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

A friend who works for a roofing company brought out an old weather vane that had been damaged during the re-roofing process. Instead of removing the weather vane by unscrewing it, the roofers used a crowbar to peel the base off. A leg was broken off that wraps over the peak of the roof. It also looks as if they tossed it off the roof and broke one of the compass arms. The weather vane was built out of a cast pot aluminum.
First, Tom had to sandblast the weather vane until it was really clean. He then tig welded the weather vane back together. He re-profiled the weld so that it looked original. Finally, he re-sandblasted the weather vane and painted it. He had to grind down two screws on the compass arms because they were rusted and he couldn’t remove them. He had to tap two new holes for a couple of stainless steel screws and added them. The stainless steel screws will not rust like the old ones did.
The weather vane held sentimental value to the homeowner and the roofing company couldn’t find another one like it. Tom guessed that the weather vane might be around fifty to sixty years old.

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.

Here is a quick video on a simple septic truck strainer. Tom welded up the frame using angle iron and then added expanded metal for the screen. He welded on a steel top and then added a four inch nipple with a cam lock. One of these is very helpful when pumping out a septic holding tank so that large objects like bottles, cans and other trash don’t get sucked up through the septic truck hose into the septic truck tank.
Often times portable toilet and septic companies have a difficult time while pumping public usage areas like parks and campgrounds. This can be prevented by the general public remembering how important it is to observe the general rule not to dispose of trash into the septic tanks of the parks and campgrounds.
Septic tank companies can do some upfront preventative maintenance by having one of these strainers built at a local fabrication shop. A septic maintenance company can also build a strainer themselves with a welder and some steel pieces. The hose nipple and cam lock can be purchased separately.

Tom spent some time replacing a pump on the high ground of the irrigation system on the Laramie City Monolith Ranch site.
The irrigation pump that was previously there was no longer working. The engine had burned up.
First, Tom had to remove all of the existing piping. He then had to build new frame work to support the new shallow well turbine pump over the pump pit. He installed the pump and the motor. He used twelve inch piping to divert the water to the different gates.
He used about fifteen foot of twelve inch pipe and two weld l’s. He used schedule forty pipe so it won’t rust.
The new pump will be able to pump about twice the amount of water that the old one did.
Mark Wade from Electrical Solutions helped by upgrading all the wiring and the motor controller.
Some of the tool Tom used for this job included a cutting torch, arch welder, grinder, level, truck, trailer, forklift and skidsteer.

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!

This is a short video of a piston Tom machined for a hydraulic cylinder. The hydraulic cylinder came off of a tree delimber. A logging company tried to remove the original piston from the ram to reseal the gland nut. In the process, the piston seized or welded onto the ram. As a result, the piston had to be split using a cut off wheel to remove it.
Tom machined a new identical piston as a replacement. He started out with a piece of four inch steel round stock and turned the OD on a metal lathe. He then cut out the wear rings and seal ring. Reliefs also had to be cut in.
Tom then bored out the center of the four inch round stock. He had to over bore part of the piston for a minor diameter to fit a one and twelve eighths, five thread per inch cylinder end.
The holes on the ends were milled out to fit a spanner wrench.

A few of the tools Tom used to complete this project include:  metal lathe with cooling oil, internal threading bar which is a boring bar that holds the threading inserts, thread gauges, a micrometer & calipers, also a depth gauge to measure off the old, damaged piston.

The completed new piston fit on the hydraulic cylinder like a glove… another job well done from Trade Tool Innovations!

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!