My latest project

[Dixieblade57]

I build my knives of out my one car garage so space is a premium. Plus I have a bad back so pretty much everything in the garage is on wheels. I needed a way to store my propane tanks so that they did not reside in the garage. I can now store them in the storage shed away from the house. Here they are at the storage shed!

I prefer not to have propane tanks in the garage as there are some small cans of flammables such as acetone, and a few others in a storge cabinet in the garage.

So I devised a carrier that I can wheel in and out of the storage shed. When I need it for the forge all I have to do is grab the dolly and roll it right to the forge which I generally use on the driveway of the garage.



It is formed out of 3/8” square tubing which I bent with my homemade bender (in the pic below) and welded up to form the carrier.

I painted a couple of red marks on the back of the carrier which allows me to automatically center up the dolly and I left the center leg out from under the back side to allow me to wheel right into it and bungee it too the dolly.

The carrier will protect the bottles, the manifold as well as the line that feeds to the forge. There is a regulator on the forge line so I don’t have to worry about it. I think this is going to work well as it allows me to move both bottles easily and I also don’t have to worry about anything getting messed up in the process! It will fit through a 2' 8" door. which is what the back door to my garage is so I can pretty much wheel it any where the need arises!

C Craft Custom Knives

“Do a good job and your name will get around fast enough, do a bad job and your name will beat your from job to job”

My Father

 

[tattooedfreak]

That's a pretty decent idea, sure beats taking everything apart everytime.

 

[Dixieblade57]

The thing I like about it is the ease of moving it around and when I get ready to store it I don't have to break it down like you said. I just unhook the hose, roll it and off to the shed. Where it patiently sits and waits for the next use! With the cage around it too protect it I don't have to worry too much about anything bumping it either. Roll it out, hook it up, pressruize and check with soapy water in a spritzer bottle for leaks and you are good to go!

 

[tattooedfreak]

Very handy, I need to rig something up for my tanks and table. Because of the size of my shop, I'm constantly moving my tank around so I can work and I'm always afraid I will crack the hose or fittings.

 

[Railrider1920]

That is pretty cool. Next time we have coffee, think you could bring that bender? That is pretty cool as well.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

That looks very good. I love it when I see planning, good execution and finish. Even more when it is on simple things as it says something about how meticulous the maker is. If he is like that with his tools there is a good chance he will also be with his work. :thumbup:

 

[Dixieblade57]

Thanks everyone! You know it was fairly simple, the hardest thing was bending the tubing and getting it right. There are no stops on the homemade bender so I had to play with them and square them in my vise after bending them.
The top ring is 1" bigger that the bottom ring. This allowed me to weld the piece of angle iron I used for legs/supports under the first ring and on the side of the second ring.
The leg/supports run 1" below the ring to allow for the stand off to get a dolly under it. The next hardest thing was welding the stuff since I only have a (arc) stick welder. MY stick welder works AC/DC. No joke here please!

The DC allowed me to get to a lower temp to do the welding. Plus I put a small section of solid bar inside of each of the joints in the square tube. That way when I was welding if I held the heat slightly too long I didn't have to risk a burn through and it all welded together as one. I sometimes wish I had learned how to weld on a mig but I am old school and learned welding with a stick welder back before mig. I know that does make me old doesn’t it!

It is hard to see in the pics but there is a simple bar with slots in it that has an adjustment knob threaded into it. The bar comes down over the top edge of the propane tanks and the bottoms of each tank sits in a welded ring all this locks the propane tanks together with virtually no movement! So once manifolded together they are good to go until needing filling again. And like I said once the hose is hooked to the forge, pressurize and check for leaks with a spray bottle filled with soapy water. If it bubbles do not light the forge, fix the leak!

 

[Salem Straub]

The DC allowed me to get to a lower temp to do the welding. Plus I put a small section of solid bar inside of each of the joints in the square tube. That way when I was welding if I held the heat slightly too long I didn't have to risk a burn through and it all welded together as one. I sometimes wish I had learned how to weld on a mig but I am old school and learned welding with a stick welder back before mig. I know that does make me old doesn’t it! [/B]

A good welding school will teach you both oxy-acetylene and stick welding before wire-feed welding. There's nothing wrong with SMAW, it's a good strong welding process and has a place in industry and the shop still for sure.
Now that you can stick weld well, you should try MIG. You'd be surprised at how much easier it is. It's like magic almost.

Nice job on everything, too.