Well, I was out for a long time today and came home as dirty as I've ever been, but it doesn't seem like I
did a lot. Well, I
DID a lot, I just didn't move
FORWARD a lot. You'll see...
First thing I did today was hang my new air hose reel in the back of the shop. I hung a Vevor one I got on
Amazon a few months back, when I ran a new air line drop to the front of the shop. This was a YUGE improvement in working in the front. No more stringing a hose from the back, where the compressor is, to the front, then tripping over it all day and having to wrap it back up when I'm done, etc. Just like when I hung my retracting electric cord reel, one of the best shop improvements I can recommend. That was a 50-foot 3/8" Vevor reel, in a plastic housing, but the hose is flexible and seems nice and I like it. But it was only $50, so it was pretty decent for what it was.
The one I hung today I got at WalMart online, shipped free to my house. This was just under $80 and I had a $10 credit and free shipping with Walmart+, so I was under $80 tax and all. I'm super impressed with this thing. All metal connections at the reel, super heavy duty, really pleased with it. A bit of a PITA to hang, as I couldn't use a drill for it and could barely even get the ratchet in there with a socket, had to pull the hose all out to be able to fit it, but it mounted super solid with 4x 3/8" x 2" lag screws - predrilled in the beam with a 1/4" drill bit. SOLID.
This really seems like it's going to work well. I am waiting on an
Amazon shipment with my new dessicant dryer and some connectors, etc.
When I ran the first drop to the front, I also added a 3-stage water trap, regulator and double filter with .5 micron and .01 micron filters.
So this air hose reel should have super dry, clean and plentiful air to run my painting setup out of the back of the shop when I get set up for that. Paint gun and accessories on the way, as well.
Anyways, then it was time to start getting my firebox fully welded out. I didn't do a good job with my fitup this time and had a large gap I needed to 'fill in'. I rolled some 1/2" and 7/16" rod with my band roller to mostly match the curvature of the tank and tacked those into the gap, but still had more space to fill. <sigh> I told you I had s****y fitup. About a 3/4" gap to fill at the top, sadly. I also tacked in some welding rods I remove the external flux from, and ran multiple beads over, around, through, stacked and every which way. It was ridiculous. Today was the welding equivalent of
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I'm not kidding, it was ugly. Fugly. Ridiculous. I didn't even take any pictures. But...
I got it all closed up, then I went to work grinding down all those
horrid welds. Spent a couple of hours on that. Also took it back in and added some small welds to fill in little holes and grooves (I need to do my major grinding outside the shop to try to keep as much filth out as possible). Then pulled it back out and ground
those welds down again. Went through a number of 40-grit ceramic flap discs.
I didn't wear them out completely, but when the edges wore down, or they started glazing over, I needed to put a new one on. I'll repurpose the partially-used ones up on other stuff later.
So here is where I ended up when it was all said and done.
Honestly, it looks pretty good now. The little grooves you can see in the bottom are highlighted in shadow, they're really not bad.
I actually thought about it... now that I have a good solid surface there, I
COULD go back and lay down a nice looking fillet weld in that groove, 'stack some dimes', so to speak - just for appearance sake. So people will
think I put down a nice weld there. lol It would be strictly cosmetic (though it would add more stiffness to the joint), so I don't know if I want to or not. But I'm pretty sure I could lay down a nice looking stack of dimes over that arc now.
Let me know what you think - I'm going to be selling this, of course, and
hoping to get a pretty penny out of it as I've got nearly a grand in the wheels & tires and hubs and spindles, etc., plus nearly that much now in painting setup for when it's ready to do that. Should I put down a 'cosmetic' stack of dimes in that joint, or just leave it ground out and smooth before paint?
So you can see why I don't think I moved forward a lot, in spite of a lot of work. I still have to weld out the bottom of the tank to the firebox, it's not even fully welded yet. But this is the part people see the most, so I spent a lot of time working on it. What a day.
Had hoped to go out tomorrow to work some more, but it's looking unlikely. It's my mom's 70th, so we're taking her to lunch, and then I have another... 'project' I have to work on. The Wife wanted me to submit a headshot and acting 'resume' for a commercial being filmed in a couple of weeks - we both do community theater and such. Well, this is a Public Service Announcement kind of commercial and I actually got a request back for an audition tape. So, I'll probably be filming my audition tomorrow, then spend Monday editing my tape and getting it ready to send. And The Wife is leaving early Monday morning for Saint Vincent & the Grenadines to go visit her family and spend most of the month of July with her parents there, so it's going to be busy tomorrow getting everything done. Wish me luck? lol I'm not holding my breath, but it might be neat to be the main character in a major state sponsored commercial to run statewide. And I would be. My niece who lives with us also got a request for an audition tape, she would be playing my daughter in the commercial, but it would mostly be about me. We'll see, eh? lol
So that was my day. Hot, sweaty, dirty, frustrating... but a little bit of progress.
