Project #3 from Spike : Spare Tire Modular Tool Stands
Hey folks, time for me to start the thread on my third project.
If you're a mechanic, or have a lot of customized vehicles around... you end up amassing certain items... one of them being spare tires (donuts), and empty steel rims. This is a little thing that i do around my shop to both recycle some of the parts that gather in the corners and clutter up things, and to get more usable space out of my small square footage.
All my larger equipment is on wheels, and it occured to me that my toolstands, too, could be mobile, if i put them on wheels. So i set to work cutting up some steel scraps i had around the shop and set to making modular tool stands.
The bases of the stands are just two spare tires i had in the shop.
The uprights and 'high stress' bits are 2" .250" wall square steel tubing i had laying around the shop.
I used some 1/2" grade 8 nuts and bolts that i had laying around
and the holders fittings are made from 1.5" .120" wall square steel tubing.
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...23225021_m.jpg
The red stand was sort of a test, and i put it together in a hurry without taking many pictures (because i needed to use it right away)... but the black one i took the time to snap some pictures of in the process.
The first step was to weld the square tube to the steel rim of the spare tire. I did this quick and dirty with the Mig welder... since i didn't want to take all the time to clean and prep the area for tig welding and such... and the weld doesn't really hold any real force.
The 2" square tube slides nicely into the center hole of the rim and touches on all the corners. I just bridge and fill the gaps with the mig welder (also hammering flat the stamped ridge to fill in some of the gap). When i did this, i set the end of the square tube flat on the floor, and welded the rim around it. This makes the stand very sturdy, since it's the 1/4" wall tubing set firmly on the concrete that is supporting the load of work you are doing, and the rim is just holding the stand vertical. Otherwise, when doing heavy hammering the rim will start to fall in and break or bend.
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...24171521_m.jpg
Next i cut off a few 5" long sections of the 2" tubing in the bandsaw to use as the holder portion of the toolholder. I drilled some 9/16" holes in 2 of the sides and welded 1/2" nuts over them. (important to note: i like to use grade 8 bolts when i'm doing stuff like this, because the threads tend to not warp out of true. Also, an easy tip is to use a 1/2" bolt threaded through the nut to properly locate the nut over the drilled hole).
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...24170319_m.jpg
There was some stuff on the metal that burned off while welding, but it didn't affect the weld at all. (perhaps i didn't get all the galvanized coating off, or some of the pickle finish is still on the tubing). Once it's all cooled and cleaned it's time to connect the fixture to the upright.
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...24171217_m.jpg
