More work on the bender kills a chopsaw

So this week's episode began Monday with the material order not showing up. Jeremy pulled some strings to get us an awesome deal on the material, but we ended up having to pick it up ourselves. So Soren and I rented a 20ft snowmobile trailer and drove to Eagan to get the material. It didn't look as impressive as I thought it would, but 22ft lengths of 1.75" tubing is pretty heavy. Not to mention 12ft lengths of 1", 1.5" and 2" OD bar stock. Let the good times roll!


Also showing up on Wednesday was the die set! Thank you UPS!

Then Thursday night, Caz and Matt finished up milling the big parts and turning down the bushings. Hopefully the lead content in the 12L14 steel gives our shafts some nice lubrication. GD that sounds dirty. Sorry.

Next up, Discount Steel finally finished putting together my order. And they STILL didn't get it right. But whatever, I got what I needed, including a 28"x48"x3/8" plate to make a welding table. Luckily the manwagon has a spacious storage compartment.

Here's el Jeffe putting the wheels on the table. Almost time to stand 'er up and check it out. Note, the camera is in focus, there's just that much haze and weld smoke in the air.

And here's what we got done on Saturday. A rolling, flat, table of awesomeness. All set and ready to begin welding the important stuff on Sunday.

Well we thought it was done, turns out we had a few more finishing touches to put on. Here Jeff's welding on the last of our hooks for holding all our welding tools, hammers, squares, brushes, etc.

And here's the final resting place for the Harbor Freight chopsaw. You lived a good life, but couldn't quite handle all the 2"x2"x1/4" box steel I was making you cut. You'll be remembered, but of course replaced with something awesomer that'll be tax deductibe.

Now for some final shots. Had to air out the garage a bit to get some clear shots, but here are some views of the welding table and the beginning parts of the bender. As soon as the new saw arrives, I'll make a couple 45 degree cuts and we'll be finishing up the bender in the no time. Hopefully by this time next week we'll have our first bent material!