In this video Tom talks about how he built a metal wood stove to help heat his shop area. The welding/fabrication shop is a six thousand square foot metal building. The new wood stove does a good job of efficiently heating the space.
Tom came up with the design after careful research. It has an air intake at the bottom of the wood stove, that may someday be hooked to an outside air source to prevent recirculation of conditioned air.
Tom built a removable ash drawer to help reduce ash in the stove.
The metal stove is built out of five eights inch plate.
Tom welded in smoke shelves and pipes to help facilitate movement of the fire and heat. One of the tubes holds a thermostat from an attached thermostat motor. As the air gets warmer in the tube, it fires up a blower. Once the fire has died down, say in the middle of the night, the blower will switch off.
Tom also fabricated two pieces of rectangle tube to hold a water/antifreeze mix. A heat exchanger will be added to carry heat from one area of the shop to the shop addition.
One thing that Tom would change on the design is installing fewer smoke shelves on the inside of the wood stove. Having lots of smoke shelves allows for too much ash build up on the inside of the stove. Tom had to drill in several extra holes so that he could blow out the smoke shelves two or three times per year.

The Library Sports Grille & Brewery in Laramie Wyoming is a fun a popular place to eat and have a few brews. It is locally owned and operated and is one of Tom’s favorite places to go. The owners have recently opened up a second restaurant in Winter Park Colorado. The pizza oven there was in need of a new metal box to hold the wood burning fire.
Tom started by getting the dimensions from the previous sheet metal box. Tom decided to build the new metal box out of eleven gauge hot rolled steel. The box also needed to have a handle on the end so that it could be easily maneuvered in the pizza oven. The sides also needed a bit of a taper to them. In order to reduce some of the welding labor, Tom had a sheet metal company shear the tapered sides to the desired angles. The sheet metal company also used a large press break to bend up one large piece of metal to form the back, bottom and front of the box. This insured a nice smooth finish to the metal box.
Once Tom collected all of the pieces of the metal box, he simply had to weld the edges together. He then formed the front handle using a compact bender from Shop Outfitters. The handle is made out of half inch hot rolled steel. Tom added a couple of gussets to firm up the handle.

Metal Handle

Tom had this tip to share while building a small metal welding table:
When you build something like this square metal table, it may rack a little bit and won’t sit on the ground level. It is a good idea to fabricate feet on the bottoms of the square tubing. Putting metal feet on the tubing allows you to level up the table. A gap was left in the right front end of this metal table so that it would even out the metal legs at the bottom.
This table was built out of square tube for the frame and a piece of plate metal for the top.

We recently received a comment on one of our early tips by tom articles. This article on aluminum cutting seems to get a lot of traffic. It was one of our original posts and contains helpful information on cutting aluminum in a pinch. The article explains how you can use equipment found in any wood shop to accomplish the job of cutting aluminum. At any rate, after several years we received this letter from Don in Florida. Since we are into entrepreneurship, we thought wed go ahead and post! Thanks for noticing our website Don and best of luck with your business!

Hi Tom,

My name is Don McKinney. Our company is Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc. I
read your article on cutting aluminum and liked the warning about the
“kick back” . Many people don not realize that when using the wrong
tool for the job could be very dangerous. The kick back comes from
using saw blades designed to cut wood or an improperly designed aluminum
cutting saw. We manufacture a line of blades for this material that
does NOT kick back or grab. Leaving a bur free cut on most shapes
including plate, pipe, window and store front extrusions, picture frames
and even PVC. It’s called the NO-GRAB. It has more of a milling action
than a cutting one. With a wood blade, the more you feed, the faster it
cuts. Our blades offers a controlled chip. The more you feed, it
doesn’t cut any faster!

If your interested, contact me at 1-800-359-2887
Don McKinney
President
Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc.
721 N.W. 7th. Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33311

Hi Tom
My name is Steven and I am from Ireland. I’m a metal fabricator, not qualified though, but I have worked for 3 years with steel. The first place I worked was with a company making helicopter simulators for 2 years. The second job I had was making different things but I never made a handrail for a wheelchair ramp.
I just wanted to get your advice on a hand rail for a ramp. I wanted to know how I should measure the angle of the slope for the ramp? And also would I need to cut the posts each the same length that go inside of the handle part and the lower rail that will be above the ramp itself? How would I measure the length of the square tube at the angle for the post because each end cut will be cut at an angle so it can be welded to the upright posts at the start of the ramp and at the top if the ramp. I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards
Steven

Steve from Ireland sent the above email full of questions concerning building a handicap ramp. I posted a short video of Tom giving a few tips on how to build a metal handrail for a sloped sidewalk or ramp. One thing to keep in mind is to contact a local building official to investigate any building codes that are required in your area. Another key is to make sure you start with a well poured ramp. Sometimes you have to deal with an existing concrete ramp, but if you are starting from ground zero, make sure the ramp is smooth and even to begin with. A good ramp will allow you to compute your metal handrail by rise and run method. You can actually take the measurement, duplicate the angle and draw out the handrail on your shop floor. If the ramp has a dip or two in it, use a strait two by four or a piece of square tube, lay it on the ramp, put an angle finder on it and find the exact angle. This gives you the angle of all the posts. All vertical metal posts should be level, or plumb. The top handrail can be made out of one piece of metal tube. The bottom bumper rails can be cut out to fit between the individual vertical metal posts. Additional guardrail should be added if local code dictates.

Thanks for the question Steve and best of luck with your project!

Tom helped a local contractor build a tornado safe room for a new construction project. The home owner wanted a concrete and steel “basement” located underneath his garage floor. The garage is a 40 X 50 foot structure. The homeowner poured part of a basement in the garage on one end. The idea was to have a concrete slab floor poured over the top of the hole to form a safe room. The steel and concrete floor will enable the homeowner to still utilize the entire garage floor for parking and storing vehicles. The safe room below can be used to store valuable items as well as serve as a place to go in the event of a tornado or other emergency.
As the foundation walls were formed, beam pockets with weld plates were added so that the steel beams would sit flush with the foundation and the bottom of the concrete slab. Steel beams were placed in the beam pockets across the opening of the newly formed basement. The opening was then covered with metal floor pan. The floor pan supports the concrete floor as well as add additional support to the garage floor. Floor pan is generally made out of galvanized steel. The tornado room ceiling will then be tied into the entire garage floor while the concrete flat work is completed. This allows the whole concrete floor the expand and contract over time.
The picture shows one heavier beam that sits perpendicular to the rest of the steel beams. This allows for an opening for a stairway down to the tornado room.
The smaller steel beams are W6 X 9 lbs per foot. The heavier beam is a W6 X 25 lbs per foot. There is a steel post near the end of the heavier beam. As building continues, additional re bar and concrete will be added.
The tornado safe room will be tied into the remaining structure and will be made entirely of concrete and steel. The picture at the bottom of the page is a view with galvanized floor pan covering the basement prior to concrete.
If you are interested in building a tornado safe room in your new construction, it is important to remember that it should be professionally engineered.

It is exciting when we get a job into the shop that will remain in the community for decades. Tom was asked to help weld on a steeple for a new church building in town. The congregation at Laramie Valley Chapel has been waiting for the addition of their steeple for several years. A large crane was used to lift up the 56 foot steel structure and then Tom and Colter welded it onto the existing building frame. Also in this video, a local construction company places the all stainless steel cross on the top. Two guys were lifted up in a steel box along with the attached cross. Once in place, the cross was bolted onto the top of the large steeple. All and all, the cross sits about one hundred feet off the ground.
Two guys were hoisted up in a steel box and when in place, bolted the cross onto the top of the steel steeple. All and all, the cross sits about one hundred feet off the ground. Check out the short video of the action. I wasn’t able to get video of the steeple being lifted by the crane. If anyone out there was able to get pictures or video, send it my way!

Trent, from the local diving club (307 Diving Club), contacted Tom about fabricating a dry land diving board that the team could use for practice.
A relatively new trend in diving training utilizes a dry land diving board. The dry land diving board can be used for the same basic purposes as a trampoline, but with the obvious advantage of creating a more accurate simulation to diving into a swimming pool. A dry diving board is a good tool for beginners as well as advanced divers. The dry board allows the diver to repeatedly practice dive techniques without having to worry about how they might land in the water. The dry diving board can also be made to be portable. Trent will be able to move it around as needed. He even has plans to put it in the park for a demonstration during Laramie Jubilee Days.
Tom built this frame out of 2 X 2 X1/8 inch square tube. The metal tube size is a little bigger than most dry board manufacturers use. This makes for a heavier and more sturdier frame. Tom also added steps at the end of the structure. The steps were built out of 1 1/2 X 3/16 angle iron. Trex decking will be added for the stair treads. Trex will work great because it is waterproof and non-slip.
Trade Tool Innovations wishes the best for Trent and 307 Diving Club! Watch a short video of Trent talking about the dry diving board.

This morning Tom and I ventured out to see a large metal frame that had blown over during the weekend. The metal building was being constructed on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie Wyoming. It was to house tennis courts when completely finished. It looks as if the contractor has some cleaning up to do before beginning the building process again.
The first thing we noticed was the large steel frame toppled onto an adjacent building. The adjacent building is similar to the frame and size of the destroyed metal structure. The structure was about 150 feet by 200 feet. It looked as if the entire steel frame had been pushed over like a set of domino’s.

It looked as if the contractor had the main beams up along with the girts and roof perlins. It seemed to have been all tied together at one point. Their may have not been any cross bracing up yet. There also was no tin on the metal structure eitherTin wall on a metal building serve as a big diaphragm that prevent sheer. Metal buildings are designed so the frame has connecting points where the pieces are bolted together. The tin is screwed up against the frame and serves as a deterrent to torquing and twisting of the metal building frame. It is possible that the wind came up and the steel structure began to move slightly. If there were not enough cross bracing in the structure as it was being set up, then if a couple of critical points were effected and the steel webs began to fold a little bit, it may cause the entire structure to topple down. Cross bracing may be the answer to a mess well avoided. Tom describes how he built his shop by first erecting a bay with plenty of steel cable cross bracing. The walls and roof are equipped to handle the load of the unstable beams and perlins. Cross bracing is essential to the building process and also makes for a much more secure structure in the end.

The classic teardrop trailer is making a strong comeback in the camping scene. It is a smaller trailer that can be pulled by most any vehicle. It is lightweight and aerodynamic. Most teardrop trailers consist of a small sleeping unit with a little storage and an outdoor kitchen that opens up from the back.
Tom was asked to fabricate this small trailer frame for a guy who is going to build a custom teardrop on the top. Tom started with some 2″ square tube for the main metal frame. He added 2″ X 2″ X 1/8″ angle for the cross bars. He also used a 2 1/2″ X 1/8″ piece of steel for the tongue. The customer wanted a heavier axle, so Tom went with a 3500 lb. axle. This leads to a little bit heavier spindles and wheel bearings. The customer also didn’t want a rough ride, so Tom added 2000 lb. leaf springs. The leaf springs are light for the axle, but will work great with the weight of the trailer.
Tom attached some bent diamond plate to serve as fenders. He fastened the fenders by fabricating basic flat strap metal and welded them to the frame of the teardrop trailer.