In this video Tom introduces his newest project, a turbo charged propane fueled truck. He is putting a new under carriage under a 1957 International pickup truck. He is doing the project for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it is very difficult to find parts for a 1957 International pickup truck. Tom took a 1980 Chevrolet one ton, single rear wheel, long box frame and shortened it 26 inches to fit the body style of the International. The truck has a 4 inch lift kit.
The second reason is because he wanted to build a truck tall enough for propane tanks to fit in between the rear frame rails. The tanks will slide in under the rear sub frame. The propane fueled truck will be a little taller than most trucks to avoid the rear axle bumping up against the propane tanks.
It will be fun to see where this project takes Tom. Propane could be a great alternative fuel for the future. Company fleets have been dabbling in the everyday use of propane as an energy source for transportation for a long time. If an engine is designed to run on propane only then large horse power gains can be obtained. Propane is a derivative of natural gas, and natural gas is plentiful in the United States. Propane also burns cleaner for fresher emissions, extended oil change times, and long engine life.
Let us know what you think of this new project!

Sometimes a tip comes along that we wish we didn’t have to give. Hopefully this one will help dog owners who find themselves separating Fido and a neighborly skunk. For this tip I assume you have at least three things at your disposal. One: a forklift. Two: a hose hooked up nearby (hot water optional) and Three: (the most priceless item), a bottle of “Skunk-Off”. I found their soaker, spray and shampoo at Alpine Animal Hospital, our local veterinarian. I loaded up on all three. Full dis-closer: The Thornell Corporation and its subsidiaries are NOT corporate sponsors of our site. We have no corporate sponsors. Just an adventurous dog.
The first step in cleansing your dog is to capture him, leash him and then hook his leash around your forklift forks. A simple hitch ball with a two inch ball set through the holes on the forks works nicely to secure the handle end of the dogs leash. Next comes the tricky part.
Make sure you have sufficiently calmed down from finding your dog “playing” with a skunk. Check your pulse, have a drink, etc. etc.
You will need to carefully ease up the forklift forks… carefully and slowly, so as not to hang your own dog. No need to have PETA angry here.
Secure the leash snuggley and begin to wash. The directions on the bottle of the Skunk-Off Shampoo say to shake the bottle, wipe off excess skunk spray (if you can tell where the smell is actually coming from), saturate the entire area with shampoo and work in thoroughly. Don’t forget eye lids, mouth and in between toes. If there is still odor, reapply.
I would recommend also using the spray and soaker. A gal can never have too many beauty products in her arsenal.
I hope this tip helps everyone this spring. Let me know if you have other tips or suggestions!

We received a question via our youtube channel from RacerRob528.
Here is the comment:
Please let me know if your bender could bend 1″ x 3/8″ aluminum flat bar in
a U shape with a 6″ inside radius. If so, I might get one of these down the road. Oh, yeah,
I know there are all types of aluminum. I don’t have the name of the type I use in front of me.
It’s considered aircraft aluminum, and it’s hard. I currently have to bend it by heating it up and
pulling it around a 6″ diameter pole. It’s almost impossible but I do it.
We decided to take a short video to answer Racers question. Tom used a 1″ X 1/2″ flat strap as an example. The main issue was not having the correct die to use to bend the metal strap. The largest die that the 2020 compact bender comes with is a 3″. Rob asked about bending a 6″ radius. Tom ended up using a die made for round tubing. Please note that this die is not recommended by Shop Outfitters for this purpose, but Tom thought he would give it a try. A die can be easily made using a 6″ stock with a hole drilled into the middle. Hope this helps!

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.

Another holiday tip by Karen. Filmed and edited by Dave Dugdale (camera enthusiasts should google him).
Just about every year the Alleman family gathers around a pile of fresh king crab legs sent directly from Alaska. Karen’s grandmother was an Aleut native and grew up in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska.
The secret to great king crab legs is in the preparation. King crab legs may be intimidating to fix, but it is really very easy, especially if you have the right tools. You will need a large pot, pruning shears and small garden shears. The first step in preparing king crab legs is to cut the legs in one to two inch chunks, using hand held pruning shears. After the legs are cut into chunks, take your smaller garden shears and make a small slit along the side of the king crab leg chunks. Submerge the crab legs into boiling water for about two to three minutes.
The cooked king crab legs will be easy to peel and even easier to eat!
Make sure to have plenty of butter and cocktail sauce on hand.

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.