Ryoken's 89 Crew Cab Tubebed build... aka Mutt....

[brans87]

Ryoken your kidding right you not having a set of torches at home? I figured with all cool stuff you have built you would have a set. Even I have a set and won't let them go. Saved my ass more then few times.

 

[ryoken]

like I've mentioned, it's one of those items I don't tend to need too often.. biggest benefit to torches for me is cutting stuff up, frame rivets and such.. every 3, 4 months I run across a situation where I'd like em..

and I've always had marina's/jobs that I could hit up for a fullsize set if I really need em.. in a pinch I have the stupid mini bottle setup from work now, but obviously it has it's durability limitations..

these.....

it's prolly at the top of the list in power/shop tools for me at this point.. tho I'd have to say upping my Makita LXT battery supply would come above that.. also need a new 4 1/2 grinder too... so, top 3....

 

[Slapperbar]

Cute little setup.

 

[ryoken]

ain't it?

my "know everything" boss bought it... granted, it has some SERIOUS benefits lugging it up a ladder into a boat.. and down into an engine room of a big sportfish like this...

I wanted him to buy the $400 setup I'm looking at with longer hoses, but oh well, he can go fill the tanks every time we need torches...

 

[Deuling]

Hey now, I bought that same setup for $200 brand new. I personally like it, for using all the time in the shop? No. But for the occasional torch use it works pretty well. And is perfect to bring to a pick n pull junk yard etc.

 

[ryoken]

that's not what I'm looking at for $400.. I have no crue what my boss payed for that setup.. prolly stooopid money from like northern or something...

it is convenient for the boats in a pinch... and great for the boneyard I'd guess..



this is kinda like the setup I'm looking at.... well, bottle size anyway.. the cart is a side by side kinda deal tho..

 

[Deuling]

Oh yah, a fullsize kit is way better to have in the shop. Gets you hours and hours of run time per fill up compared to a half hour etc.

But i dont have a shop to call my own so all of my personal tools are small portable versions of the full time shop stuff etc.

Hell, half my tools are at my buddy nates shop. Torches, Portaband, dimple dies, welder, because I dont have a place to actually keep them lol.

 

[ryoken]

yeah, for $200, on the go type situation, it'd be handy fo sure..

its just the damn oxy runs out before an episode of Family guy..

 

[Deuling]

For sure. You get about 20 minutes of run time out of the bottles maybe.

But if you plan ahead and use them sparingly it works out ok.


Ive used this one mainly for cutting a bracket off, or for preheating an axle tube so that my baby hobart 140 can actually dig into the material.

Another plus is that the bottles can fit into my chevy sonic to go get refilled lol. Id be scared of my big welding tank in the car lol.

 

[Stomis]

Lol I carry a 251 of oxygen and a #4 of acetylene on the truck when Im doing tear down and have used two sets in one day before lol.

 

[jekquistk5]

I love my Harris torch.

 

[ryoken]

playing around today.. latches in the morn, so this will prolly change dramatically..

but I figured let me do a bit of templating and get some ideas...

the plate you can't see really that is a triangle and centered in the 2" tube basically makes a vertical up/down from where the hinge is, straight up to the upper tube..... what that's also doing for me is giving a nice surface down the road for the alum sidewall of the coffin to end on...

also one thing I'm trying to keep in the back of my cranium is a spot/cubby I could make/etc for a hardwired winch control switch.... just the in/out... i'll do the power switch in the cab...

 

[y5mgisi]

On the aluminum radius, just an idea, you could maybe fill a 5 gallon bucket with concrete and then when it hardens, remove the bucket. It would be heavy so you might want to stick some eye bolts in the concrete before it dries.

 

[78K30]

On the aluminum radius, just an idea, you could maybe fill a 5 gallon bucket with concrete and then when it hardens, remove the bucket. It would be heavy so you might want to stick some eye bolts in the concrete before it dries.

Would work as long as you're careful finding the proper sized bucket and make sure it doesn't taper!

 

[ryoken]

prob with that is 5 gal buckets have a taper to em..



the one thing I don't like about my template mockup is that the latch hole would need to be boxed on the inside, as that's actually a sealed, boxed area that could get rain water in it... not that I couldn't make a little cube for in there, but it's just MORE work..

but I need to see how the latch wants to be.. if I need a slightly rounded ramp kinda deal... like a house door has, etc...

 

[dremu]

prob with that is 5 gal buckets have a taper to em..

Oh, that's easy. The Despot/Lowes have cylindrical cardboard forms for fencepost holes, essentially giant toilet paper tubes

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-12-in-x-48-in-Concrete-Form-Tube-65470062/100321215

I did feet for my car tent by cutting off foot-tall or so sections, putting them around the poles and then pouring concrete in.

You could do the same, cut off a foot-tall section, pour concrete, et voila, you have a fairly solid cylinder to work with.

-- A

 

[y5mgisi]

Good idea!

 

[ryoken]

Oh, that's easy. The Despot/Lowes have cylindrical cardboard forms for fencepost holes, essentially giant toilet paper tubes

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-12-in-x-48-in-Concrete-Form-Tube-65470062/100321215

I did feet for my car tent by cutting off foot-tall or so sections, putting them around the poles and then pouring concrete in.

You could do the same, cut off a foot-tall section, pour concrete, et voila, you have a fairly solid cylinder to work with.

-- A

hmmmmmmm, that might be a viable option...

still not sure of the logistics of drawing alum around it.. it'll be 7.5" wide x 1/4" thick, and at the end..

it's conceivable that I may be able to leave em long and cut em down after bending. tho that's not a certainty, I may be running low on alum at that point..

plus throw in the possible annealing aspect... securing it, etc....


we'll see when the time comes... good input guys, thanks!

 

[TerryD]

You could always mark the center of a sheet as long as both sides need to be together, bend it around the form to 180*, then cut the center of the bend to have your two pieces with 90* bends. It eliminates working at the end which makes the bend more manageable.

 

[ryoken]

good idea..

that may actually work cuz I plan to put a short vertical 1.5 there at the end of the box, so it may not be quite 90 and reach... if I wasn't doing the tube and just finishing flush with the box, it probably would have needed an inch or so of flat..











anyway...... sigh...... nothings ever easy....



$50 later, I have 2 nice springloaded latches sitting in front of me......

only prob is that 1 3/8" projection they where talking about in McBible, is the handle end!

as you can see 3/4" sticking out, not even close...




soooooooo, I have a couple options here...


#1 - is to just flip the handle as mentioned previously and see how "unwieldy" it'll be to pull the latches with them face in, and the outer panel being set 1/2 way in the tube...that'll be first..

as you can see, simple procedure, rollpin/flip...


the big downside to this in addition to potentially being tough to operate is that I was going to put a flush mounted alum panel on the inside in addition to the outer one...

it'd hide the panel mounts for the outer one and make it look cleaner... it would just have a rectangle notched on each side for the latches...





option #2 - redrill the rollpin hole over a 1/2"... that would prolly give me enough exposed to recut the other angle... downfall to that one being it'll put the handle like an 1/8" off the housing, leaving more of a nub than a handle...


option #3 - get some 1/2" cold rolled stock and make my own handle.. if I did this hopefully I could get the boot off these and reinstall on mine.. don't wanna have to do some plastidip toolhandle product.. tho that could be a last resort that I'm sure would work.. jar ya dip plier handles in stuff..

if I do this, which is HIGHLY likely no matter what the result from #1 and #2, I would just weld/shape a right angle piece at the end obviously, as opposed to trying to bend like the original...