Saturday Night Chop & Weld Shop

This weeks diary will be on building a tailpipe bench for the exhaust system company I worked @ from 3/04 till 12/05.

A little background of how I learned to build objects. I was 14 when I started using power tools because I wanted to be in autoracing. I was introduced to auto racing at the age of 9 in 1963. By the time I got out of high school in 1972, racecars were all I wanted to do. I met a driver my age that had a race car & a few weeks later it got wrecked & the car was junk. So a group of us built a new one. This was my start at learning how to start & finish a project. I went on to build many racecars trailers & support equipment.

Steve the owner wanted a bench built to build & jig up the tail pipes for the nascar type vehicles. He spent a few days figuring out how he wanted the top of the bench to be shaped. His reason for the shape of it was that he wanted to be able to get to or reach any part of the tailpipes easily. So the shape is a big Y.

Follow me over the jump for this weeks project

Finally Steve is done changing the patern & gives me the OK to go do the top of the Bench. We found a scrap yard that had road plate that was in good condition. The plate is 1 1/4" thick. They had a piece we could buy that wouldn't end up with a lot of drops after cutting it the shape we want it. The scrap yard has a Track Torch. So I went there & layed out the patern of the bench top & the guys cut it out.

It took us about 4 hours to do the whole job & have the plate loaded on the trailer & me on the way back to the shop.
Here's the shape of the bench. The cutting was excellent. I had them leave the inside corners so I could use a grinder to make them curved. That part of it turned out great. The general size is 102" x 67". The Y part is 26" wide.

I also picked out a couple lenghts of scrap 2" x 2" x 1/4" tubing that was from a mill that rejected it. Part of it wasn't perfect. But we could use the tubing for short pieces to build the frame. I order 2" x 3" x 1/4" rectangular tubing for the top of the frame where I was going to bolt it to the plate. I had pictures of this save! But in Feb I lost my hard drive & all those pictures :(.
I use a Mag Drill to drill the holes thru the tubing & into the plate 1" deep. each piece of the 2" x 3" got 2 holes.I tapped the holes 1/2" x 13. The frame is 4" in all the way around the plate. I did that so there was room to use clamps when a working wanted to build something on the bench. I built the frame with the plate turned upside down. Again I wish I had those pictures, it was fun the first week cause no one could figure out what it was I was doing. I guess it took me 2 weeks to get this part done & turn the bench upright.

Steve & I are always talking about the things he wants this bench to have & look like. Steve wanted shelves & I was against those because you'd have to dig to get to the stuff in the back. So he said ok make drawers !! I had never built drawers before!! So I was like oh shit what did I get myself into now. I went to Home Depot & got the roller bearing tracks.

So here's a picture of the start of stacking the drawers

Here's a picture of putting a drawer together.

Then there's the big space that is a weird angle,  we put 2 small shelves in & doors to hide the stuff.
Here's the finally picture before painting

Here's a clean top view

I put electic & air outlets in 4 places so the cords were short & to keep it so the bench wouldn't be a pig pen.
It took 5 weeks to get it to this stage. I loaded it up & took it to the painter.
The painter had the bench for a good 6 weeks. Kevin spent a lot of time with the bondo & an airfile making the finish look of the bench. I was suprised he was going to do this much work on it.
But it turned out really nice.

When I got it back it took a week to assemble it. I had to connect all the air lines. I had drilled holes in the frame & welded in nipples to keep the lines out of the way of the drawers & just to keep it looking nice. I used plastic hose with steel push on fittings. everything was straped to the frame work. The same was done with the electric cord. Sure wish I had that picture of all the lines & cords in place before I put the plate on the last time. I cut 1/8 black rubber mat for the drawers & shelves.

Here's the pictures of it in the place where the bench is in the shop.

picture 1

picture 2

In picture 1 you can see a green machine, that's a 20" sandpaper grinder that is an awesome machine. To the left of it there now is a verticle band saw (Do All) that I will write a diary on next week. The area the bench is in is one of 4 work stations for the fabricators. In Picture 2 you can see a bench that is typical for each of the 4 stations. There's air, hydralic, & gas for the welder & water cooling for the tig torch to each of those stations.
I did all that stuff when the shop was being setup to move in. Steve bought this building 2/04. these pictures are taken 10/05.
There's a lot of work done to this building. I lost most of the pictures I had of the work done. I took them with a digital camera so they are lost :(.

Well that's this weeks project.

Also Monday 12/11 I started a new job. The first few days were killer on my legs. I wasn't use to standing for 8 hours. But it's nice to be working again & a productive member of society  LOL. So far the job is going well. The company builds scissor lift beds. The trucks they use to load food into an airplane.