Finally got my welding rig organized a bit. I bought a cart from Northern Tool, has a couple drawers for storage of consumables and welding equipment. Seems to be well built and will make moving all my welding stuff around a lot easier.
I've also been working on a couple frames for my sister. I decided to try doing a laminate composed of oak and poplar, like this:
The first laminates I made didn't dry straight, and I had to cut off too much to get all of the pieces uniform. So I tried again, this time using a clamping jig to keep them true and minimize the amount of cleanup cutting I'd have to do afterwards.
The jig has a reference wall along the length and end of the lamination pieces, and also a piece clamped on top to keep them all roughly flush with each other. You can start with flat boards, but once you cut them into thinner pieces they have a tendency to bow a bit. I used a scrap piece of poplar as a spacer / pad for my clamps along the outer edge. Here I am gluing 3-24" laminate pieces at the same time, much more efficient than having to do them individually.
Cleaned up and mitered, this is what it looks like. I also cut a slot at the end of each miter on my table saw to allow for some corner reinforcement that will be glued in. You can kinda see those pieces at the fringe of the picture.
I also went to Ohiopyle this past weekend on a bike ride. I stopped down by the river, it was a beautiful day. Scenes like this make me wish I had a decent DSLR to try to do it justice...maybe soon.
