I recently bought a Bridgeport vertical mill that is in need of some work.

I recently bought a Bridgeport vertical mill that is in need of some work and repairs. The milling head was not attached to the base. I wanted to get it put back on, but it weighs over 100 pounds (without the motor) and the bolts are tricky to line up. I have seen other videos from Mr. Pete and H&W Machine where they used a special tool to make removing and installing the head much easier. I decided to make my own version of the tool.
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Welding squares

Inspired by a product I have seen online and used in other YouTube videos, I set out to make my own welding square. I learned a little Fusion 360 and designed this small 8″ welding square. I was fortunate enough to have this cut out on a water jet at a local maker space. Used the Primeweld TIG 225x to weld it up.

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Don’t tell the cops!

Don’t tell the cops! ;)⁠

I was making some tack welds on a project the other day and it was awkward to reach some of the areas with the torch and reach the foot pedal at the same time. I installed the finger trigger on my TIG torch to make these operations easier. I made a video of the results and some explanation of what how some of the controls on the welding machine are affected.⁠
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Arc Shot

I set up an old video camera on a tripod, put a welding shield in front of it, and was able to film this arc shot of a TIG weld. If the sensor in the camera had a better dynamic range, I think I would have been able to capture some more detail in the arc.

Bathroom Cabinet Project – Part 1

3D drawing of bathroom cabinet

One of the projects I have been wanting to build for a couple years now is a new wall cabinet for our downstairs half bath. This room is very small, barely enough to fit a toilet and an extra small sink. There’s no storage at all. I thought about just buying a cabinet to go over the toilet, but I wanted to make something. Something from steel and old wood. I designed it in SketchUp.

I had the steel lying around for a while, I bought it before the workshop even existed. I put the Harbor Freight bandsaw to use cutting each of the pieces of angle and square tube.

For a cheap saw, I have it dialed in to cut very straight and accurate. I needed quite a few small pieces, needed to do a little bit of grinding to get the lengths just right.

I still need practice with the TIG welder, so I decided to use this project. Tacked everything together before finish welding with the TIG 225X.

Having the welding table and my homemade clamps made this a lot easier. I also used a set of Hobart corner clamps to get me started.

One of these days I will have to invest in some Fireball Tools squares, but they are very expensive. I might try designing a set and cutting them out on the water jet at CWRU.

I need to go get the rustic wood for the cabinet, and make the doors yet, and the figure out what I want to do for a patina. But with the Coronavirus lock down, I can’t really go anywhere.