Well im back!

[Tatey]

After not doing any work on my car for the past month and a half I am finally back. The main reason for not getting in the garage was because I decided to take up snowboarding which as i've recently found out is an expensive past time! But I've being paid and it's warmed up so i'm eager to make some more progress!

First thing is first I have decided to sort out my work bench. When I moved everything down from Newcastle I had to make a new work bench due to having no where to work. I hastily made it from 30x30x3mm steel angle, and the legs are floppier than a floppy thing, I originally wanted it all to be disassemblable but after I discovered how much the table wobbled I welded a load of bracing, which helped improve the situation but it was still far from ideal.

So today I have ordered 6m of 50x50x1.5 ERW box section and set to work on making the 24 steel plates required for the legs. It is all going to be bolted together with m12 and m8 bolts, with recessed steel plates so that all looks nice to the eye. It is also going to have height adjustable feet so that no matter what floor it is sitting on I can have it flat and level. Finally the feet will have a 3mm solid rubber bottom to prevent them from damaging my new flooring and to help absorb shock. Safe to say I am going to take my time to get it all right first time. So that is my task for the rest of the week and the entire weekend. I will try to take photos as I go in case anyone is inspired by my design.

I will also be order 16 new wheel studs tomorrow from my local ford parts department so that I can have the chassis back on wheels. Next on the list is to get the steering column mounts sorted, they have been made, they just need to be positioned. Then i will be cutting out the middle member so that I can trial fit the gearbox.

[Tatey]

Well I've picked up all of my wheel studs and once I've cleaned up all of my hubs and painted them I'll be getting into fitting them.

Yesterday I picked up the 50x50 box for my work bench, and I've been continuing to make the steel plates to hold it all together. I've made all of the plates needed for the feet, however when I came to weld the nuts onto 4 of the plates for the adjustable feet, I'd found my house mate has used all of my welding gas, as well as breaking my 3mm drill bit and M3 tap. Safe to say I'm not happy as its been over a week since he's worked in the garage and he could have told me that he used all of my gas as it tends to be a right pain to get hold of co2 so I could have organised getting some earlier on.

I may however take the opportunity to change to argon mix, however this also means I will need to buy a new reg for £30.

But my work bench is definitely progressing and I'm really impressed with it so far.

[HandyAndy]

Welcome back Tatey

Sounds like your workbench will last you a lifetime once its done, nice one mate.

As for your housemate using up all your gas......was he actually welding with it or just wasting it for the sake of it or making fizzy drinks etc? ....not good that he didn,t tell you tho

cheers
andy