Furnace Dolly Build

Discussion in 'Foundry tools and flasks' started by OCD, Sep 4, 2017.

  1. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Back at it again.
    Was just going to whip something up and slap it together but................
    And here I thought my OCD issues were finally starting to diminish. :rolleyes:

    So the story begins......
    3" X 3" tubing

    It is advisable to have a small welding table that allows you to clamp down all sides or build a jig prior to fabrication.

    If you wondering why such large welds it's because I had the choices of either cope the tubing or fill it in,.
    I choose to fill it in, should have taken the time to cope because I had to do a light heat treating on the base to correct the distortion.

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    After I had the base all welded I ground down the welds.
    Then I centered and extra beer keg in the base to start with laying everything out.

    Thought I was going to draft and lay everything out for this entire build in my head and a little on paper,,,,, yeah, right.

    Unless you have a drafting program just get an idea in your head and proceed one step at a time slowly and laying it all out in your head.
    Otherwise you will go nuts trying to figure it all out.
    Always think ahead of what and how the next step is going to function and effect the rest of the build.

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    Next Step
    Caster bases and legs.

    Drug some 1/4" plate out, marked off the appropriate sizes & cut them out.

    Ground down all surfaces and rounded out the corners.

    Make sure you do all your surface grinding / sanding prior to cutting.
    Much easier to tackle 1 large piece as compared to multiple smaller pieces.

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    The legs are made from 2" x 2" 3/16" tubing.
    All surfaces were ground clean and cut to 5-3/4".

    After everything was cut for this step in the build I centered the caster base on my base plates and marked the center for bolt holes.

    Drilled pilot holes to start and drilled those holes to accommodate the 5/16" x 3/4" bolts.

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    After all the holes are drilled, trace out your caster plates and the center locations on the fabricated plates.
    This will enable you to accurately place your 2" x 2" leg tubing in the dead center of the hole pattern.

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    Placed the tubing in the centers and tack welded all 4 sides in a crisscross pattern.
    Welded up the tubing in the same manner.

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    Took some flat bar, 3/16" x 1" and clamped it off one end to the keg base.
    Laid it on the floor and proceeded to cold roll the flat bar around the keg.
    The started to clamp the FB off to the keg working my way around.
    Once the FB was completed clamped off I broke out the propane soldering torch and commenced with heating the FB up until it was slightly reddish.
    You'll want to start the heat treatment from the middle of the FB and work your way around to the end.
    Then go back to the center again and heat / work the other side.
    After heating let the FB complete cool down and remove all clamps.

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    Once you remove all the clamps the metal will spring out a little so the FB needs to be coiled so the ends will overlap each other by 1" and then clamp them together.

    Once that is done place the clamped off FB in the table vise and proceed with the heat treatment again.

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    Remove the treated FB from the vise and place around the keg base.
    Space the FB off the keg 1/8" with spacers, cut some angle brace and clamp those off.
    These will be your stabilizer guides.
    Find the center of your tubular base and mark it.
    Start at one end and tack weld your FB every 4 or so inches.
    Minimal tacks are only need to hold the FB in place.
    Take your time and work your way around.

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    Once you have your FB tacked, pick a side and only weld up approx. 4".
    Jump over to the opposite side of your structure and tack another 4".
    Move 180 degrees to another section of the structure and weld 4" on that side.
    Continue to weld all side in this manner until each section has a 4" section welded up.
    Let cool and proceed to continue welding in the same manner.

    By doing so, this will prevent or at least minimize heat distortion.

    I just buzzed around the FB blasting away in a crisscross pattern in one straight shot and had to perform some heat treating on the 3" x 3" base to straight it out due to distortion.

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    Once all this was done I cut and welded up a base plate for the guide rod and lifting tube for the furnace lid.
    Again, tack & weld in a crisscross pattern.

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    Check to make sure your square.

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  2. OCD

    OCD Silver

    When you want to cut steel straight and don't have a cold saw or the piece is too large......
    mark your measurement out, place a speed square on one edge, clamp down a piece of flat bar and use that as a guide for your grinder & cut off wheel.

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    Once cut, I shaped and ground the pieces for base plate supports.

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    I then cut a 35-3/4" piece of 1/2" ID (7/8" OD) schedule 40 pipe, clamped my belt sander off in the bench vise and removed all the black coating off the surface.
    I beveled one end at a 30* angle. placed the pipe in place and tacked and welded the guide pipe in place.

    I laid down 2 beads of 1/16" filler rod just to make sure there was plenty of strength in this area.
    I measured my pipe walls and set the welder at 125 amps w/ 20cf gas flow.

    Unfortunately, I should have used a 3/32" filler rod and set the amps around 115-118.
    this may have been just enough to still get a puddle going but prevent any heat distortion.

    So now I get to do some heat treating to get my pole to straighten back up where it needs to be.

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    And so the saga continues.

    Stay tuned for the continuation of the build.

    Until next time...................
     
  3. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Nice work. looking for to seeing the continuation.
    I keep planning on building an outhouse for my big furnace with wheels on train tracks to roll it in and out, need to get off my butt and make it happen.
     
  4. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Thanks David

    I think I've spent almost more time just trying to figure it all out than actually welding it up.
     
  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Looks really good. That sucker is built to withstand hurricane IRMA! Nice job bending that coil. That's never a fun job. Mine always looks like an egg.
     
  6. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Round objects and heat are your friend.
    Plus a lot of clamps.
     
  7. OCD

    OCD Silver

    One thing I want to add about this build and welding in general.

    The continuous welded bead which I did is not necessary and strongly "Not" recommended.

    The pro's are instructing me that your welds only need to be about 1" long.

    Being new to welding and this being my very first project I got carried away.
    At least I got some serious bead laying time in. :D

    Think metal surgeon,,,,, tac, tac, tac, stitch, stitch, stitch.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2017
  8. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    That is some really fine fab and welding work.
    Wow.
    Dang its hard to keep up with the Jones.
    You guys keep making me up my game, and my game is just not that good.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2017
  9. OCD

    OCD Silver

    No Jones around here brother.
    Just keeping ourselves occupied and doing what we do best.

    And thanks for the compliment.

    Wait until it's done. :eek:
     
  10. Jammer

    Jammer Silver Banner Member

    You may regret raising it up so high. Makes it difficult to remove the crucible. Maybe you have a plan for that.
     
  11. Jason

    Jason Gold

    He's gonna build a raised platform to dance around his furnace. The best setup I've seen so far was the now defunct BlackHillsBronze. Those boys had this stuff down pat.
     
  12. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Only that high when sitting on the welding table. :D

    I double checked everything before cutting the first piece of steel.

    The largest crucible that's usable in the furnace is a #10 and there's plenty of safety room to comfortably remove and handle.

    I'm awake. :)
     
  13. OCD

    OCD Silver

    After getting my pole straightened out I proceeded to the next step of this project.

    Fabricated a few thrust washers out of 1/4" plate on the drill press.

    How do you fab a thrust washer out of plate steel, quite easily actually.

    Cut the piece of metal approx. 1/2" inch larger than your washer size and drill a hole in each corner.
    Screw it down to a piece of wood, drill a pilot hole in the center of your steel, replace it with an appropriate sized hole saw for the OD size and cut you metal only 80% of the way.
    Remove hole saw and replace it (with the same size drill bit) and punch out the ID portion.
    Place your OD hole saw and finish cutting you metal.

    Make sure you have the wood which the metal is screwed down to clamped off to prevent the piece from jumping around.

    Remove your washer and sand the sharp edges off.

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    Next I took some 1-1/2" OD x 7/8" ID pipe and cut to length.
    The bottom section was cut to meet the bottom of the furnace lid.
    The washer's were place center of the pipe & marked.
    They were then slid on top the thrust rail (inner pipe).
    To make sure the washers & the trust pipe were appropriately positioned I use 1/16" filler rods at the top of the pipe to acquire and equal distance all the way around and stabilize the placement of piece prior to welding them in place.
    Once everything was in place I welded the washers to the pipe.

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    A thrust bearing will be installed between the upper and lower thrust pipes for ease of operation and reduction of wear and drag where the spaces are shown in the above picture.

    Next step was to figure out a fulcrum foot pedal lifting system.

    1 piece of plate each was cut to start.
    1/2"D x 2-1/4"W x 5"L. Square cut
    1/2"D x 2-1/4"W x 2-1/2"L. One end was cut at a 15* angle for offset purposes.
    Each piece was clamped off in place, tacked and welded up.

    A very important step gentlemen,
    When 2 pieces of metal are being welded together it is accentual the edges which are being joined be ground (tapered) at a 30* angle for filler & strength purposes.

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    Next I took 2 pieces of 2" x 2" angle and cut off 1-1/2".
    Joined them together inverted and spaced apart, welded one side, cut the excess off, positioned them to the thrust pipes, tacked & welded them in place.

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    Once the thrust pipe fulcrum rail bracket was welded up I proceeded to the fulcrum rail pivot bracket.
    1 piece of flat bar was cut @ 1/4"D x 2"W x 2-1/2H.
    The bolt hole was drilled prior to cutting (much easier this way), the top section was marked, cut and rounded off.
    Positioned on the far end piece of the base plates, tacked and welded into place.

    In trying to figure out all the what's & how's within the fulcrum lifting system, and as you can see by the steps of the process, I started at the top, jumped to the bottom and then started figuring out all the middle pieces.
    This is the only way to figure it all out and for it to properly work.

    I now going to list off all the dimensions of the piece starting with the foot pedal and working our way up.
    The rest speaks for itself.

    Foot pedal: 1/2"D x 4"W x 5"L (Rectangular cut)
    Foot pedal bracket: 1/4"D x 1-3/8"W x 5"L (Rectangular cut)
    Foot pedal bracket offset bracket: 1/4"D x 1-3/8"W x 7"L
    (The top of this bracket was cut @ a 34.5* angle & the bottom was cut @ a 60.5* angle)
    Fulcrum Arm bracket: 1-4"D x 2"W x 7"L
    (The adjoining end to the offset bracket was cut @ a 56* angle & the other end was square cut but rounded off)
    Fulcrum point swivel brackets: 3/16"D x 1"W x 4-12"L (Rectangular cut w/ ends rounded off)

    All holes where drilled out to accommodate 1/2" bolts.
    Brass bushings may end up in the holes with a small bolt installed, TBD.

    All pieces where cut, positioned, clamped down to the welding table, tacked, welded and ground down flush.
    All bolt holes were drilled prior to fabrication as mentioned above.

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    The system has a 3-1/4" lifting height range, which is more than what will ever be needed.

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    The thrust rail & pipe will have to be cut down and the rest of the lid attachment components still have to be fabricated as well.

    Stay tuned for the next episode of
    "Have I went off the deep end?"

    Almost forgot, How you guys like my state of the art cheapo TIG finger?
    A little CFB & tape. :D
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    Last edited: Sep 15, 2017
  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Good job. How does it work?
     
  15. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Wow, that is beautiful work, I like the lever mechanism.

    Jeff
     
  16. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Thanks Jeff.

    I had my doubts as to how smooth the level mechanism was going to work, all I can say is it functions like it's lubricated with melted butter.

    "IF" I only had a water jet..........

    What took 8 hours to fab piece by piece could have been cut out in 1 solid piece(s) and within a fraction of the time.

    All in a days work. :)
     
  17. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Continued efforts with the Mid Evil furnace dolly. :D

    After evaluating some aspects of the progressing build I raised the thrust arm/pipes and added a small stabilizer foot securing the thrust rail.
    Before it's over with I'll be adding 2 more to the base of the rail.

    Got the thrust bearings in and tack welded the upper & lower bearing rings to the thrust pipe washers.

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    Ended up having to modify the lifting mechanism due to raising the thrust/lifting pipe design.

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    I then cut (2) 17" long pieces of 2" wide flat bar, chopped off a 2-3/4" piece and welded it at a 90* to the ends.
    Placed both piece side by side, clamped them together and tack weld them together.
    I then measured out increments at 1-1/2" apart, clamped a piece of scrap FB in place and cut/scored each measurement approximately 85-90% through.
    This allow me to clamp the piece off onto the extra keg I have to bend / contour the brackets as needed.
    NOTE: Use the barrel/keg which your furnace is made from to contour these pieces or your going to have to modify them to fit "your" furnace in the end.

    After clamping them off they were tacked up, and completely welded.

    Once these 2 pieces were completed I took a final inner measurement between these 2 pieces and repeated the process which resulted in a complete lid lifting ring.
    Positioned the ring and furnace in place and drilled (5) 5/16" holes for anchor bolts.

    There's still some final touches that I have to do such as weld a couple more thrust rail support blocks to the base, fab a folding handle & a burner arm.
    Debating as to whether or not add a pull arm to drag it around.

    I also added a few pieces of 1" x 1" which will support a blow out drain tray under the furnace.... Just in case.


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  18. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Insane.... that looks awesome.
     
  19. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Yeah, that is slick. Nice work!

    Jeff
     
  20. OCD

    OCD Silver

    Thanks guys.
    It's been an adventure for sure.

    I intentionally laid out the large welds on the lid band for that Mid Evil effect. :D
     

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