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Hey Mike,

How are you adding your image links? Every time I click the small version, it opens up the photo bucket album and then makes me watch a commercial over and over every 3-4 pictures. Greg's thread does the same thing, except its a subway sandwich ad every time.
 
I bet! How's that new plasma treating you? Looks sweet :pimp:


It's working out really good. One thing that I've learned so far, is, I should probably start using the 50' of torch and start doing a little cutting outside. Used the circle cutter last night, and from the Hypertherm vids, you start cutting or gouging at a pretty steep angle.

Well when you do that, sparks will fly 5-10 feet away. I ended up burning the foam out of my circle cutter box last night. Caught fire as it was sitting in the bed of the blazer.

With the small space that I have, I'm going to burn this place down in no time.

It did cut through 1/2" last night like it was butter though. :D :weld::saweet:

I guess I have lost track of this build with my truck getting all possessive of my time and all, but I spent some quality time catching up and am even more impressed with the artwork you are creating lately. Absolutely beautiful work. The winch assembly is fantastic!! The bumper is straight off the hook!!

I finally bought a plasma cutter awhile back and you are going to look back and wonder how you got along without it this far. I still catch myself forgetting about it at times when I need to cut something. I'll get the goods out to cut it old-school with abrasives or something, then remember the plasma, grab a roofing square and in a matter of seconds I'm fitting the part to the project. Sooo much easier/faster/cleaner. After the first long fab day with it you will love the thing.

Thanks for posting up all the great pics and details. You could charge admission to this thread to offset some of the build costs. :waytogo:


Thanks a ton, Nick. :bow: Always love when you post up in your thread and show us your travels. Going to admit, sure can make a guy jealous. Just need to keep telling my self that one day, my rig will be out there too.

Should hopefully be moving to the rear end of the rig soon. Excited to start working on the rear bumper and using some of your ideas for the tire carrier. :waytogo:

Admission Huh??? :whistle: If everyone could just send me one Bud Light for every time they like something here, I guess it would help. :pimp: You know how fast I could finish this thing if I didn't need to stop and buy beer all the time. :D :woot:

Hey Mike,

How are you adding your image links? Every time I click the small version, it opens up the photo bucket album and then makes me watch a commercial over and over every 3-4 pictures. Greg's thread does the same thing, except its a subway sandwich ad every time.

Just photobucket. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong though. :dunno:

I like to use PB for the non members and it makes a little larger pic. That last one, my friend took with his phone and sent it back to me. Probably why the pic was so small.

Any suggestions, if I'm screwing it up, I'm all ears. :thumb:
 
Cutting outside is where its at dude.

It also doesn't help that if you are cutting close to something its way easy to burn it. I have to be careful cause I don't have as single metal bench top all of mine are old counters or just plain wood.

Hence the reason I have 4 fire extinguishers ( actually only 3 now :whistle:) in my garage.

With the circle attachment try just drilling a hole first and then doing the circle, it might leave a little bump where you drilled the whole but if prevents the sparks from going everywhere when using it
 
Just photobucket. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong though. :dunno:

I like to use PB for the non members and it makes a little larger pic. That last one, my friend took with his phone and sent it back to me. Probably why the pic was so small.

Any suggestions, if I'm screwing it up, I'm all ears. :thumb:

Try using the [\img] tag instead of the [/url]. It downloads them from PB automatically rather than making people watch ads.
 
Yeah, I hear ya load and clear. I have the same wood tops, just a piece of 3'x4'x1/4" on the workbench to act as a table.

I thought that I was being careful by spreading out a welding blanket under the bench so none of that stuff would catch on fire. I did use it to cover my toes too. :wink1:

Two things need to happen. A couple for fire extinguishers and cutting outiside for the most part. I want to make a round table with a hub base on top of one of the old 14 bold drums that I have.

I really do like the idea of drilling a hole to start too. Thanks

Need to get good at this. I want to cut apart that old Craftsman compressor and make a nice big smoker. :pimp:
 
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Gouging slightly inside or outside the target line is a quick way to get a through hole without ruining the part you are making. That said, I rarely gouge. I try to plan my cuts so that I'm coming into the part from an edge so that I don't have that initial splattering of molten metal going everywhere.

Another trick is that I lay my framing square over the new part I'm building and cut toward the outside (waste piece)... That way if the straightedge slips or the tip comes off the edge it doesn't ruin the "good" part I'm trying to make. A lot of times I clamp the straight edge down, but when I'm in a rush I will just do my best to hold it still with one hand while cutting with the other.

As you get more experienced you'll learn how far "off the line" to put the straightedge so that your cuts require minimal touch up with a flap disc afterwards. There is a slight angle on cuts made with plasma, so leaving around 1/16" of extra material means you can dress the part down on the disc sander and get nice crisp 90* edges.... It's all part of that neurotic evolution where each part MUST be a gorgeous work of art, not just a truck part! :D

-G
 
It's working out really good. One thing that I've learned so far, is, I should probably start using the 50' of torch and start doing a little cutting outside. Used the circle cutter last night, and from the Hypertherm vids, you start cutting or gouging at a pretty steep angle.

Well when you do that, sparks will fly 5-10 feet away.

Drill a small pilot hole before you cut and there will be no sparks flying outward and your consumables will last much longer.


Thanks a ton, Nick. :bow: Always love when you post up in your thread and show us your travels. Going to admit, sure can make a guy jealous. Just need to keep telling my self that one day, my rig will be out there too.

We almost made it up to your neck of the woods this summer, but changed our minds toward then end of planning due to the timeframe we would have been traveling in. Tentative plans are for next summer, so hurry up!!

Should hopefully be moving to the rear end of the rig soon. Excited to start working on the rear bumper and using some of your ideas for the tire carrier. :waytogo:

So long as I'm listed in the credits and you pay me royalties, it's all good. :haha:
 
Ended up stealing a couple hours in the garage yesterday. Did a lot more welding on the front tube bumper. You can see that I brought up the front plates to the bottom of the top tube. I also closed off the ends and cleaned up some of the splatter.

The rest of the day was figuring out the winch fairlead opening and what it will involve. I actually only moved forward on this by cutting out another 1/4" plate that will sit in front of the winch feet. Now that piece is 1/2" thick, and I shouldn't need to worry about any bending with just the 1/4". I will need to make a 2" bump out, tunnel...(don't know what else to call it?) so the fairlead will just sit in front of the bottom lip on the bumper.


Unusual for me, but I didn't take a lot of pics yesterday. Just the couple that I shot over to Greg during the day. Remember everything is still loose in the pics, (Fairlead, bumper, etc) but you can get an idea of where I'm heading finally.


Morning coffee and a tube disconnect in the top tube.




Welded up.





With the grill on..




and the front skin.




This really should give me a nice platform to work off of now for the fairlead.
 
Ended up stealing a couple hours in the garage yesterday. Did a lot more welding on the front tube bumper. You can see that I brought up the front plates to the bottom of the top tube. I also closed off the ends and cleaned up some of the splatter.

The rest of the day was figuring out the winch fairlead opening and what it will involve. I actually only moved forward on this by cutting out another 1/4" plate that will sit in front of the winch feet. Now that piece is 1/2" thick, and I shouldn't need to worry about any bending with just the 1/4". I will need to make a 2" bump out, tunnel...(don't know what else to call it?) so the fairlead will just sit in front of the bottom lip on the bumper.


Unusual for me, but I didn't take a lot of pics yesterday. Just the couple that I shot over to Greg during the day. Remember everything is still loose in the pics, (Fairlead, bumper, etc) but you can get an idea of where I'm heading finally.


Morning coffee and a tube disconnect in the top tube.




Welded up.





With the grill on..




and the front skin.




This really should give me a nice platform to work off of now for the fairlead.

That's sooo sexy! Nice work dude!!!
 
Damn that's nice work Mike. Driver side front bogger is on the wrong side of the truck. LOL.

I really need to get my rig home so I'll start doing SOMETHING on it again. :doah:
 
That's sooo sexy! Nice work dude!!!

Thanks Brother....Is your liver ready for this week. :whistle:

Damn that's nice work Mike. Driver side front bogger is on the wrong side of the truck. LOL.

I really need to get my rig home so I'll start doing SOMETHING on it again. :doah:

I'd love to see yours sitting in that third bay. Weekly updates from ya would be awesome... :waytogo:

looks great Mike! :thumb:

Thanks Dean... see ya soon..:pimp:

Dead. Sexy.


Thanks Nick..:D

That looks perfect! Wish I had the time to build one :(


Awesome to see ya around again.. Thanks :thumb:


Some progress pics from yesterday. Hopefully get it welded and installed today.





























 
I'd love to see yours sitting in that third bay. Weekly updates from ya would be awesome... :waytogo:

The plan right now is to take some of Labor Day weekend to get to the shop and start putting the front sheet metal back on. Then just need to bleed the brakes, load it on a trailer, and haul it home. We'll see if that really happens, or not.

The cuts for the winch plate have got to be sooooo much easier with the plasma. Looks awesome.
 
What'd you use as the template for the semi-circles on the bottom Mike? Neer can?
 

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