Thread: Shed build

Welded the cross braces this am, and a bit later looking at the wheel legs thought hmmm, they do not look quite plumb; had forgotten I hadn't tacked the other side yesterday, which would not have been an issue if I had also tacked the bottom corners of the cross braces. I had a discussion with myself that the out of plumb ( 0.8 to 1 degree) gave the wheel legs camber, and that was probably a good thing, and under load... I didn't manage to convince myself, so ground out the welds, got keen and checked levels across the table, so that I could get the end plate/legs reliably vertical with the digital level. One of those awkward constructs where a square just didn't fit anywhere. Anyway, the Digital spirit level worked a treat.

redo_0_level table.jpg redo_1_plumb wheel legs.jpg redo_2_cross braces.jpg redo_3_done.jpg


I managed to lift it off the table, and with stretch and all being what it was, steel cap Aldi's came into their own; good resting points.

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Dragged it into the main workshop, and stood it up against one mezzanine beam.

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Wrapped a strap around the rafter apex, and suspended my newly acquired Anchor block and tackle on the opposite end. Given that there was still 5-6 feet between the bottom end of the walkway and the drop of the block and tackle, I manually lifted up one end and onto a work table. Halfway there.

Gingerly tested the lift action, and of course it wanted to slide off its minimal engagement on the opposite beam, and I didn't feel like being the only mass acting as a stop on the opposite end, so dug out some chains and tied up the other end so that at least if it did slide off the mezzanine beam the weight would be supported, rather than just freefall in the block and tackle operator's (i.e. me) direction/gut. Also thought to push the cupboard back underneath as a 'positive stop' just in case.

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It slides with the touch of just one finger! Put up the length of Structaflor that was the former interconnecting walkway.


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Did a bit of relocation in the main area, in order to move the drill presses out of the walkway to the welding/fab room to the other side of the shed; basically so I don't have to walk over chips. Cupboards and benches. Also moved the (disembowelled) cold saw across to where the drill presses were , so now the infeed is aimed at the front door. I am already contemplating a drop in roller support bracket on the front door frame. The notional footprint is improved a bit too, as the motor ( and future splash guard), can encroach a bit onto the basically dead area behind (in front of the cupboard), so not as much forward projection over the walkway it fronts to, as was the case when it was against the side wall. Every 250mmm helps.

Also decided to remove my shears from their angle iron stand to gain the footprint area, and try them out for a while on the bashing table. I had never been able to read the plate fixed to the shears before, assuming it was painted over and anything original had disappeared. Wrong assumption. Raised letter plate: DAP Maintenance Division Pna No. 3. 3. 28 , The property of the Australian Commonwealth Government.

So I am guessing that with the Army marks, that is 1928. Possibly means the stand was made at the same time, so might have to re-unite ( floor space, floor space....)

shears_1.jpg shears_2.jpg reshuffle_Nx.jpg


ANOTHER user for leftover Structaflor tongue
I still have extension cables ( 240V and 415V) running to the back welding/fab room, and naturally they don't want to sit on the girts without repeatedly falling off. Some short lengths of Structaflor tongue tucked between the girts and cladding solved that.

tongue - 1.jpg

I am now wondering if the 3 .3.28 stamped on the shears, might be an encoding for material cutting capacity... Saw a utub vid today on the encoding marking for anvils, that used a very similar 3 component code ( quite an interesting system).


Moved an arbor press (CC No. 1), oz made) and a John Heine No 181A 2 ton bench screw press from storage in the garage for the last few years into the shed. The arbor press is in excellent nick. The Heine is maggoted; the top of the shaft has been bent, and the handle/bob weight was never with it. It was going to be thrown in the scrap bin when I got it a couple of years ago from an uncle's business close down, and I think he got it decades before - because someone was going to throw out in the scarp bin. I know the shaft can be straightened, and making. handle and weight is no biggie, but I have always thought with a bit of creative modification, it would make an interesting tapping stand.


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Another bloody heavy lump moved out of storage today was a 2" thick lump with a depression. Another bit that was about to be thrown in the scrap bin. I think it may have been used as a hollowing form (it was rescued from a sheet metal factory), or possibly a mould for lead ( ? extra large sinkers). Anyhoo, its a good lump for bashing and punching on.


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Picked up the expanded metal mesh from Locker today; 60 km round trip plus another 35km tomorrow to take the mate's ute back.

Locker WK4514 Gridwalk, Galv, 3m x600mm sheet.

96 x 32mm Openings, 8x5mm strand size

walkway_mesh_1.jpg


600mm was nominal of course ; had to cut 10mm off to fit the already made frame

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Got it up for. a test fit, with a little bit of minor adjustment


walkway_mesh_3.jpg walkway_mesh_4.jpg


I had planned to tack it in place, but now thinking I might just make some simple brackets (bolt and plate); the proper ones are c. $9 ea. Also need cross supports at each end; angle iron will do for that.

Warmish Spring day today, so gave the front mezzanine joists and beams a coat of white Primer ( Rust-Oleum) in preparation for white (off white) Rustoleum top coat. White primer over the red chromate should reduce the top coat requirement a bit/ improve the coverage.

Also sanded and primered the front and rear casing of the cold saw (which is still apart).

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Gave the front mezzanine joists a first topcoat of white; could get by with that but a little patchy, so a second coat would look better. Crappy pic due iPad and looking into outside light.


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Put the 2 front LED panels back up, with surface mount frames to replace the temporary brackets I had made initially. And cut a shelf for above the bench from the length of Structaflor that was the temporary walkway surface prior to the expanded metal mesh. Put up my first strip of LED's ( I'm a 21st century guy!) as a test, under the shelf. Only one strip about 1.2m long, and daylight. Enough light as a background if the LED panel light above is not on, but not to work by; maybe 3 strip or cool white may be worth a try.

LED_panel.jpg LED_panel_2.jpg


Also mixed some Rust-Oleum white and grey to get a lighter grey, for the cold saw casing. It's only a bit of a cleanup, I haven't spent any time on stripping it, just a quick sand. The base and vice were cleaned up and painted a couple of years ago with Por-15 ( 2 part) which wasn't quite as durable as I might of hoped.

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As part of the general 'policy' of getting 'everything' mobile, the cold saw has been on the agenda for some time. I got some PU shod cast iron/roller bearing 300kg load castors cheap recently; $45 for the set of 4! Cripes; something cheap. Neglected to get the locking type but these will do for now; particularly that I may yet put the wind down swivel feet back on, to allow fixing the position..

The 100mm casters raise the table 135mm, so as I like the current lower height, the legs had to get cut down. Anticipation of some time to spend fettling the lengths equal. Now it is not what one would call a square frame, but it is strong enough being 1/4" angle iron, it came with the cold saw; it will do for now.

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Intending to measure down from the top, I put it on the welding table to check how flat the top of the frame was. No rock, flat as a tack.

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Easy to mark the target leg length with a bit of offcut, cut to required length, and mark all round.

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Dropped it onto the ground, and cut the legs with an angle grinder. Back up on the table and somewhat surprisingly, no rock, nada!

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Mounting plate holes marked out, flat bar 100x8mm, the usual scribe/centre punch/punch/drill 3mm/drill 10mm/chamfer both sides. Positioned, clamped and tacked. I didn't think enough about location of the holes wrt the legs, a bit much side projection really, but hey, if/when I remake the table, it will be RHS...

Temporary fit up, as ran out of 5/8" bolts.

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Bought a box of M10x25mm bolts and nuts , and a box of washers this morning, and mounted the castors. Shiny and new! The rest will come in handy as I m expecting to do another 6 or more castor sets in the next few months.


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Given that it's currently in pieces, I noticed the rotating base casting was a bit on the daggy side; look at those edges on the webs. So a bit of die grinder and burr action, and roll the edges with a bit of filing to clean them up

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a bit tidier

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The 2 mounting bolts were a bit rusty, so wire wheel. A quick spray with Galvit DuraGal ('aluminium rich protective coating') might be a poor man's plating substitute for the odd few bolts here and there. I've used it for welds on galv, and the RHS rafter's on the shed build in particular, and its held up very well. Shall see how it goes over time in a bit more wet situation.

bolts.jpg galmet_duragal - 1.jpg


I up ended the table, and fitted the cold saw base, and thought I may as well give it a quick clean up and repaint too. With the new found joy of being mounted on castors, it was an easy roll out the door to create sanding dust in the sunshine, and primer paint drips on the lawn. Ground down/Sanded off a few small to otherwise insignificant casting blebs while I was at it.

cold_saw_base.jpg


I also decided to weigh the individual bits earlier today, wanting to know the total weight just for curiosity, using my el cheapo $10 Aldi bathroom scales. Total weight 209kg. Plus probably another 10 Kg, for guards, handle...

Frame and castor wheels - 42.2 Kg
rotating base - 15 Kg
vise - 37.4 Kg
housing/field coils) - 27.8 Kg
armature - 12.1 Kg
other bits 7.8 Kg
Rear casing - 6.0 Kg
Gearbox/diff - 17.5 Kg
Table base - 42.4 Kg

The quick paint of the cold saw progressed to stripping the old paint off the field housing, and then doing a bit of metal finishing on the casting. The factory clean up of the casting had plenty of scratches/gouge marks, and a few bumps here and there, which had to go. Nothing fancy, just removal of the obvious shortcomings. A few are still visible in the pic; I suppose I'll have to hit it with a bit of stop putty tommorrow. The date of manufacture is apparent 11/81; this was painted in a red square.

cold saw bits_1.jpg cold saw bits_2.jpg


I finally got to bolting down the welding table top to the mounting plates, and tacking the plates to the legs. I had drilled flat bar sections to sit inside the cross-members, thinking they could act as washers, AND allow sitting the SHCS in them then sliding in the assembly held with pliers, in order to get the bolts started from the top, rather than pfaff about trying to lower the bolts down through the access hole while keeping the bolt engage on the hex key...

weldng_table_1.jpg

As it turned out, I slid the flat bar sections in, and lowered the SHSC held by a magnet; the magnet had enough holding power (500g) to get the bolts started a couple of turns. Then tacked the plates now bolted to the cross-members, to the frame legs.

Now I can push it around without having to be concerned with pushing the top off the frame. More progress!


weldng_table_2.jpg


I took off the edges of all the ends of RHS sections forming the table top, inside and out, file/angle grinder sanding disc/die grinder flap wheel. Then gave the ends a coat of DuraGal.

Gave in to the inevitable and did a bit of stop putty filling here and there on the cold saw components. Today gave a further primer coat, so weather permitting, might get to top coating tomorrow.


cold_saw_1.jpg



Got back to the grinder table, and undid the temporary top rails ( 1.6mm 40x40), and tacked in 40x40x3mm lengths I picked up recently. This gave the first opportunity to try the new Fireball welding squares. Not a successful test session. Due mostly I think to the swivel pad type clamps, which don't easily fit through the cutouts in the fireball squares , which severely restricts things to basically clamping from one side. I bought 8 Bessey swivel pad types recently, shoulda got the simple claw. On that note I have been wondering how the hell I didn't score a bucket load of Vice-Grips (swivel pad and claw) when my uncle's sheet metal factory closed 4 years ago - they were everywhere. What was I thinking?

Now in fairness to the Fireballs, the inside distance between the top rails is smaller than the squares ( 210mm), so one 'normal' position not an option. The Fireball clamps are the smaller Mega Square 8 and Monster Square 8 versions ( they also make 12" versions). But more it is the Bessey clamps being too big for the smaller 8" welding clamps. I'll have to get the claw type Besseys without the pads. Being able to clamp from outside the corner though (Mega Square format), is going to be useful. The square shown, allows access to outside corner ( as clamped up here) and tacking access to the corner ( not needed here but plenty of situations where this would be good). The welding clamps might have been more useful in this instance if the table fit up was with the table standing up, rather than laying down.

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In the end I couldn't find a happy compromise, gave up, and clamped up just on the welding table. In the end, diagonals in both horizontal planes within 1mm. Piece of Baclava !

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When I looked at it this morning, in order to finalise dimensions, particularly depth (which I wanted to keep minimal), I realised I also had some of the next size down in the Fischer tubs I was basing the cupboard depth on. The smaller ones still fit the 8" wheels , and save 60mm depth. I dimensioned with the view to creating drawers, as Kryn had suggested.

grinder_table_3.jpg

The brass/bronze gear always looked in dubious condition, and made more suspect given that after 37 years of use, when I first pulled it apart a couple of years ago now, there was only a tablespoon or so of sparkly slurry in the gear/drive casing. I have wanted to get the shaft and gear out from the casing for quite some time. Figuring I could measure it up, and at some point look for a replacement (unlikely) or cast around to get one made up. With the cold saw apart, and wanting to get it back into service in the short term, may as establish how and if the gear/shaft will come out.


Set it up on a hydraulic press, and couldn't find anything to hand that would fit down inside the end of the casing, and fit around the diameter of the shaft flange ( or gear?) while avoiding the pins. The pic makes it look possible, but real time was a different story. The narrower dimension of the opening in the casting, is smaller than the dimension across the pins, so no means of landing a round ( tube, socket...) on the shaft surface external to the pins.

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SO we decided to give it a tap with a mallet and bit of bar to see what would happen. Somewhat surprisingly, it budged fairly easily.

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Howzat! it's out.


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Even better than being out (and without drama), there appears to be no apparent wear, no steps in the faces, no gouges, and the bearing feels smooth as.


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The cold saw gear looks good, prior to cleaning and magnified inspection.

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I decided the shaft and bearing assembly would benefit from a soak in a mates commercial ultrasonic cleaner. So the gear had to come off to expose the bearing, and allow identifying the bearing number ( should it turn out after a good clean, to be better off replaced; it doesn't feel like it will need to be at this stage).

So slid on the load spring end cover, over the pins, and gave it a couple of light taps to move the gear just enough to fit a puller. One of the pins sheared! I can only think it got a sideways tap accidentally on Saturday, when drifting out the gear shaft assembly. Bugger. Now I gotta get the pin remains out.

gear_2.jpg


The keyway had a noticeable burr on one side, and the key shows some indication of slop/cocking abrasion. Filed off the keyway edge burr with some Degussit Ceramic ( Aluminium Oxide) files (stones), and radiuses the edges very slightlty.

shaft_keyway_burr_1.jpg shaft_keyway_burr_2.jpg key.jpg


Have to have a closer look with a loupe, but FAG 5602 it looks like

bearing - 1.jpg

Being a bit of a sad case (me, not the cold saw), I did a few more rounds of stop putty filling on assorted divets, and casting surface irregularities. Not wanting a totally smooth surface, the grained cast iron texture is a worthwhile thing, but trough free radiuses in the corner of the table top help return flow just that little bit, and assorted dents and divets filled, make for less small pockets to trap grunge and chips; easier cleanup... That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Also addressed the curvatures and edge radii of the kidney shaped air vents in the end casting, with some judicious filing to remove some geometry deviations. Even sadder, I know.


filling_1.jpg filling_2.jpg filling_3.jpg filling_4.jpg



CLEANING THE GEAR CASING - another use for Structaflor tongue
The differential casting interior was somewhat grunged up, but now accessible with the gear and bearing shaft removed. The internal chambers were fairly inaccessible to a brush, and couldn't find any bottle brushes. Quite a bit of the tacked on black residue came off with just a fine stream of turps with a bit of velocity, surprisingly.

Yet again a bit of leftover Structaflor tongue became useful. A squeeze bottle of Mineral Turps ( aka mineral spirits) and a balled up 'chux ' wipe got everywhere. Internal walls had factory paint coating in sound order; a Gyptal (Glycerine Phthalate) presumptively, given the vintage of the saw (1981). After a few rounds, a final squirt with water from the garden hose, and a internal wipe with a clean 'chux' and air dry.

cleaning_1.jpg cleaning_2_interior.jpg


LED light cables
Rather than fix Surface Socket back wired bases (Clipsal 413) on the underside of the mezzanine, I'm running the LED driver 240V cable up through the mezzanine floor, and will mount the surface socket above the floor.

surface_socket.jpg

Got a 48mm hole saw to cut through the Structaflor in order to fit 50mm versions of desktop cable grommets (about $8 for 10 from fleebay). A minute or so of rasping with a decent rasp was enough to enlarge the hole to fit. Gotta say the cutter (Lenox brand, fits a Starret arbor), went through the Structaflor like it was pine.

The Lenox hole saw packaging is stamped 'Made in USA with global components'. Now, there is only 2 bits welded together; the tapped circular base, and the blade tube welded to it. Wonder which one is 'global'; packaging maybe? Call me cynical.

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Originally Posted by node105

As part of the general 'policy' of getting 'everything' mobile, the cold saw has been on the agenda for some time. I got some PU shod cast iron/roller bearing 300kg load castors cheap recently; $45 for the set of 4! Cripes;

Hi Chris, where did you obtain the castors from? Locally they're about your price, each!!!!
I could do with a few sets myself. Nice work on all the equipment too.
Thanks Kryn