Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

Oxy-Acetylene Storage Cage

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Spurry:
Looking good, Andrew. Very interested to see what sort of high security is involved to keep those outrageously-expensive-to-rent   :bugeye: cylinders safe from marauding hordes.

awemawson:
It's a safety thing rather than security. If you have cylinders in your workshop and have a fire, the brigade declare an exclusion zone round the building and let it burn down, and also prevent you entering to save anything.

It's a sensible precaution anyway to have them outside and only bring them in while being used. I am quite keen though to make it so that a tea leaf cannot use the oxy-acetylene to break into the main workshop, so a bit of physical security will be incorporated.

The frame has been made from box tube that I had to hand (thanks Pete Rimmer) and is very much over specified for the job.

The frame alone without the cladding will weigh about 100 kg

Pete.:
That box section was a handrail around the flat roof of a 100m tall building so it had to be chunky stuff :D

Glad it's going to good use now :)

awemawson:
Today's objective was to pallatise the frame, lift it high enough to be able to easily access the lower bits that still needed the paint sanding off, and hopefully poke it just inside the doors of the welding shop to allow me to use my MIG welder  to fix the hinges (wind still extremely strong)

So I started by moving the other junk off the loading bay (a scrap apple bin waiting for the next bonfire, and my old retired flail mower that's waiting for a coat of paint and a new owner).

Then lifting using the forklift I lowered it onto a standard euro pallet then realised that this meant that the weight at the front was taken on the doors that were only clamped on using wood working clamps! I slipped a pair of timbers under so the weight was then taken a bit further back allowing the removal of the doors.

Stripping the remaining paint was relatively simple as I could raise the frame to a convenient height and avoid too much back bending.

A quick measure up confirmed that the widened pallet would just squeeze through the welding shop sliding door if the bits of equipment at the front were pushed out of the way. Having done that I thought that a few test welds with the MIG were in order to set the sweet spot for this thickness of metal.

It was at this point I noticed that I was practically out of Argon  :bang:

(I've been using straight argon to save renting two cylinders (TIG & MIG)  - Now I have (a very expensive) account with BOC and in fairness this is  only the second time in the last 13 years that I've had to order a replacement size 'W' cylinder, but my goodness don't they take you to the cleaners. This time I ordered a 'W size' in Argoshield Universal, and returned the straight Argon - £78 for the gas with the VAT but £161 with delivery and all the other gubbins that they add on. This is Micky taking in my opinion.  :bugeye: And they have the cheek to charge £127 per annum rental as well

Surprisingly they are still offering 'next business day' (so probably Tuesday) delivery in these days of lock down so things might slow down a bit until the gas arrives.

awemawson:
Still unbelievably windy, hail stones and bally cold here so definitely a day for inside jobs.

Specifically to cut the mesh for the doors to size and experiment with ways of fixing it on. First a major tidy up to create enough floor space for a pair of trestles and the doors could be brought indoors to dry off a bit.

The 2" square mesh just happened to be a very nice fit when trimmed so that no bits of wire poked out, ie I was able to keep 'full squares'. I decided to mount the mesh on the inside of the doors, firstly to leave the outside of the frames clear to weld the hinges and lock hasp to, and secondly to give a neater appearance.

But how to fix them? Both the frame and the mesh are galvanised, so welding is problematic - metal strips and pop rivets? -  penny washers and bolts? - both methods possible but time consuming and fiddly.

Now in the past I have successfully spot welded 1.2 mm galvanised sheets together - could it be possible with 2.5 mm wire and 50 mm  4 mm thick box section. I did an experiment with a bit of 3 mm fencing wire and amazingly yes it could  :clap:

Setting a frame of one of the doors on trestles I was reluctant to commit until I'd proved it with a mesh off cut, but all was well so every other peripheral wire in the mesh was spot welded to the 50 mm box. It undoubtedly weakens the mesh where it is squeezed for the welding but it is still adequately strong (I think  :scratch:)

So now both doors are done I need to source a suitable padlock hasp and staple, weld on the hinges and base hold down  plates before giving it a few coats of JCB Yellow that happens to be on the shelf. Once painted the galvanised sheet cladding will be cut to size and pop riveted on  but probably not painted.

. . . .a bit blowy and rainy for painting at the moment !

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