Build project: DIY checkering cradle from metal junk

[Gadge]

G'day folks,

Over the past week or two, I've been putting a checkering cradle together, from old water pipe and fittings.

This will be one of the 'top tools' that fit on a base stand that I threw together a while back, also from basically bits and pieces from my 'useful scrap metal' pile.

My inspiration was this article by Frank de Haas, from an old NRA Gunsmithing Guide book I have.

Let's start from the bottom here;

The base. Put together from an unserviceable Landcruiser 45 Series brake drum, and some pieces of gal water pipe and fittings. Overall height from floor is ~650mm.

After ratting through my box of acquired/scrounged gal pipe fittings, and various lengths of 3/4" gal pipe that came from under my house [the old main water line pipes]; and a bit of cutting, drilling, and boring out, I had these bits assembled:

Assembled with clamps, just for a pic

Tee-handled set screws done - just pieces of thick wire, silver soldered across the heads of M6x1.0 hex head set screws.

To be continued...

[Camel]

Been watching that on AHN, nifty gadget and well done, but you have to smooth out all the welds, and rub it back and paint it, there is only room for one R.A.F. Productions here.

[Gadge]

Been watching that on AHN, nifty gadget and well done, but you have to smooth out all the welds, and rub it back and paint it, there is only room for one R.A.F. Productions here.

Can't stick weld for shit ATM, 'Man Flu' has given me a bad case of the shakes. The 'new' FleaBay $100 Chinee 220A inverter welder is nice, though.
This one [tho' price has gone up since 2019], bought on recommend from an AHN'er; https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ARC-220Amp- ... 2834881672

And I know the rods are super dry, as I keep them in an airtight container made out of 150mm DWV pipe and fittings, along with a few big bags of silica gel desiccant. I chuck the bags in the oven for an hour or two at ~110deg every so often, to regenerate them.

Might give it another go after downing a couple of hot Scotch and lemon drinks, my old go-to cold/flu treatment.

BTW, this one's a 'RAG Engineering' production; our letterhead follows :

[Gadge]

Just as an interlude while I get the next set of pics edited, here's another 'top tool' made to fit this stand.

Oxy torch holder

This is a pretty simple one. When doing small forging jobs, it's much quicker and easier to use torch heating [oxy-LPG in my case] than to light up the charcoal fired forge. But you really need three hands - one to hold the tongs, one to wield the hammer, and one to hold the torch.

So this is that 'third hand'.

The holder. Just a 1/2" bolt, with a stop collar and torch hook welded to it, and quick acting nut

As set up for use

Stuffed if I know why the forum software is turning some pics thru 90deg CCW, but fuckitall anyway.

[Gadge]

Centre Screws and nut

Didn't have any 3.5" x 3/8" machine screws; 3/8" gal allthread used instead, as that was to hand...

Quick acting locknut for centre screw

Detail view of main swivel joint

As the end of the 'vertical plane rotation' set screw would bear against a thread, I just used an old RCBS trick to provide a 'pad' for the screw end; prevents galling of the thread.
Just a matter of slipping a BB shot pellet into the tapped hole, before fitting the set screw.

Centre screw mounts

Don't have a 3/8" WW tap to cut the centre screw mounting threads in the uprights, but welding square nuts on was the easy way around that one. Rather than dick around with clamps, it was a simple matter to use bolts to hold these nuts in position for welding.

Apologies for the quality of the arc welds here, but a bad head cold/Man Flu has made my hands a bit shaky... Can always grind out and re-weld later on, if the mood takes me.

Metal finishing of the small parts

Not worth spending a lot of time on this task. They don't need to look pretty.

So, it was just a matter of immersing these bits in water overnight, to help get rid of flux residues, wire brushing, then steaming for ~15 min to form a passivated surface.

Then a quick coat of Boiled Linseed to prevent rust, and they were done.
The Tee handle set screws shown above, had gone through this process.

Nearly there...