Yesterday I was so tired and busy that I forgot to blog. Anyway just to make up for it, a brief blog entry. The weather looks a trifle inclement today so there's not much likely to be done today. The leaden clouds hanging overhead look likely to dump copious quantities of rain on me. Not good for using electric welders or when handling bare steel.
The first thing done was to complete the cutting for the wooden template for the bottom back window. That looks pretty good now. It's deliberately undersized though it is a bit tight in some places and might need more trimmed off the side.
Looking inside where I'd welded the fridge steel I can see a little rust. This is exacerbated by the fact I was having severe problems welding thin fridge steel. The solution I came up with is to cut the wooden template then make a steel border onto which I can weld or braise the fridge steel. Then I can weld the border into the aperture and have less difficulty.
I started by making two parts of the border frame - the long sides, top and bottom. The welds look a lot nicer than they did when I was using an AC welder. I have to say this Harbor Freight DC welder does a very good job. This is the $130 DC Chicago Electric welder on 70A using 6011 rods (hence the splatter).
I didn't complete building the frame yesterday. I'd been having quite a challenging day. If it was possible to drop something I did drop it. If it wasn't possible, I dropped it anyway. Cables and so on were all tied up in knots that took forever to undo. I really wasn't having a good day.
That's what the frame will look like when completed. The top and bottom are done. I've not yet welded the sides in place. I will have to trim the top and bottom a shade as they seem to have grown to be 1/4 inch wider than the aperture.
The square steel blocks are there to help with the curvature. I'll have to cut curves on the edges to fit the window frame. Only Carpenter would have curved edges to their windows! The welding has been done one-sided only. Two of the blocks are not quite right - they're at a slight angle. Not a huge angle but over the 3 inches there's about a 1/32 - 1/64 difference. It's probably not worth cutting them off to try again though that would help solve the over width problem. I could cut out the 1/4 inch from the welded side and reweld. I think the steel angle I'd clamped the work to might have had a blob of paint on it or something similar so it got welded crooked. Nothing is insoluable.
While I was welding that lot I remembered how much the materials cost me and then remembered what the local metals place had quoted me...
I'd been after very thick steel that time. I'm betting I could get thinner steel - perhaps 12 gauge for a lot less and I'd want to save money by cutting it myself. I could probably even get away with 14 gauge. That I know I can weld with 1/16th rods on 20A. The aluminium was for the now abandoned project to put the solar panel on the front of the bus. That was a daft idea from the start. That was daft when I put the original panel up there. Just putting a pair of 30W panels inside the windshield is perfectly adequate.
Anyway the materials for the frame to which I'd have to weld the fridge steel came to about $40. Had I realized at the time when I was in the store what the alternatives were, I'd have probably instead picked up a sheet of steel. No matter though. I've just made an inquiry about 12 and 14 gauge and about getting a single piece that I can simply cut rather than buying it pre-cut.
I'll proceed on with my frame for the bottom window but might well end up putting 12 or 14 gauge steel instead. The steel I bought will not go to waste though. I now have something I can build a battery compartment from for my forthcoming lithium battery pack. If the cells catch fire inside a 1/8 inch thick steel box, they're not going to do much damage!
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