Bad Ass Saw

Cutting steel in many shapes and sizes is pretty easy today with the right equipment. I’ve cut it by hand with a hack saw. Cut it with a sawzall and a metal blade. A grinder with a cutting wheel. For years most of our cutting was done with an abrasive chop saw. It’s noisy, throws sparks, creates smoke and dirt all over the shop.



These days we use what is called a cold saw. It’s much like a miter saw that you might cut wood with but slower speed and coolant to keep the blade sharp and cool. It cuts accurately and clean without the mess.



This little video is pretty interesting if you are into tools or have never seen how a cold saw functions. That's me on the bike in the intro. Our saw is a Baileigh and we are really happy with it. Cuts steel like warm butter.



Spent the day working on the Show Gig again today. I’m working on the final assembly of the chassis itself. The shafts are obviously wood but they are lined with 1 ½” x ¼” steel plate on the bottom side. I’m in the process of fastening that steel to the shafts. I’m drilling and installing bolts in this shot.



Here is a close up view of a body mount. At this point it is just a rod tack welded onto the steel. Once we have all the holes drilled we will remove the steel plate one more time to weld the mount solid as well as add a bracket to fasten the body.



At the intersections of the cross braces we add a short dogleg of steel on the bottom side as a reinforcement. We have four main joints in the shaft frame and I have those parts cut and ready to install.



Here is one of those pieces. It is clamped in place and ready to tack weld. Once again this will be welded solid to the main frame when it is removed from the wood. This shot is taken from the floor looking up under the frame.



And here we have some wheels. These roller bearing wheels are now painted deep maroon. Our client selected the maroon in combination with black and a gold fine line stripe which will be very sharp. These wheels will sit for a few days before they are trimmed in black and striped in gold.

Hope you all had a great Wednesday. I never really managed to get myself out of the shop today other than to walk up to the mailbox.

Ciao!
T