Starting Yet Another Project

This is what the beginning of a new DIY build looks like. Of course, there’s the planning stages, the design stages and finally the acquisition stages where all the raw materials begin to come in. This is the start of the gathering stage, then below, images of starting the build.

Shown in the top photo, fetching material is one of the first steps. Then, cutting the steel into all the necessary pieces. The stack of steel on the trailer is the beginning to the pile of cut parts shown in the next image. It might not look like much yet, but it’s actually a pretty good pile representing a couple days of just cutting and preparing the raw steel.

What will it look like tomorrow? That remains to be seen, but this is the start of our next big project. Over the next few weeks it will take shape and transform. Our DIY build will come from this, and a whole lot more.

The Plastic Side

We talk a lot about fabricating with steel on this website, but that’s not the only material to work with — not by a long shot. This project includes fabricating with wood, aluminum and plastic. (And a bunch of purchased components as well.) No, we won’t be molding any plastic, but we are using plastic pipe for some needed cylindrical pieces.

This stuff is really sewer pipe we picked up from a local supply house, Winwater. The PVC makes a mess of little ‘chips’ when you cut it, but fortunately it vacuums up OK.

This photo shows an attempt with the shop vac to contain some of the obnoxious plastic ‘dust’. All the static from the rotary burr makes the stuff stick to everything.

The little cutouts are not precision, but they actually don’t look too bad. I think these pipes will work just fine once they’re done. Too bad the pipe only comes in shades of puke green. Oh well.

CNC And DIY Build Fabrication

Sometimes the DIY build requires more than the skills and equipment we have. And this is no exception. I certainly wish I had a CNC mill with all the peripherals and accessories, but I don’t. Fortunately, I know a few machinists around town, so getting some special precision parts is only a visit away. Oh, and the money. I guess I shouldn’t overlook that.

More to come later about parts of the project. We’ll use it to illustrate some fun parts of DIY that can make projects more successful. Please come back to read the rest.