A '54 named Busty

[Gregski]

my new toy and I blame reaper71 and his "Project Orangepeel" 52 A.D build thread for this, ha ha

seriously though really neat setup, here's the cost breakdown:

Saw: $105 (Harbor Freight online, it was on sale with tax and shipping)

Table: $145 (Amazon bought the wrong 4.0 version the first time needed the 3.0)

Blade: $18 (LOWE'S)

Foot Switch: $23 (Amazon)

Miter Gauge: $87 (Amazon, might as well learn how to make straight cuts, ha ha)

[8man]

Yikes, working without an air compressor is a major PITA!

[Gregski]

and now... more Metal Fab Advice from a Guy Who Should Not Be Giving Metal Fab Advice

when you DIYers make an amateur cut of something at home like pipe, angle iron, or square tubing and need to weld it to something and need it to be true/straight, use the professionally cut side that was done by the place that sold you the piece instead of your [ahem] perfect cut, it's sorta cheatin' but you get one nice side so might as well use it

[Gregski]

so where were we, oh yeah we need to extenderdize the 72" sticks to make them 78" sticks

so bevel the edges to give the weld bead somewheres to go

clamp-a-tize it to something with an edge to put it in a straight line (preferably not a wood bench cause it might could catch on fire, ask me how I know)

use a square thing majig to make sure it is straight / true

[Gregski]

I'm not a smart man, but I know it takes a good ground to weld something...

I forgot to adjust my machine from sheet metal voltage up to angle iron so I did not get good penetration on the first pass, so I flipped the angle iron over and cranked up the machine way too much and that's why these welds on the other side came out too hot / flat (just pretending I know what the hewk I am talking about, which I don't)

[Gregski]

and just like that we now had two 78" long bed side rails, we shall drill some holes in them for spot welding next

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 8man

Yikes, working without an air compressor is a major PITA!

Yeah bro, I am very manual, had two of them for a very short period of time, got one really nice and big one from an illegal pro paint shop for free and it turned out to have a crack in the tank (I say illegal because my buddy went to clean out a huge commercial warehouse cause he does commercial construction and found some paint shop used it to do overflow paint jobs there, they had three state of the art paint booths setup inside of this warehouse so they wouldn't have to be licensed or inspected I guess, so couple of the guys took the booths and the other 2 compressors and I got one, my buddy had no idea it had a small crack in the tank) then I also had one small one like 25 gallons, anywho went through a wierd phase where I didn't wanna do car stuff any more and sold a ton of my tools and equipment like an idiot, luckily I kept all my wrenches (old US made Craftsman like my dad used to use 35 years ago) nice thing about those wrenches is that non of the youngins use Craftsman so when they come over and wrench with me our tools don't get mixed up, they grab their $napon$ or Harbor Freigh Pittsburghs and leave mine alone!

I just recently graduated to a cordless DeWalt impact driver and oh my god you would have to kill me and pry it out of my cold dead hands to take it away from me now, love that little thing

so if you could recommend a good QUIET air compressor that I can do media blasting and painting with I would so appreciate it, I am thining like a 30 gallon but that may show you how I am a total ignoramous and don't know what the hell I am talking about

[8man]

I had my fill of wire wheels slinging little strands of steel into my skin when doing the frame parts on the Cherokee. So I searched Al Gore's interweb for weeks before I pulled the trigger on a compressor. I knew I wanted to run a blast cabinet and they are AIR HOGS! I asked some of the guys on Garage Journal site questions and then studied their answers. I went with the Polar Air 80 gallon 220 volt. It will run a full duty cycle and has held up well for the 4 years I've had it.

There are several good makes out there. Ingersoll Rand to name one. I've seen some since that I would have bought because they were local, no shipping. Saw a 3 phase one at a swap meet I should have bought, but I'd have had to do the electrical switch since residences have single phase power,

Air is sort of like horsepower, too much is never enough. When I'm using my little blast cabinet, the compressor runs a lot.

I also looked up "Franzinator" and built one to help remove moisture, and I got an auto tank drain with the compressor so it blows out water about every 30 minutes when running a lot.

PM me and I'll go into more detail if you need.

[dsraven]

I have had a home made compressor for years. 2 hp electric motor, 220 volt, turning a 2 cyl compressor head that dumps into an old 100 lb propane tank as a reservoir. works like that for years. overhauled the compressor head a couple times during that period. no problems. bodywork, paint, mechanical shop tools etc. the last time Ineeded a redo on the head I just gave the thing to my son and bought a new 5hp 2 stage ingersol rand unit. it's awesome. I ran the air intake into my garage/shop attic (finished ceiling with 18" of blown in fiberglass) and use an old S10 air filter on the end of the pvc tubing I used for the extension. that cuts down on shop noise a lot plus I get cold air in the winter which has less moisture than ambient shop air. I run an auto purge valve connected to a light switch for the shop lights so when I am in there and the lights are on the purge is automatic. from the compressor i run an drop tube moisture pipe with a manual drain at the bottom and then the line runs to a ushaped run of 1" copper line which is built to drain off at 1 end. it is on the underside of a ceiling mounted shelf above my man door and has a synflex nylon drain line running down the wall to a manual drain valve. after that the line goes to a home made seperator,like the franzinator only a long single pipe instead of a dual. this has a manual drain as well, mounted next to the drain for the copper line. from there I installed a system supply valve so I can turn off the supply to the shop air lines in a hurry if I blow a rubber hose or whatever. then the lines go to black pipe to supply the 2 work bench hose reel and 3 other reels in the 2 bays,one on each side and one in the middle. between the bay doors I have a line on the post but no reel. each of the lines has a drop[ tube with a drain. I hardly ever have water in the drop tube drains but sometimes have some in the drains from the copper line and the home made franzinator style seperator. the auto drain helps a lot and has a manually adjustable timer on it so if I do a bunch of sandblasting I can turn the settings to purge more often. the sandblasting cabinet never runs outta air. I also have a small pressure pot blaster,like a 5 gallon el cheapo deluxe unit, and it works well for small jobs too. I recommend buying as large a compressor as you can afford and your wiring will handle. the air lines also work as a storage system if you have a few runs and I have heard of guys installing a second air tank for capacity. that really only works if the compressor can keep up if doing something like blasting but if you just need a bunch of air for a burst and have time between bursts for the compressor to build then it works. a tire repair buddy uses that system because he needs bursts of capacity to seat the tire beads, then only needs enough to run his impact gun. that system would suck for somebody using an air hog tool over longer periods,like an air sander or something similar. another consideration is to keep the compressor in an open area,not a corner, because they rely on air flow to cool off. a hot compressor is like an overheating engine, it aint gonna last long and will also dump more moisture into the tank because hot air holds more moisture than cold air does.
anyway, end of book, lol.

here is a link that has some ideas on picking an air compressor

https://www.kmstools.com/blog/compressor-buying-guide/

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 8man

I had my fill of wire wheels slinging little strands of steel into my skin when doing the frame parts on the Cherokee. So I searched Al Gore's interweb for weeks before I pulled the trigger on a compressor. I knew I wanted to run a blast cabinet and they are AIR HOGS! I asked some of the guys on Garage Journal site questions and then studied their answers. I went with the Polar Air 80 gallon 220 volt. It will run a full duty cycle and has held up well for the 4 years I've had it.

There are several good makes out there. Ingersoll Rand to name one. I've seen some since that I would have bought because they were local, no shipping. Saw a 3 phase one at a swap meet I should have bought, but I'd have had to do the electrical switch since residences have single phase power,

Air is sort of like horsepower, too much is never enough. When I'm using my little blast cabinet, the compressor runs a lot.

I also looked up "Franzinator" and built one to help remove moisture, and I got an auto tank drain with the compressor so it blows out water about every 30 minutes when running a lot.

PM me and I'll go into more detail if you need.

1,000 thanks Robert

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I have had a home made compressor for years. 2 hp electric motor, 220 volt, turning a 2 cyl compressor head that dumps into an old 100 lb propane tank as a reservoir. works like that for years. overhauled the compressor head a couple times during that period. no problems. bodywork, paint, mechanical shop tools etc. the last time Ineeded a redo on the head I just gave the thing to my son and bought a new 5hp 2 stage ingersol rand unit. it's awesome. I ran the air intake into my garage/shop attic (finished ceiling with 18" of blown in fiberglass) and use an old S10 air filter on the end of the pvc tubing I used for the extension. that cuts down on shop noise a lot plus I get cold air in the winter which has less moisture than ambient shop air. I run an auto purge valve connected to a light switch for the shop lights so when I am in there and the lights are on the purge is automatic. from the compressor i run an drop tube moisture pipe with a manual drain at the bottom and then the line runs to a ushaped run of 1" copper line which is built to drain off at 1 end. it is on the underside of a ceiling mounted shelf above my man door and has a synflex nylon drain line running down the wall to a manual drain valve. after that the line goes to a home made seperator,like the franzinator only a long single pipe instead of a dual. this has a manual drain as well, mounted next to the drain for the copper line. from there I installed a system supply valve so I can turn off the supply to the shop air lines in a hurry if I blow a rubber hose or whatever. then the lines go to black pipe to supply the 2 work bench hose reel and 3 other reels in the 2 bays,one on each side and one in the middle. between the bay doors I have a line on the post but no reel. each of the lines has a drop[ tube with a drain. I hardly ever have water in the drop tube drains but sometimes have some in the drains from the copper line and the home made franzinator style seperator. the auto drain helps a lot and has a manually adjustable timer on it so if I do a bunch of sandblasting I can turn the settings to purge more often. the sandblasting cabinet never runs outta air. I also have a small pressure pot blaster,like a 5 gallon el cheapo deluxe unit, and it works well for small jobs too. I recommend buying as large a compressor as you can afford and your wiring will handle. the air lines also work as a storage system if you have a few runs and I have heard of guys installing a second air tank for capacity. that really only works if the compressor can keep up if doing something like blasting but if you just need a bunch of air for a burst and have time between bursts for the compressor to build then it works. a tire repair buddy uses that system because he needs bursts of capacity to seat the tire beads, then only needs enough to run his impact gun. that system would suck for somebody using an air hog tool over longer periods,like an air sander or something similar. another consideration is to keep the compressor in an open area,not a corner, because they rely on air flow to cool off. a hot compressor is like an overheating engine, it aint gonna last long and will also dump more moisture into the tank because hot air holds more moisture than cold air does.
anyway, end of book, lol.

here is a link that has some ideas on picking an air compressor

https://www.kmstools.com/blog/compressor-buying-guide/

Wow, that sounds like a lot of thought went into it and probably took some time to devise, I am trying to picture it, and all I can think of is this:

but seriously I appreciate it

[Gregski]

picked up where I left off yesterday working on the bed side rails

drilled some offset spot weld holes and counter sunk them

had a really sharp drill bit so I was bumbed when I broke it, I think it was on the very last hole too

deburred them and cleaned up the areas for welding

[Gregski]

shot the backside with some expensive primer and put them in the Sun Oven for as long as it took me to do something else

[Gregski]

Christmas in April !

Highwood 2x6s x 8 Ft never needs no paintin' nor a stainin'

9 pieces $270

[Gregski]

made a jig with a stop bumper to make sure each cut was 77 1/4"

[Gregski]

so tried the first one and it fit like a glove, they sit about 1/4 higher than the stock ones I guess but that don't bother me non (looks higher in the pic for some reason)

Angle iron will have to be shortened 1/2"

[Gregski]

shortening and rounding the angle iron, any socket will do, and Bob's your uncle

[Gregski]

sorry had to do this, this part was sooooo much fun

[Gregski]

... wait for it ...

[Gregski]

wait a minute...

the bed is 50" wide

I bought nine 2x6s so ... 9 x 6 = 54 that wouldn't even fit

ok, but this is America in 2020 so a 2x6 is actually a 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 ok let's try this again.... 9 x 5.5 = 49.5"

well that sure don't look like only a 1/2" gap

one more time, these are only 5 1/4 go figure, that's why I waited until they arrived to figure out how I was going to run them

so 9 x 5.25 (carry the one... times the circumference of the earth, lol) = 47.25"

so we gots a 2 3/4" gap to fill

[Gregski]

couple ways to take that out, but we're gonna run it Farmer Style, aka with gaps, cause I sure aint gonna haul water

plus on a serious note, these are plastic so this will give the heat off the exhaust pipes someplace to go (though I am still planning to run my tailpipes over the axle and out the back)

I think these stir sticks are 1/8" thick but I aint doing the math

[Gregski]

according to my eyecrometer this left us with a 3/16s gap on each side, which the angle iron will easily cover

[Gregski]

pardon me while I admire my perfectly strait cuts (it's a rare occurrence)

[Gregski]

man this is turning out sooooo good!

[Gregski]

so back to those angle iron sides...

... and Welding Advice from A Guy Who Should Most Definitely Not Be Giving Welding Advice

I won't lie to you the first side went horribly, there were basically two issues, first because my wood is thicker my angle iron sits 1/4 or more higher so the side panels are not flat there they are embossed in certain places so you loose maybe 40% of your spot welds cause they won't touch the sheet metal, second I could not get my machine dialed in so the spot welds that I did weld were kinda holding but I didn't think that was going to be enough

so I decided to weld on top of the angle iron, and that was horrible too, the machine would either sound like bacon frying (good sound like when I was welding sheet metal) but it would just lay a fat bead on top of the angle iron, no penetration. I kept messing with and increasing the voltage gradually to the max and it would make no sound just do weird stuff, but not good

I was getting discouraged, but I told myself if you can't weld after this project (ie you lay down 47 yards of bead, ha ha) then maybe you should consider a team sport, lol