer w/6-way blade, along with a heavy counter-weight. Installation for that was included in order to have a warranty.
But he wanted me to build a set of tongs to pick up the pipe so they wouldn't waste any time lifting/lowering the 20' sections. I asked how much each pipe weighed, and he said probably no more than 2000 lbs.
So... I build a gorilla set of tongs. Started with heavy pipe just larger than the pipe they were laying, split it, made gorilla hinges for it, and cut wrap-arounds of 3/8" plate on each side (edgewise), and then added 3/8" strips along the edges, so it looked like the wrap-arounds were made of really heavy angle-iron conformed to the heavy pipe (also made the "handles" a bit longer than usual for more leverage gripping the pipe). Added heavy chain to the top of the tongs, with a loop on top made of sucker rod for the lifting chain/cable.
And... finally the job started.
After the first day, the boss brought the tongs back to the shop and asked if I could put some type of liner inside to make the I.D. smaller and provide a cushion.
I asked why...
Apparently the pipe had changed specs somewhere along the line. The result turned out to be a smaller diameter fiberglass pipe, and he was worried about the tongs marring it as the guys connected/remove them...
So I riveted truck brake linings inside the tongs. After a few days, some of the crew asked me why I'd made the tongs so heavy for fiberglass pipe.
Got a lotta laughs out of that project.
That is some really good creative thinking! I really like the brake shoe liner pad idea. How long did it take for you to brainstorm that one or was it a one time shot? what was your thought process? I'll bet it worked like a charm too.Hehe, reminds me of a project the boss gave me when I worked for an oil field service company (I was the mechanic/welder).
He'd won a bid on laying several miles of 8-10" pipeline (don't remember exactly), and bought a side-boom for his Case 450 dozer w/6-way blade, along with a heavy counter-weight. Installation for that was included in order to have a warranty.
But he wanted me to build a set of tongs to pick up the pipe so they wouldn't waste any time lifting/lowering the 20' sections. I asked how much each pipe weighed, and he said probably no more than 2000 lbs.
So... I build a gorilla set of tongs. Started with heavy pipe just larger than the pipe they were laying, split it, made gorilla hinges for it, and cut wrap-arounds of 3/8" plate on each side (edgewise), and then added 3/8" strips along the edges, so it looked like the wrap-arounds were made of really heavy angle-iron conformed to the heavy pipe (also made the "handles" a bit longer than usual for more leverage gripping the pipe). Added heavy chain to the top of the tongs, with a loop on top made of sucker rod for the lifting chain/cable.
And... finally the job started.
After the first day, the boss brought the tongs back to the shop and asked if I could put some type of liner inside to make the I.D. smaller and provide a cushion.
I asked why...
Apparently the pipe had changed specs somewhere along the line. The result turned out to be a smaller diameter fiberglass pipe, and he was worried about the tongs marring it as the guys connected/remove them...
So I riveted truck brake linings inside the tongs. After a few days, some of the crew asked me why I'd made the tongs so heavy for fiberglass pipe.
Got a lotta laughs out of that project.
Thanks.
I'd relined truck brakes on my first job out of high school (job description was "tire man," but everyone helped on everything - lol, except tires), so it was one of the first things that came to mind.
It was the late '70s or '80-ish, and options were kinda limited to what was available in local parts stores. But yeah, it worked great.
