Machine Builders Network+ Forums Machine Builders Network General Discussion What odd jobs did you do today?

I made a tool I will probably never use, for the fun of it.

It's a rotating welding ground for when you are welding something on rollers. I guess a couple of roller stands is probably next, eh?

Start with this excellent video from Kurtis over at Cutting Edge Engineering in AU:


There are two very big differences between his and mine. He does a lot of high power welding into the 500A range. I rarely get much over 150. Secondly, my junkpile doesn't look like his, so I based mine with what I had on hand. Also, mine is very much a hack job. First, a "napkin" sketch:


I had some 1/2" aluminum plate, it has hard anodize on the faces so I kind of wanted to leave that. Since I had some bits of scrap copper roof flashing, I thought those might be good for the actual contact surfaces instead. I traced a soup can (shop pencil holder) for 3" circles, leaving a couple of "tails" to be bent up later.

I cut two aluminum circles with a 3" hole saw, then drilled the center out 27/64 and tapped them 1/2-13. Threaded those on a bolt with a washer between them so I could deburr the edges on the lathe without unmounting them. Turned the outsides until they just cleaned up. Removed from bolt and drilled one out 5/8 for 5/8-1/2 flanged bronze bushing, which was pushed in with the vise.

To mount the flashing rounds I cut a couple of flats about 3/4" wide on 2 edges of both disks, then cleaned that up with a file, being sure to round over the "inside" corners so they wouldn't tear the copper. Drilled the copper 1/2" and sandwiched them between the disks, then filed them down to the level of the disks, except the tabs which were bent over into the flats. I had inset the flats a little so hopefully the edges of the copper won't cut your hands as you handle it.

I then drilled a pair of 1/8" holes in each tab and anchored them with screws. I used self-tappers because I was impatient. One more cleanup with files of the excess on the tabs.

Then, assembly, like so.



All that filing messed up the turned surface of the disks, I think if I make more of these I will try to find a better way to do that step.

Have fun, and between mine and Kurtis's maybe you'll be inspired to make one.