I'm blessed with being able to do pretty much anything in the shops at work, and the guys are more than willing to lend a hand when it's needed. The largest example is when I built my cab there about 5 years ago. Even so, I really do enjoy tinkering at home and have accumulated enough tooling to do a lot of work here.
Two things have limited how much I do at home. One problem is the weather. Any welding / sparking operation must be done outside. I don't have that pole barn I always wanted. Rain is a show stopper, but cold can be tolerated if it isn't too bad.
The main de-motivators were not having a decent work surface and needing to gather tools. The two choices for working surfaces were either plywood on sawhorses or grovelling about on hands and knees on the blacktop. The MIG had a cart, but the clamps, magnets, gloves, extra cords, etc. weren't always handy.
The weather will be whatever comes, but the completion of a welding table a few weeks ago solved most of the problems. It's a 4' x 3' x 3/8" top on an angle frame. Two straight and two caster type wheels and a couple floor locks to make it stay in place. The old Wilton vise is mounted on one corner, and there are places to hang cords and clamps. A shelf holds the MIG and plasma cutter. There's a large drawer made from an unused electrical panel can for consumables, gloves, magnets and often-used smaller tools.
It is so nice to be able to just roll the table out of the garage, plug in and go. After the table itself, the first projects were reassembling a 6' scraper blade (with the factory welds it had, I'm amazed it lasted 15 years), a toothy scraper bar for the FEL and a set of chains for the brush forks to make it self-install. Next up is putting a wheel back on the old 5' RFM that fell off late last Fall.
Two things have limited how much I do at home. One problem is the weather. Any welding / sparking operation must be done outside. I don't have that pole barn I always wanted. Rain is a show stopper, but cold can be tolerated if it isn't too bad.
The main de-motivators were not having a decent work surface and needing to gather tools. The two choices for working surfaces were either plywood on sawhorses or grovelling about on hands and knees on the blacktop. The MIG had a cart, but the clamps, magnets, gloves, extra cords, etc. weren't always handy.
The weather will be whatever comes, but the completion of a welding table a few weeks ago solved most of the problems. It's a 4' x 3' x 3/8" top on an angle frame. Two straight and two caster type wheels and a couple floor locks to make it stay in place. The old Wilton vise is mounted on one corner, and there are places to hang cords and clamps. A shelf holds the MIG and plasma cutter. There's a large drawer made from an unused electrical panel can for consumables, gloves, magnets and often-used smaller tools.
It is so nice to be able to just roll the table out of the garage, plug in and go. After the table itself, the first projects were reassembling a 6' scraper blade (with the factory welds it had, I'm amazed it lasted 15 years), a toothy scraper bar for the FEL and a set of chains for the brush forks to make it self-install. Next up is putting a wheel back on the old 5' RFM that fell off late last Fall.
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