belt grinder build continues

Starting over...

The tubes that I welded up around the bar last weekend were both too small/warped so that the bar could not be inserted and removed as was required.  So, I bought some more 3/8" cold rolled stock and more 1.5" square cold rolled, and tried again.  I ordered the 1.5" square bar from onlinemetals.com but I bought the 3/8" cold rolled material from Foltz in Hagerstown, MD.  Onlinemetals got the bar to me with a week!   

I did manage to weld up a fixture to help me use the hydraulic jack to press the old 1.5" sq bar out, so I figured I just wasted the money for the 2nd 2ft section of bar.  However, looking back over the plans I came to realize that 2ft equals 24", but I needed a 14" length of bar AND an 18" section!  So, I needed to buy the extra bar anyway!  

The 16" tube

The 14" tube

Both tubes.  The welds aren't pretty, but after warping the first 2 tube attempts, I was paranoid about getting these too hot!  I jumped the welds around with no more than 1" welded at a time in any location!

The 1.5" square bar moves freely in-and-out of both of these.  I used 0.012" of shim instead of the 0.008" I tried the first time.  However, with the extra care that I took with the welding this time I am not sure that I needed to.

This is the first attempt - after I finally managed to get the bar out of the tube it was stuck in!  The bar that I removed was galled pretty rough in a couple places, but after grinding and sanding it  smooth again, I think it is still useable.

Feet installed!

I was considering chopping up one of the failed tubes for making the risers for the feet, but I had already cut and shaped the steel I needed to build risers last weekend, so I just went ahead and used those.  I think they turned out nicely.  I tried to keep them nice looking by doing the welds on the inside of the riser!

I also drilled and tapped the holes on the sides of the tubes.

Setting up the hinges and welding...

I used some oak scrap wood that I had laying around and milled it to the correct dimensions to give me the space I needed between the components.  This worked pretty well,  but of course I still had to clamp the pieces in place since the wood had some spring to it!

One flaw in the build-plans that I am following: Using a .5" rod in .5" holes for alignment purposes makes sense - BUT - getting that rod out of those holes can be damn near impossible!  If ANY galling occurs in the 8 3/8" holes that the rod has to be removed from, you WILL have problems!  

I did end up having to break the tack welds on the end here to get the rod out.  Then I had to go back and carefully align a .5" bolt through there and weld it up again.  Fortunately, it worked and it seems to be good.

Below is a video that shows the working hinge.

The video just did not want to focus - sorry for the quality!

Belt-grinder related injury!

I thought I would through this in...  as I was removing the rod from the hinge components, I managed to hit my thumb pretty hard with a hammer!  OUCH!  I actually split the skin on the thumb and it was a bugger to get it to stop bleeding.  I survived though.  

Just putting this here for myself really, as a warning or reminder to cool off and walk away when things go sideways.  Best to gather yourself and approach things rationally rather than let the brute loose and damage yourself and/or others!