The ‘RAITH Party Cart….

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Another trick but mainly for mig welding. There are spray cans of stuff to use to prevent the welding dingle balls from sticking to the gun and also what you're working on. Use "Pam" food spray or equivelant. Wd40 would probably work in a pinch but is more expensive. I'll have to try Pam next time I'm cutting aluminum....

 

[Rick W]

Another trick but mainly for mig welding. There are spray cans of stuff to use to prevent the welding dingle balls from sticking to the gun and also what you're working on. Use "Pam" food spray or equivelant. Wd40 would probably work in a pinch but is more expensive. I'll have to try Pam next time I'm cutting aluminum....

I strongly contemplated getting a wire welder, a cheap one from Harbor freight, a couple of years ago with all the projects in front of me. My main thought was learning how to weld aluminum. Fortunately, I was talked out of that.

I bought some of those aluminum brazing rods, but I haven’t even tried them yet. I think I could build this whole thing with nuts and bolts in the same amount of time it would take me to learn how to weld 6 inches. And regardless of how great my technique became, my shaky hands would still make it look like a wandering Stream. Plus, I’m looking forward to the whole drill and tap fabricate erector set thing. Again, no practical purpose to any of those.

I’m also at that point in my journey that taking on big new tasks just for the sake of taking them on is not as appealing as it was about 55 or 60 years ago…

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've used aluminum stick welding rids with oxy/acetylene. It worked the one time I needed it to. I've not done any other aluminum welding. I have had a welder capable for years but no real need... Soon tho, as the Pinto bumpers are aluminum and need fixing.
If you try welding aluminum you need to make sure the aluminum is cleaned, and recently. Aluminum oxidizes very quickly and the oxidation is at a much higher melting point.

 

[Rick W]

Having finished up the Town Cart and being stumped on the Missing Linc lights, I shifted to the ‘Raith. Mostly measuring and thinking out the aluminum and spacing. I want it as short as possible, but comfortable to use.

I think I have the spacing figured out, but it makes my head hurt, so I’m going to put everything down on the driveway for a sort of test drive, use boxes or boards to mimic the fenders, then snap chalk lines down on the brick, measure and reverse engineer. A picture is worth 1000 calculations…

First step was I used the stick and aluminum angle drop from the Town Cart method to figure out the tongue angles and mostly the length of channel I’ll need in front of the bends.

Came out at 62”. I’ll still cut them a little long, and when it’s all going together, I’ll trim off the excess. I have a very stout steel plate, bent 90°, to mount the lunette ring assembly. Think of a 3/8 plate that’s 12 x 12, folded 1/3 of the way across. It was laying in the middle of an access ramp to interstate 285, and I couldn’t resist flipping on the code 3 lights, and stopping and picking it up (that, and it could’ve really messed up somebody’s car or truck if they rode over it). That was probably three years ago.

Ran out of energy, but I was so “energized” by getting so many of the checklist items done, I actually cleaned up a lot of my mess before I came in (that’s rare).

After that, the next step is to take the tub out of the Casket so I can take the handles off to paint it all.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Today was a day of cleaning up after other tasks, and getting ready for the next batch.

Like I said, I had the thought to cut up my aluminum beam instead of moving it back and forth. Who can tell me what’s wrong with this picture?

View attachment 107611View attachment 107612

Okay, pictures.

Quality has gone down the tubes. I bought that old blade about 15 years ago, and I just checked it about 10 years ago, and look, trouble already!!! Look at the chunk out of it!!!! So I got the harbor freight version and tried it.

The harbor freight blade was about 2/3 the width of the old blade, and had more teeth, which actually helped: less material to cut. And it had the interrupter slices at 90°, to blow out built up material But the teeth were about the same width as the blade. The old blade had much wider teeth.

@alwaysFlOoReD ‘s WD-40 suggestion worked perfect. Definitely cut better than the old blade. Without the WD-40, the new blade quickly seized up on the sides, and gummed up the teeth so it didn’t want to dig/cut. Twice I had to wedge it out with a crowbar, but then it worked when I used to WD-40 on every cut.

Something interesting was that it definitely took more energy, heated up the saw, slowed me down, however you want to say it, when I was cutting through a weld instead of just cutting through a piece of aluminum. Part of me wants to say it’s just because the weld was thicker material, but it seemed like it was harder. Inquiring minds would like to know if anybody has any info on this.

Anywho, I cut the channels apart, and then I cut them into 50 inch sections (cross pieces for the ‘Raith). 50 inches is wider than the widest I can imagine, and I can cut them to precise length on the chopsaw and end up with the precise cut.

The new blade didn’t cut perfect, but it did a much better job. All the flat/cut surfaces are facing inwards, but I’ll still clean them up. The 50 inch pieces are much more manageable than the 22 foot pieces. I plan to set up my tablesaw with a guide that’s just a hair wider than the 1-1/2” channel depth, and shave off the ugly parts remaining from the spacers. Even though it faces internally, I’m still thinking of grinding it, or doing something to get a more consistent surface, but that may be a dream.

For the first time in months, I moved the sawhorses aside, picked up all the drop pieces, welding leads, and extension cords on that side of my driveway, and blew all the shavings off the bricks. Tomorrow I will pull out the Town Cart and finish it.

Baby steps…

I have never used a fancy finishing blade before, I recently put that blade on my circular saw so I didn't tear up the plywood deck for my sleeping platform.

I kinda want to say it plain didn't want to cut. Very slow going. Maybe that is how they all are but it was not a good time.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I have never used a fancy finishing blade before, I recently put that blade on my circular saw so I didn't tear up the plywood deck for my sleeping platform.

I kinda want to say it plain didn't want to cut. Very slow going. Maybe that is how they all are but it was not a good time.

Make sure its not on backwards... lol

 

[Rick W]

I’m sure you know this, just worth mentioning for those coming up in the ranks. A lot of folks think you want to set the blade very deep so the teeth are almost at a 90° angle towards what’s being cut. False, the opposite is true. When cutting anything, you actually want the blade to just barely pass through the material being cut.

Having said that, the biggest thing I noticed on the HF blade is that the teeth ore just a hair wider than the steel blade itself. On my old blade (name obliterated), I bet those teeth six out 1/32” on either side, so it’s hard to bind the blade.

I don’t see why you couldn’t use @alwaysFlOoReD ‘s WD-40 trick, unless you’re worried about the residual odor for a sleeping platform.

 

[Rick W]

Make sure its not on backwards... lol

If the blades on backwards, you just have to cut it from the bottom side, I think

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^ yes, blade only goes past by 1/2 tooth depth.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Years ago I got the Titanium Unlimited 200 welder and a spool gun with the thoughts of welding aluminum. I didn't get that far until a few months ago, I still have learning to do as it's very different than steel... it goes very fast and is very hard to be consistent... The house number sign that the county made me buy from the county when I got my permit for the shop got ran over a couple years ago and I first tried that soldering stuff which seemed to work ok but did break again so I melted all that off and fired up the spool gun and it's now one piece again... one of these days I'll get learned up gooder and weld a swim platform to the back of my boat but that's for another day...

 

[Rick W]

Years ago I got the Titanium Unlimited 200 welder and a spool gun with the thoughts of welding aluminum. I didn't get that far until a few months ago, I still have learning to do as it's very different than steel... it goes very fast and is very hard to be consistent... The house number sign that the county made me buy from the county when I got my permit for the shop got ran over a couple years ago and I first tried that soldering stuff which seemed to work ok but did break again so I melted all that off and fired up the spool gun and it's now one piece again... one of these days I'll get learned up gooder and weld a swim platform to the back of my boat but that's for another day...

I know from my engineering and from leading the fabrication crews over the years that “pure” aluminum oxidizes instantaneously. All the welders have always told me that cleaning the aluminum is the hardest part of welding the aluminum. I’m the walking example of you can understand the process, but that doesn’t mean you can do it yourself. It’s like playing Mozart if you know how to read music and you know which key is which on the piano, but the music comes out from a zillion years of practice and application.

I’m going to drill, tap and bolt…

 

[Rick W]

I was going stir crazy at the desk, so Lincoln and I went over to Harbor Freight and got a couple things, but they were all out of those special kits for disassembling a casket. I decided to do it anyway.

I took the gasket off from around the box, and took all the screws out that hold the galvanized tub in (about 20). Long story short, I had to wedge it up on each end a half inch at a time because it was stuck in so tight with the Styrofoam insulation.

I used the kids’ blocks method. I’d pry it up a little bit where I could get the next size block under one end edge, and then go to the other end and do the same thing - for more than an hour!

I didn’t want to bend anything, and the galvanized tub was much heavier steel than the 18 gauge Casket steel (which is very heavy duty for a Casket). As flimsy as it seems, I fooled with a couple of caskets before, and this one’s actually built pretty solid (for a one use casket).

It really didn’t come loose until the bottom was within about an inch of the top of the box, but I did get it out.

There was about three-quarter inch thick Styrofoam glued to all sides of the galvanized tub, and then inside the box, there was another 1 inch all the way around, and then there was special cut and formed Styrofoam in the curved parts of the box. The galvanized tub was solid as a rock and in great shape. Really pretty well done. I had to pull enough of that loose so I could get to the nuts on the back sides of the handles. I was trying to do it so I didn’t bust up the Styrofoam pieces. I was about 80% successful.

The clear coat on the outside of the box is flaking a little bit from sitting in the sun, but the outside is in great shape. Unfortunately, there is surface corrosion (not too bad) on the inside, so I’m going to have to pull all that Styrofoam out, do a quick brushing, and then bathe it with some restoleum. It shouldn’t be too bad since it doesn’t matter what it looks like, and the Styrofoam is only spot glued, so I can probably save most of it. I’m not disappointed or surprised because it’s kind of a short term one use item. I need to beef it up a little bit if it’s going to last a while.

So I got the handles out, and I have them all apart. The casket is going to be gloss black and regal red like the Missing Linc, but I want to do an accent color on the handles (I think), and maybe a pin stripe (not the bright yellow), something more somber in keeping with the theme.

The handles and corner pieces are kind of intricate (heavy pot metal, but nice detailed design), with rose gold inserts in the middle.

Those inserts are a thin aluminum pressed with a design with roses. A couple are a little damaged, but I’m going to try to keep them*. Right now I’m thinking of making my accent color by simply mixing the black and the red to make a maroon that works with that rose gold, that will obviously blend with the black and red it’s made from.

*(And I just joked yesterday about being a girly man. Well, I have to go to the beauty supply to get some rose gold nail polish to touch up the inserts.)

I’ll just leave it at that…..

 

[Rick W]

I had to work the sheet metal where the handles bolt through a little bit. Again, it’s all designed for picking it up and putting it down a half dozen times, not for a dozen years. Fortunately, the handle assemblies are big enough to cover it, so that I won’t have to do much more body work other than straighten it out a little bit. I’m going to add some stout reinforcement on the inside/backside, so it won’t bend again.

The two handles on the end were a little damaged also, so I reinforced them with the superglue/baking soda trick after I straightened them out a little bit. I didn’t want to bang on them too hard because they are just pot metal. All the handle assemblies are the same, so I’ll put those two repaired ones in the middle of the long handles on the side, and put the two best ones on the ends.

There are a couple small dings I’m going to have to Bondo, but the next step is actually to flip it upside down and make sure the bottom is in good shape, and paint it or put undercoat on it, so it will last. Then the Bondo, sand it all, and Rustoleum…

 

[Rick W]

Skies are supposed to open up today and tomorrow in Hotlanta, so it looks like I’ll be working on the handles inside.

I did have the thought that if any of you guys are having trouble working on your caskets, the Road Ranger’s step trailer is an ideal work platform for something that large. If you think about the size of the insert in kind, you could work on two of them at the same time. If you want me to send the dimensions to help you with your caskets, just let me know.

 

[sgtsandman]

Skies are supposed to open up today and tomorrow in Hotlanta, so it looks like I’ll be working on the handles inside.

I did have the thought that if any of my you guys are having trouble working on your caskets, the Road Ranger’s step trailer is an ideal work platform for something that large. If you think about the size of the insert in mind, you could work on two of them at the same time. If you want me to send the dimensions to help you with your caskets, just let me know.

A thought came to mind and you may have already answered it. How do you plan to secure this thing to the trailer? Bolt it to the deck or strap it down?