Things my father taught me

My father, Fred Reber, was a mechanic. When I was an infant, he worked in a government motor pool by day and officiated dirt track sprint car races on the weekend. Our family's first dining room furnishings were purchased with race track earnings.

(A finished wheel bracket)

By the time I was in school, my father had switched careers to become a lobbyist in state legislatures. He retained all of his tools and kept an exceedingly neat and organized workshop garage. He never really worked on cars after that, but I learned to use my hands and tools to repair things by watching and working alongside him. Lawn mowers, barbecue grills and my bicycles came under his care.

Pedal to the metal

I stopped by The Steel Yard today while running other errands. The ever helpful Lance was there, ready to put the Omada H-4013 to good use. I now have enough metal plates for at least three trailers, though I will have to do some further cutting. Seems Lance was reluctant to put his hand in this gigantic hydraulic scissor machine to get all of the cuts needed.
The experience was a good lesson in "right tool for the job." If you have absolutely no other option, hacksaws will work. But, having someone cut these for you and having plates cut for more than one trailer is not only effective and efficient, but it moves the work along much faster.

Fabrication, round one

I finally got my building feet wet today. And, just as I suspected, there's more to this than meets the eye. When you look at the design and directions and the simple line drawings of the tools, all look straightforward. Then, you actually have to get the tools out and go to work. Or, in my case, create some tools to do the work.

Because the sheet of 14 ga. mild steel is much taller than my vice, I needed to create a sort of jig to make the sawing stable. I cut two lengths of scrap bead board and used them to stabilize the metal.