At my shop, not at the house.

The CX500 looks good, Cheesy! :)

Spud :)

Your luggage rack reminds me of the old Native American philosophy towards making a canoe from a tree. Simply carve away everything that's not a canoe.

Thanks, Spud. The two week wait I still have before I can register and insure it are going to be long.

WNG-You were the one I had in mind when I took that pic. The tube is zip tied to my old Monark for the ride into work tomorrow. With a bit o' luck, the basic shape will come back home in the big old Wald basket.

:lol:

Well, crap. One o' my boys at the shop managed to break the tube bender and never said anything to the boss, aka, me. :x Apparently, broken for a couple of weeks, too. :x :x
I'm not big on punishment but this time there was a collective butt ripping with the understanding that should something like this happen again, THERE WILL BE SUSPENSIONS. Ssssiiiiggggghhhh. :? I wasn't totally pissed that I couldn't do my tube but I have tubing jobs starting week after next and I gotta get this antique fixed.

Had to send the MIG out for repairs today, too.:( It's Monday, right.

Anyway, bit o' change of plans. Heat, bend, and braze. All that I can do at home. Won't be pretty, but will be functional. Which is the cheesy way.

Do you have the budget at work to buy the HF tubing roller? Perhaps it will make a good substitute for awhile. I think I paid $160.00 for mine.

I have the budget. Getting the OK is another thing. Should have seen the hoops I went through to get a plasma cutter.

The HF unit could end up in my garage, though.

Basic shape.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...8-23130115.jpg

3/4" tube, expanded metal, a few other bits, and lot's of brass.

Not pretty, but then again, I don't do pretty. It will have the old Chinabike trunk hiding the ugliness for those who value that sort of thing, though.

Beauty is as beauty does. :wink:

Get 'er done. Gas welding? Oxy-acetylene?

Oxy, mostly because I'm out of practice.

Secondly, because my Dad is handing his 'I don't know how old' Craftsman oxy-acetylene set to me. I have a Victor set with pony tanks, which is nice for 'around the house' repairs but the full size set means I can do some real damage* to a piece of steel.


*My flame cuts look like a fractal image. :oops:

Flame cuts are always nasty. Even plasma cutters have that flame-cut appearance, which is why I gravitate towards free-handing it with a cut-off disc in an angle grinder.

I've decided against a Victor setup on my property, due to insurance reasons. I think that a homeowner could get away with an oxy-propane setup, and it's certainly good enough for silver soldering, etc. I have a cheap oxy-map setup, but haven't tried it yet. I bet it's hotter than blazes.

Expanded metal is a good choice for a rack surface. BTW, if you wish to accomplish a radius in tubing, you can have reasonable success in bending it around a pulley that is chucked in a vise, after unmercifully heating the tube. The pulley size determines the bend radius.

I'll opt for the RA grinder most of the time but if I have a lot to cut I'll break open the plasma cutter. Still cleaner and straighter than a flame cut and still makes sparks. :D
I was going to do the pulley trick but the pulleys I had were aluminum and for a serpentine belt. So I said the heck with it and just bent.

Here it is sans paint and radiused corners. I have about $7usd in it and never set paper to pencil.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...8-25122439.jpg


Quick story about my Pony torches. I'm one of three guys in my neighborhood that works with their hands, everyone else is either in finance, upper management or has a bunch of letters after their name and I'm not so sure they know what they do. Anyway, I was replacing my mailbox post with a hunk o' 90lb rail on a Saturday. I got it sunk and set, then realized that it was a heck of a time to have forgotten to weld the plate for mailbox in place. Well, I couldn't reach it with my MIG, so I dragged the pony oxy-actylene unit to the end of the drive and started welding the plate on. After starting my second filet, I smell coffee. I look up and six of my neighbors are watching me weld. 8O I thought they were there to bitch (someone had about my antics in the past, I know who and it wasn't any of these guys) but they just wanted to watch, they'd never seen anyone weld before. By the time I was finished, the coffee became beers and the welding demo became the fence behind Hank Hills house. :wink:

That's awesome! What a terrific way to get to know the neighbours. I weld outside all the time, but only one neighbour has shown any interest.