So the other day I received a package from DustDevil with the Tri and Hepta square bits that I bought earlier in the week. I do a fair bit of tinkering in my garage and lately a fair bit of fabrication type of thing at work. Up till now I have just made a plan here and there when it comes to putting frames together, and it's such a pain to faf about with levels and various bit of wood and clamps and who know what else, to get a corner square. I have a project coming up at work that needs a frame or three built, so these are going to make the job much easier and a whole lot faster. They really take the schlep out of fabrication work.
I have seen the squares that fireball tool make, and they are serious bits of kit but a tad beyond my budget for now. After seeing something very similar in action on a thread that DustDevil was doing, I did a bit more digging and the next thing, they arrived in the mail.
After a bit of fiddling and some 'Doh' moments I saw how it all went together and shortly there after, started to do the clean up and put them together.
I started off by cleaning off the burrs and sharp edges with a file and fine emery tape. Then it was a quick clean up on the surface grinder. This step wasn't necessary, but I wanted a perfectly flat surface to start with and only a smidge was needed to come off. In the region of 0.2mm and I was good to go.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5w_PG7G8OM[/youtube]
After the plates were ground and cleaned up. I did a quick inspection for bends/bows in the steel and found that a few were bowed and one or two had a slight twist as well.
It's not that much of a major issue, it just takes a bit more care when clamping and welding it together.
A quick mock up to see how they go together
Once done on the grinder I grabbed a flat plate and a big square to clamp with. Having a square (perpendicular) surface to clamp against makes life a fair bit easier. As I went along with each quick tack from the TIG welder, I would double check the plates for squareness/perpendicularity. I have a few v-blocks and some very accurate 45 and 30 degree setsquares to check I am not leaning off to one side or the other.
I have seen the squares that fireball tool make, and they are serious bits of kit but a tad beyond my budget for now. After seeing something very similar in action on a thread that DustDevil was doing, I did a bit more digging and the next thing, they arrived in the mail.
After a bit of fiddling and some 'Doh' moments I saw how it all went together and shortly there after, started to do the clean up and put them together.
I started off by cleaning off the burrs and sharp edges with a file and fine emery tape. Then it was a quick clean up on the surface grinder. This step wasn't necessary, but I wanted a perfectly flat surface to start with and only a smidge was needed to come off. In the region of 0.2mm and I was good to go.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5w_PG7G8OM[/youtube]
After the plates were ground and cleaned up. I did a quick inspection for bends/bows in the steel and found that a few were bowed and one or two had a slight twist as well.
It's not that much of a major issue, it just takes a bit more care when clamping and welding it together.
A quick mock up to see how they go together
Once done on the grinder I grabbed a flat plate and a big square to clamp with. Having a square (perpendicular) surface to clamp against makes life a fair bit easier. As I went along with each quick tack from the TIG welder, I would double check the plates for squareness/perpendicularity. I have a few v-blocks and some very accurate 45 and 30 degree setsquares to check I am not leaning off to one side or the other.
