Welding forward

I have been until now squatting on the ground or even kneeling on the cold, hard ground to do my welding. The last bit of welding I did though, I supported the work on a chunk of wood. Needless to say, the wood - somewhat inconveniently - kept catching fire and I had to pause to blow the flames out.

Going forward I located two wooden saw horses and placed a steel girder across them. This is the girder that was cut off the hillbilly rear shelf some 2 years ago. The girder has a nice flat area to work on. I can clamp work to it and not worry about it catching fire. The saw horses should be safe as the steel will conduct heat away and dissipate it.

I'm getting just a bit ticked at the people that tut tut at my welding. It reminds me of a conversation I overheard at work. A lady was on a phone call and said "it's no good telling me why I can't or shouldn't do things without telling me how I can do them. It's really not very constructive". Needless to say, everybody listening nodded their heads in agreement. I'm getting the same thing. People, particularly online people that might be trolls or indeed a cunning computer program such as Eliza.

My current plan keeps changing due to doubts these people/programs/trolls have put in my head. I shall have to build a test rig with which to test the strength of my welds. That will require a fulcrum, some calculations and a weight. I hope to test my welds to 300psi. That should be a safe figure that I pretty much plucked from the air.

Each barrel when full will weigh 125.18lbs. The barrel itself probably weighs 15lbs so I'll just estimate a total weight of 150lbs. Assuming hard braking will cause that weight to double, that would be 300lbs. I'll thus test each weld to 300lbs.

In fact, each barrel will be supported by 3 chains or 6 of my welded anchors. Thus the pull per anchor will be 25lbs. As each of the new anchors will be fastened by 4 bolts, each bolt will pull 6.25lbs. Assuming no chain breakage, in a hard stop the pull per bolt will be 12.5lbs. Of course being a CDL driver, I don't do hard stops. I plan my braking in advance and observe other people's regrettable driving.

So, I didn't do a lot today. I set up, ready to do my welding. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get underneath to work though as there are still wasps and fire ants around.

Meanwhile, I hung up some of the mildew scented clothes I brought from Britain. They're hung in the shower of the bus. I figure a few days and the mildew scent will have gone. While I was in the bus, I measured up for a security grill over the driver's window. It seems I need two strips 27 inches long and eight strips 26 inches long. The annoying thing is the strips I can buy are 72 inches long. I can get  54 inches for two strips but have 18 inches totally wasted. That's quite frustrating.

The plan for tomorrow is to complete my welding for the chain terminators and maybe touch up those I've already done.