May 2008


Well the mum asked a few to go. It would be just her, my sister and myself. I was ready this morning and my sister came to check up on her. She said she didn’t want to go anymore. Ranting about how not everyone is going that she asked and that we are going to arrive late. We are always late for every occasion at church anyhow.

It’s okay. Best next year and try not to arrive late I guess =) It’s a nice Sunday morning. Lots of work to do around the house. I like working around the house anyways. Before all that fun, we decided we are going to go get some breakfast. Got to get the boogers ready! More weight added to my already fat frame yeah!

I was contemplating on how I should piece together a bumble bee for my nephew. His class requires that he builds a bumble bee from scratch. Other students are assigned different animals of course. I originally was going to cut mine out from the wood lathe but decided that would be too much work. I went to Michaels and purchased a swan egg and two round spheres. Went home and cut them to add a marginal degree to the bumble bee’s body. Worked out great and the shape was just right!

I of course, did all the “dangerous” work because my nephew can’t use my mitering saw, my drill, and my staple gun. He helped with the other “stuff” to piece together this project and I have to say, he was quite unhelpful- okay, I was a hog. He really couldn’t do anything but glue stuff and cut shapes out for me which is more than enough of assistance I could use of him.

Tomorrow, I, excuse me, “we” need to make wings for the bee and finish up the project. I need a fine metal brush to brush the felt to make it more fuzzy and puffy. I’ll have to figure something out tomorrow. Then after fruition, we would need to school my nephew on bumble bees and etc. Wouldn’t want the teacher to pull a quick one on him!

The spool gun is discontinued and in order to weld aluminum, you would need to purchase another spool gun for another Lincoln machine and buy the proper modules to run it. I said the hell with it and mated mine with the Lincoln K2532-1 Magnum 100SG Spool Gun designed for the Lincoln 140-180.

Works well might I add. I need to buy a new four pin female adapter so I can rid myself of the wire splices. I wonder what part # that is! My welder is ancient yet works sooooo damn smooth I’m loving it! I will not spend 1500USD on a damn spool gun that I’ll rarely use occasionally. The Gun is rated up to 180amps and I run it at 100% duty cycle at those numbers all day without problems.

I’m in the process of making a panel saw for my personal use. I hate having to drive down to my buddies place to cut some ply. The drive to and fro waste a lot of valuable time. I need to get this project done within a week before school starts back up again! I don’t want to buy one because it’s either too expensive or either too expensive.

I just started noticing that the steel stock I purchased months ago, aren’t actually all straight. Some bend a little at the end- wonder if I can bend them back? I had 24′ of 1.25X1.25″ tube that was straight and I used it to create my frame. More to come!

UPDATE 05/03/08

I drew out my dimensions for my sliding bracket(SB). The SB is 16″x16″x.25″ aluminum plate.

I had to rough cut it and I tried to leave 1/8 edge so I can go over it with my router. That is the first time I’ve ever used a router on aluminum and I made a few miscalculations here and there but it came out great!

I came back with my router and routed the edges to make it look symmetrical and purdy.

I have mounted the saw I’m going to use for my panel saw as a mock up. Doesn’t it look great? I love how it’s coming out! the SB looks great!

UPDATE: 05/07/08

I finally was able to take a photo of the frame. Here is the frame=) I hope the bottom piece is flush. If it isn’t, I’ll have to buy 3″x.5″x10′ to square it up. I hate to grind the welds!

This is the pulley that will help counter-balance the saw.

These are my wheels to move it around. I still have not made the support brackets for the frame; thus, it leans on whatever is behind it.

UPDATE: 05/08/08

I installed the wheels today and they work great!

I had to add more bracing in the back- O the wonders of designing and making your own projects are that you find so many defects that you must overcome! I’m adding horizontal bracing in the back for more support and to make the surface more plumb and even. I have never thought of this until I actually came across it. Now there’s something new to add to my pool of knowledge.

UPDATE: 05/17/08

I took a 2″x4″x10′ and ran it in a planer to take it down to 1.25″x4″x10′. Time consuming and lots of saw dust to collect and clean up.

Once that was done, It was then mated to the panel saw frame.

I finally installed the slider face plate.