So that’s that, I am now ready to cut the window openings in the container walls. I considered clear coating it, but safety yellow won out.Īnd here it is with the tanks loaded and strapped in with the safety chains across the tanks and an additional anti-theft chain. I think it has a little Steampunk look about it. I love the lines, kind of retro, like something that would have been in my grandfather’s shop. The rest just followed element by element. I pretty much started the project by holding a length of 1.5″ square tubing in my hands and holding it up to the tanks. Here are some photos of the cart ready for paint: The point of this post is the cart that I just made to hold the oxygen and acetylene tanks in my shop, and to make it easier to move them around the job. I used the goalpost rack again today to transport two, heavy eight-foot lengths of 4″圆″x1/4″ angle iron that I picked up for my next shop project, a sheet metal bending brake. The traffic police will be happy with the official reflective sticker, $1. I used the existing tie-down fixtures in the bed of the pickup to affix my rack.Īnd here it is in all its painted glory, along with the long-load rack that I made some time ago but just now got around to painting. So I welded up a goalpost rack for the truck. The tanks need to be transported upright and I had no way to accomplish this with the Honda Ridgeline. With the rentals, I can just swap them locally at the hardware store.īut they don’t just deliver out here in the hinterlands. I could have bought the tanks, but I would have had to return to the city each time they needed refilling.
$300 deposit for the two tanks, plus $75 for the gas in the tanks. Next, I needed to rent the oxygen and acetylene tanks. Victor is an excellent brand and I like the way the torch balances in my hand. I got a medium duty Victor brand set, complete with welding/cutting torch, hose, and gauges for the oxygen and acetylene. The cost had been stopping me, but it was finally time to bite the bullet and buy a rig. No electrical parts, no computer, just a hot flame that slices through metal.
No angle grinder, no plasma torch, no shears, and, bringing me to choice number two, no oxy-acetylene cutting torch.Ĭhoice 2: Oxy-acetylene cutting torch. Two men were cutting strips off of 20-foot lengths of sheet metal roofing. Finally I got up and got dressed and went to check it out. Early one morning, 6:15 to be exact, I heard a hammer pounding a chisel on metal. I remember when I was first investigating Panama as a place for us to live, I stayed at a hotel in Boquete. I’ve written before about my plasma torch that died an electronic death, not to be revived here in the harsh Panamanian climate of rust, humidity, electrical brown outs and power spikes, and geckos that have the propensity of dying on circuit boards, “melting,” and shorting out the whole mess.Ĭhoice 1: Hammer and chisel. Arduous because it takes a lot of muscle power, and dangerous because of the propensity for the machine to kick back and sever body parts. But let’s face it, this is really arduous and dangerous. So far, I’ve been cutting the container walls with a steroidal 9-inch angle grinder with a metal cutting disk. My next task on the house is to make frames for windows, cut holes for windows, and fix the frames in the holes. No, actually, as Juan and Rick guessed, it is to hold the oxygen and acetylene tanks that I just got. Thanks to everyone who guessed about my latest contraption in my last post.