Monday, June 16, 2014

we've got gas

We've got gas.

Shielding gas that is!  For Brian's birthday this year, I got him the tank and accessories to turn his wire-feed welder into a MIG!  We had to add a solenoid to the internals, but otherwise his welder was ready for a mig setup.


We've been using a cart from my Grandpa for the welder, and it didn't have a place for the tank - so we improvised!  We added a long plywood piece for a bottom ''shelf'', added a chain to the top to hold the tank in place, and added cleats around the bottom of the tank to keep it from moving around.   We didn't want to have to purchase a new welder cart, and now we don't have to!   I also screwed an old aluminum bread pan to the shelf to keep extra tips/etc.


Brian has been dying to try the 'new' welder out, and yesterday he finally had the chance.  We installed the hinges on the driver's door (had to drill holes for the semi-hidden hinges and make dimples for the bolts), and we copied our passenger side a-pillar hinge support for the drivers side.  This required cutting a long piece of thick steel to width (here is the obligatory 'throwing sparks' pic):
Which reminds me, I need to pick up more cutting wheels this week!


We got the door into place (gap looked great after some effort) and Brian was able to weld the a-pillar door support in place:
I was trying to catch the blue welding glow through the vent as he welded.
Finally got it :)
The tape was spacers taped to the bottom of the door opening to hold the door up high enough for the door gap.  After Brian finished welding, he took off the spacers to test the door swing.  UGH, it rubbed at the bottom!  The door flexes too much at the hinge side.  So, we have to take it back off and work on beefing that up somehow to get rid of the flex.

For the sake of not feeling defeated, we plan to work on something different this weekend - maybe the steering column so we can actually steer it :)  And make vroom vroom noises :)


Karin

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