|
Building The Air Pump For The Forge!
Today I worked on putting together the air pump for the forge. First I welded the smog pump bracket to a small piece of sheet metal that I cut.  Then I drilled the holes in the plate to mount it. Let's see...which size drill bit do I need...? Isn't this a fantastic set of drill bits? I got it on the net for about $50. They are titanium nitride coated, sizes 1-60, A-Z, and fractions to 1/2!  Using my drill press I drilled the mounting holes in the bracket.  Here I'm testing the mounting to see if the belt will clear the bottom. There is enough clearance!  Here I'm laying out the frame to get an idea of how big to make it.  Here I'm using my squares to draw lines to be cut.  After my second cut the abrasive blade suddenly became a few inches shorter! I had to run to the store to get more cutting blades.  Here's the panel cut to length.  Here I ground the paint off of the edges to get ready to weld it to the tubing.  Using my square I'm getting the 45 degree angle right to cut the tubing.  Here's the tubing cut up.  I'm grinding the paint away here to get ready for welding. I found it easier to clamp four at a time so I don't have to spend so much time turning the tubing.  Here's all the sections cut and ground, ready to weld.  Using my square and clamps, I get the angle just right.  Here's the bottom frame, all welded up!  I welded the bottom on the frame. Boy this took longer that I expected.  Here I aligned the pump and motor and drilled holes in the bottom plate to hold them in place.  Here I am! I connected large clear flexible tubing to the pump and started her up for a test run. I put the end in a small bucket of water. Sucess! There's quite a bit of air flow!  Here's the layout from a top view.  The finising touch, castors! This still needs quite a bit of work including a new cord and the upper part of the frame along with some thick steel mesh.  Here's a few videos of my new pump! CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO 1 CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO 2 CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO 3 Copyright 2005 Web page posted on July 16, 2005 Chris Hardwick |