Winter Contest Project# 1 from Sportbiket. Category: General Welding repair

I am a volunteer at my local Fire Department, and sometimes repair or fabricate things to save cost. It's basically my way of fund raising. A penny saved is a penny earned (or in most cases, lots of pennies...)

This time, the light tower on one of our trucks was damaged by a rouge tree limb. I have the whole positioner assembly torn apart and I am waiting on some replacement parts from the manufacturer. The arms that hold the lights were bent. The cost for new arms from the manufacturer was $525 each.

Total cost for the material for the arm repair was about $25 for a small 3ft length of 1X3X1/8 rectangular aluminum tube.

I cut the original apart and made the new parts with my miter saw with an 80 tooth carbide finish/moulding blade. This blade works well with aluminum and still works just as it did on day 1 with wood / trim as well.

Holes were all put in with my small drill press using conventional twist drills and a step drill (which I had to modify to shorten to get access for the larger holes). The large holes are for bolt access and for plastic plugs to keep water out as well as a few grommets for wiring.

Welding was done with a 3/32 2% lan tungsten, 3/32 5356 filler, about 7 lpm argon. I'm not sure on the current as I just turned it up and used the pedal. It was 27 degrees in the garage this morning, so I had to hit it hard at first and taper off quite a bit as it heated up.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...t_Tower008.jpg
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http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...t_Tower002.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...t_Tower001.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...t_Tower014.jpg
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Well Done!

And nice job of documenting the project.

That nomad table looks like the cat's meow for clamping up corners, good stuff.

Thanks for the tour,

Jim

A tip of the welding cap to you- first for volunteering and then for bringing outside talent to the immediate benefit of the department. Saving $500 over retail is some pretty serious bucks! I'm going to keep that tip about the carbide moulding blade in my back pocket too.

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Originally Posted by JimMinKent

Well Done!

And nice job of documenting the project.

That nomad table looks like the cat's meow for clamping up corners, good stuff.

Thanks for the tour,

Jim

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It actually works pretty well. It could certainly stand to be about twice as thick on the materials of course, but that said, it would also be nice to have a heavy setup table with all of the modular fixture options known to man.

It is nice for smaller jobs, which is pretty much all I really do.

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Originally Posted by DaveO

A tip of the welding cap to you- first for volunteering and then for bringing outside talent to the immediate benefit of the department. Saving $500 over retail is some pretty serious bucks! I'm going to keep that tip about the carbide moulding blade in my back pocket too.

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Thanks Dave. I am a Mechanical Engineer and I often get involved with some projects that most folks would just buy new to replace as they would never have the confidence to "open the box and see what's inside".

This part of the repair was about a $1000 savings for the department. The rest of it will cost about $1300 in parts, but that will net probably another $1000+ in savings.

We have insurance of course, and it woudl have paid for this. The cost of the insurance is quite high as it is and unless it isn't practical, we usually don't turn in the "smaller" stuff.

These days you can barely scratch the surface of getting a new truck for under $250k, most are more in the range of $350+. Can;t really blame the insurance companies on the rates when the trucks are covered for full replacement value.

We have a 1986 American LaFrance that was purchased form a department in Carnegie PA. The truck was in a flood. The whole thing was stripped and repainted in-house (it was robin egg blue). The driveline parts were torn down, flushed adn re-lubed and the rear end was cleaned and re-lubed by a truck repair facility as a precaution.

The truck body is all stainless (othe than the top portion of the cab which is plain carbon) and it has a 400HP Detroit Diesel engine in it.

All told, I believe the total costs was about $35k including purchase of the truck. This is one of the last "real" trucks made as today they really aren't as heavy and robust. Even the Seagrave trucks which are quite nice, just aren't as robust, and repair costs are high. This truck has all mechanical pump operations, which I can repair or fab parts for as opposed to electronic, remote console operation.
The LaFrance was done before I move into town, but I have since added an extended front bumper to it to house the rescue tools.
It will need periodic maintenance or repairs, but will probably be around for another 20 years and will still pump with anything out there (and the sound of the Detroit can't be beat either).

I'm really not all that into the part of "being a fire fighter" (although I am the Asst Chief). I do it more because there is a need and I am able to do it.

Unlike quite few of the guys / girls involved with the department who are really into it, I truly wish the whistle (which I re-wired as well) would never blow again.

Good ya again! Saving a fistful of dollars and not giving the insurance company the excuse to raise rates next time around. Let's hope the finance guys in your town appreciate your contribution!

In my county fire trucks come up at auction every now and again- I was thinking that might be of interest to you but from your description your American LaFrance will be around for quite a while. Do volunteer fire groups get first pick when trucks are available? (Or maybe the question is, *shouldn't* they get first dibs.)

I've worked on several fire trucks for volunteer fire departments. I worked for a company that would build tankers with a dump valve so they could dump the water and go back for more. One volunteer fire department was given the tank from an old gas truck. We took it and cut out all the compartments, ran 4" black iron pipe, and plumbed everything up. It was hard work welding pipe under that truck. That's a cool thing about volunteer fire departments; they get all types of stuff donated, and will make a fire truck out of just about anything.

This thread makes for some very interesting reading! My hats off too for volunteer firefighters and those who support them. Nice project and you certainly made very good use of your skills and your welder's capabilities.

I still get calls from our dept for repairs and lumber they need for trucks and projects at the station.
I was a volunteer fire fighter and water rescue boat operator for 7 years until health issues ordered a stop to both. Our department had some nice equipment and some old also .We now have 3 pumpers one with a 105' stick and just got a new rescue truck, Our water truck was a Freightliner chassis 400 hp 9 speed with a 3500 gallon milk tank converted over with a dump valve to fill porta tanks. I hauled many a load of water in that truck. Our main water rescue truck was an old D250 dodge club cab with an enclosed service body on the back for all our gear, we stored our inflatable raft on top of the service body. That wasreally a ride you did not know what to expect from it.That truck had been passed around from the Air Force to so many other organizations it had about 30 holes in the roof of the cab from light bars being mounted. It served well until we passed it on and gained a newer vehicle from the local sheriffs dept.