It's been awhile. Post those projects!

Awesome job TinWhisper. They look better than the original factory units.

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Great looking brackets and tig welds as well.

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Hello, how much cleanup do you have to perform on those 1/4in aluminum? How much bevel do you get? I have a project with 1/4 Alu and I still have not dialed in settings that I consider good enough, it’s a little frustrating. To be clear it’s not the Crossfire, when I cut the equivalent in steel results are very good.

There wasn’t much if and any dross and the bevel was fairly decent. The smaller holes always have a lot more bevel I find than the bigger cutouts.

As far as clean up .

I had to drill out the 5/16 holes so they would fit a fastener.

The flat sides that needed to be welded I could use as is. The rest of the surfaces I hit with the router.

Everything got grained with the surfacer before final assembly and being welded out.

Aluminum is really fickle I find the torch height and feed optimization are crucial for getting crisp cuts and sometimes there’s a little trial and error.

Finer features and points want to round over and evaporate so you got to keep that in mind during your design phase.

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Update on the Land Rover project.
Rolling stock complete, we’ve also added power steering, and now it’s on to the bodywork. Parts are surprisingly plentiful and pleasantly inexpensive.

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Wow, you have been busy!!!

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Oh yeah! …been having quite a bit of fun!
Now were on to the panelwork, hopefully, paint will be flying by late next week.

It’s coming together! :beers:


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Building this for a guy.

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Oh man! …that’s just AWESOME! :beers:

Excellent work ! Very impressive.

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Shots from yesterday’s visit. The resto is full speed ahead and on budget. The power-steering mod looks like it will be very succesful …Suzuki Jimny power-steering box and Opel Astra Electrically operated hydraulic pump from an old police car (a Mopar manufactured product). Using the plasma table to make brackets, and misc stuff on the fly as needed sure moves things along! :beers:

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I apparently only make retirement gifts now. This is for a long time colleague who is retiring this month. He will be starting his retirement rebuilding his barn that burned in one of our huge Colorado wildfires a few years ago. We thought he needed a sign for the new barn when it goes up. 14ga CRS, Copper F/X plating. And @langmuirsystems , torch height control is still INOP.

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What is this “budget” thing of which you speak??? :rofl:

Paid US$3.5k for it and a budget of US$5k to completely refurbish from the ground up. :smile:

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I’m going to have to try that finish. Look great.

My first “real” project on the crossfire; a 2x72" belt grinder. This is just tac welded at his point. It’s a weld together construction using slots and tabs. 1/4" and 1/2" material. I should have it up and running in a week or two. It’s mainly a project to learn how to use the plasma cutter and it’s limits - it’s a modification of a design of one I made on my mill.

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SWEET! …I’ve been meaning to build me one of those belt sanders!

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Howd you do the finish on the bee. Tks in advance

The keeper the bees ring is orbital sanded and clear coated.

To bee itself is orbital sanded, hit with the blowtorch and clear-coated.

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