R8 & 3/4” Shank Tooling Holder

[erikmannie]

This shelf is very flimsy in that it twists. This is not surprising because there is space in between the tubing and shelves (the gaps for what will be my socket welds).

I wondered if it would stabilize a little more if I loaded it up with a bunch of stuff. It still twists. It definitely needs to be welded to fill those gaps.

I put everything that I had that would fit on to the rack. So much of this stuff is from @mattthemuppet2.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

as the vicar said to the nun "that's a beautiful rack"

 

[erikmannie]

Neither bragging or trying to beat a dead horse, annular cutters are the way to go for drilling larger holes without hammering your spindle. I don't understand your fascination with huge tooling but, there's no reason to beat the **** out of your mill using massive drill bits.

Buy a cheap coolant thru arbor and pick up cutters as needed!

I like big tools because I am lazy! My favorite thing to do is weld on coupons; my favorites are thick plate and thick pipe. If I am going to take the time to machine a coupon, I want it to be as thick as possible so I can lay numerous passes & not be bothered to switch out the coupon. I am 100% content being in the welding hood & laying beads.

Annular cutters would have been next on the list, but my family just went from three incomes to one income (not a disaster, my wife and son are going back to school), so I will have to use boring heads for large holes. I am the last person that wants to see any of my equipment damaged.

 

[erikmannie]

My welding table has been out in the weather; it was permanently displaced by a knee style milling machine. I cleaned all the rust off the top, thinking I was going to use that.

I ended up using the fixture stand which makes everything much easier! It did take me a good hour to get it all fixtured it up.

 

[erikmannie]

No way I wanted to try to weld .025” tubing to .250” sheet. No thanks! I will never find out how many holes I would have blown because I am bronze brazing from here on out. The inside of the tubing has rust and oil.

As you know, with brazing there is almost a 0% chance of melting the parent metal.

I am using these:




I started with 1/16”, & that is fine so far.

LFBFC stands for “low fuming bronze, flux coated”.

I am using a 00 tip. I always use oxyacetylene.




I really enjoy brazing because of the low stress as a result of not having to worry too much about blowing a hole.

 

[erikmannie]

Everything was going great until I ran out of oxygen. When I brought out the spare tank, I was horrified to learn that it was empty, as well. Of course, I ran out of oxygen while I was tack brazing the last socket joint.

I cleaned off the flux with warm water, a wire brush, I used a small regular screwdriver as a chisel, & finally followed up with a small stainless brush. I will have to get off the rest of the flux with a wire wheel.









The brazing is easy if you have a clean tip. I had to stop & clean the 00 tip about 40 times for the 11 seams.

The dried flux is definitely a PITA.

I was very happy to see that the stand was not twisted. I have not yet checked how level the shelves are.

 

[erikmannie]

I finally finished. I brazed the last joint, & then I had to *completely* redo one brazed joint where the faced down .120” sheet had failed & pulled up from the sheet that it was (no longer) seam welded to.

For the repair, I used Gasflux products:

Type “B” paste flux:

Gasflux Type "B" Bronze Paste Flux - 1lb jar

Gasflux Type "B" Bronze Paste Flux 1lb steel brass bronze brazing

framebuildersupply.com

and 1/16” C-04 which is a glorified low fuming bronze:

Gasflux C-04 Nickel Bronze Rod - 1/16" - 1lb

Gasflux C-04 nickel bronze rod - 1/16" - 1lb fillet braze steel

framebuildersupply.com

This filler rod is friggin’ amazing! The two products above are formulated to work with one another. Everybody should really try these.

About 10 hours of filing & sanding with an orbital sander followed that.

After I took these photos, I coated the whole thing in way oil.

 

[erikmannie]

Here are the bottom sides (steel frame bolted to aluminum plate):

 

[erikmannie]

Here are the brazed joints that turned out okay:

 

[mattthemuppet2]

wowsers, that's a beautiful piece of work Erik. I'm sure you'll get a glow of satisfaction everytime you pick up or put something back in it!