2011.09.06 - UPDATE! - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME....
What better way to spend a birthday than out in the manspace? Sad to say that my most recent shop day was on Father's Day, so I could barely even remember what some of the tools were for... There was this one red one with wheels that I think is called a "metal melter"
and another one that cuts metal with compressed air and electricity.
It took me a few minutes to get reaquainted with everything but eventually the cobwebs cleared and I was able to get started.
I had created a foam core truss design a while back and wanted to start transferring that into metal so I carefully cut the individual foam pieces apart and used them as templates to trace over to some 1/4" steel
I decided to try a new method for fitment. Instead of overlapping the corners, I am actually trying to align them "corner-to-corner" so that there is a full 1/4 fillet gap between the parts. This isn't easy... because there is no way to clamp parts together that barely even touch each other at the corners. So the solution was to use a piece of box tubing that matched the interior dimension of the truss and clamp the sides and top piece against it. This had the added benefit of controlling distortion and pulling when I laid the tack welds in place.
Like so many other previous projects, there was a lot of trimming and test fitting to do before the truss would lay into position correctly, but after a couple of hours I had it right where it needed to be. Here is the view from the back side. Notice where the edge of the truss sits relative to the axle tube height...
Now the photo from the front side of the truss... on this side, the edge sits much higher. This is necessary to keep the truss flush with the mating surface of the 3rd Member. I wanted to have the truss welded right along the edge of that plate... not in front of it.
It was a sort of rainy, and overcast day....and I was pleasantly surprised that my old friend decided to come out and visit me for a while. He's been with me for MANY years (he'll be 15 years old in November) and that scruffy old blue blanket has been "his spot" in the workshop that whole time. He's now 100% deaf, so the shop noises don't bother him at all...but I still need to shoo him away when I've got welding to do so I don't hurt his eyes.
Even with slow progress (mostly due to being rusty on shortcuts and techniques) I still had time to get the first parts of the upper link mount fabricated and tacked into place. This will serve as the basis for not only the upper link, but there will be tabs for the lower link and the coilover mount integrated into this part too. It's a pretty complex piece so I'm sure there will be many more hours spent getting it just right.
The plan of record is to completely build the driver's side truss (tack welded) to make sure I've got everything correct. Then use my templates to make the passenger side parts since they should be perfect mirror image parts...just reversed. Then, I will finish weld the link brackets (seperately), then fully weld the truss parts (inside and outside) using the clamping technique shown earlier... then weld the link mounts to the truss and drop the whole assembly on top of the axle to be permanently welded in place.
My thinking is that I can more carefully control the welding by doing everything seperate, and if there is any warpage I can make adjustments before it goes onto the axle. Having the truss as strong as possible before it is welded to the axletubes should help to control warpage during that final step.... and obviously, I'll be hitting up Rene for a more detailed explanation of exactly HOW the welding sequence should go to prevent warping the housing.
I know it's not a huge update, but it still felt good to get into the shop again...even if it was only for a day. In the coming weeks, I am hoping to get a few hours in the evening at least one night per week. Now that my little boy is going to bed around 7:30PM and sleeps pretty much through the night now my hope is to slowly give myself back some of the "shop time" hours that have been going to diaper changes and late night feedings.
They just grow up so fast, but I do look forward to seeing more updates.
