So the first order of business was to trim all 6 of those caster plates down to size. I had three remaining. I powered through that, verifying settings (and modifying if need be) as I went in an attempt to dial things in. In the end they are all cut down sure enough but boy, some of them need some t...

So today was filled with family stuff, but I made it out to work on the project in the late afternoon. 'Always fighting daylight/darkness when ya do that. No surprise there. I digress. Occasionally when I run the plasma things go a tad awry. I haven't yet determined if it is me or the machine. I am ...

I solved the wall “access” issue by running my plumbing along the top plate. Then dropped wherever I needed. Same for my electrical. Keeps folks from drilling holes in the dangerous/expensive stuff. Threaded black pipe could be a decent solution for you. Flexible configs, adaptable later if you cho...

I hear you on the ‘so much stuff that I can’t get to the walls’ problem. I rented a storage container for a month to store much of the stuff in my shop so that I could run electrical, insulation and panel the interior. That was a good call on your part and definitely the way I'd go if I was to plum...

Can I throw a few questions and ideas at you- I read that your shop is not plumbed for working “out front” I think. In lieu of buying and handling multiple small compressors, why not plumb you’re shop? Add numerous drops in different areas or connect some short hoses. Then you don’t need to drag ma...

Then removed the t-fitting from the short hoses: portable air 5.jpg And connected everything together: portable air 6.jpg It seemed to work much better, I had plenty of air and I prefer this arrangement over the one I had yesterday. The only downside occurred when I took a look at it and thought to ...

As I mentioned yesterday I wasn't a huge fan of the t-fitting configuration. So I checked online last night and found that I could get this the next day. 'Decided to take a punt on it then and there. Anyway, when it arrived, it did not have the 4 unregulated female quick connect couplers installed. ...

Had all of these plans to get some real work done tonight after work. Then the calls started coming in ... ones that I needed to take. Oh well. In the end I managed to get the new "portable air station" configured and cut two more of the caster plates down to size. I didn't take any pictur...

Yeah I think not.

However I would make it only as far as to assemble them: casters 17.jpg Darkness would be settling in soon and I needed to tend to dad stuff. So I had the lil' un assist in the packing-up of the cart and the closing of the workshop. And that's where things would end for us tonight. All-n-all a good ...

The slag cleaned off easily: casters 15.jpg Only 5 more to assemble and cut: casters 16.jpg Fellas, it was at this point that I remembered why I usually just weld caster wheels to whatever I build rather than sweat the installation of hardware. Actually this was the third time I had that thought, bu...

There was some slag on the plate when I had finished: And the excess looked worse for the wear:

All to the good. However since he was conducting his test, I decided to forego the additional cut of the plate for now, as well as the grinding of the edges that were cut (they weren't bad enough to warrant concern of the lil' un cutting himself, else I would not have allowed him up there BTW). Inst...

The wife-eee had an online class tonight, so I had watch-the-lil'-un duty. He saw that I had stacked the plate on the top of the rack: diamond plate 8.jpg And insisted that he give it a weight test: diamond plate 10.jpg :lol: I insisted that he NOT even attempt to stand up while up there, since the ...

The second cut came out much better: diamond plate 5.jpg I noticed that the drag shield had picked up some slag during the first cut. Removing that undoubtedly had an effect on the second one. In the end the plate would only need those two cuts, as the lengths were enough to provide complete coverag...

I pulled the 4' x 8' sheet of plate out from the flatbed and went to work: The first cut came out ok, but I could use some practice:

The depth of the rack is the 33" that I planned on: diamond plate 1.jpg I tested the torch in its new configuration and noticed that the reduction in distance from the fence between a drag shield and the standoff isn't as large as I thought it would be. Given that when installing plate on top o...

This particular kit comes with the drag shield already attached to the cup: You then thread the cup back onto the torch and you're in business:

Despite the fact that I would be cutting only 1/8" diamond plate, I elected to go with a 60A tip: Assembly is super simple; just drop the tip into the cup:

So here is the recommended system ready to go to work: pancakes 3.jpg Hmmmmm...still don't know how much I like this. It did function, yes, but I had a concern that without a check valve in there, in the scenario where one compressor is running but the other is not, pressurized air from the running ...

So tonight was interesting. A tad bit of experimentation with compressed air and the first usage of the plasma in-real-life. First the compressed air thing. Ok so I have an 80 gallon, 5HP, 2 stage vertical compressor. However I need to change the oil and the system (lines) I have plumbed to it won't...

Poland and CJ- Alright, thank you for the feedback. I'll watch for that more closely the next time out, during which I will tackle the welds of the gussets. I recall being careful of long arcing the rod, as I always am, however at those low amperage settings I seemed more prone to stick the rod than...

Well it was a rough outing for me tonight fellas. I managed to fully weld the support beams and tack the 8 end gussets into position. However I just couldn't get the settings dialed in to a value that would produce a repeatable result. The 6010 tacking went fairly well, but I chose to weld-out the c...

Thank y'all for the suggestions/recommendations, I appreciate that. CJ, I might reverse those bolts just to see how it would work/look. The reason I have them in the way they are now is that I wanted a uniform distance amongst all 4 of these bolts, for whatever is on top of this plate will ride agai...

That said, during the process of closing the workshop, I decided to take 2-minutes to put one of the caster assemblies together: casters 9.jpg And that worked out well. All that is needed there is to cut the plate down to size: casters 10.jpg My plan is to merely throw these units, assembled, onto t...