New Wood Rack - #3

[crash325]

First off, I'm real happy with my little wood stove. It's on its 3rd year and doing a fine job. I do keep thinking (you can smell the smoke :laughing, it should be a little more cooking friendly. It can be cooked on, just a little cool for some items.

Back to the wood rack. This is the 3rd one that I have built and should be an improved model. Just like soap,New & Improved.

Just getting started and have 1 end tacked together. Have improved some of the welds and done some clean up. Have decided it will be easier to clean up the shoes before welding and maybe a little better job. Welds should be nicer as well.

Picture #1, 2 & 3 are the old rack.
#4 Is the start of the new one. Plan to put it inside. adjustable legs and 1 of my hit & miss paint jobs.

Takes 28 horse shoes for both sides, will be about 30" tall and 36" wide.

Yes Ken, Chasing down the horses is getting harder at my age. If you figure that each horse has 4 legs with feet. That's still a lot of work. Sure hope no one catches me. :laughing::thumbsup:

 

[Baby Grand]

Dang, Crash! That's one stylish wood rack. Nice work - you could sell a boat load of those around here. If you sign me on as an agent, I'll bring photos to my sister's next Derby Day party.

 

[crash325]

Dang, Crash! That's one stylish wood rack. Nice work - you could sell a boat load of those around here. If you sign me on as an agent, I'll bring photos to my sister's next Derby Day party.

Hi Baby Grand,
Thanks for the flowers.

Have a part on order for my cement mixer. Going to try & use it to clean up the old horse shoes. If that works the job sure will go faster. Sand blaster would be nice, but don't have 1.

Going by the metal yard today. They had some 1" "Bridge" re-bar, very hard & stiff, never sag, bend or brake. That is what my stairs is made from. Never moved even when a 350# guy was on it.

 

[Baby Grand]

I can think of a lot of uses for 1" rebar! Looks like someone's been busy around the house - nice looking masonry job.

Where in Tucson? I have fond memories of Hopi Lodge, Gates Pass at sunset & Mt Lemon when it got really hot.

Jim

 

[crash325]

I can think of a lot of uses for 1" rebar! Looks like someone's been busy around the house - nice looking masonry job.

Where in Tucson? I have fond memories of Hopi Lodge, Gates Pass at sunset & Mt Lemon when it got really hot.

Jim

I'm 25 miles west of Tucson, near 3 Points at the end of a dirt road.

All the rock & concrete work, as well as the wood work (Deck etc. ) was all done by me. Most of it with out help.

There is a lot of freeway construction going on and the re-bar is cut offs. When I first got some of it, could not believe how hard & stiff it was. Tried a bi-metal blade on it, hardly even scratched it. Even with heat its hard to bend.

 

[bironacad]

Hi Baby Grand,
Thanks for the flowers.

Have a part on order for my cement mixer. Going to try & use it to clean up the old horse shoes. If that works the job sure will go faster. Sand blaster would be nice, but don't have 1.

Going by the metal yard today. They had some 1" "Bridge" re-bar, very hard & stiff, never sag, bend or brake. That is what my stairs is made from. Never moved even when a 350# guy was on it.

Very creative, the stairs are for a warm climate, we would never have them here or we would be on our arse have the year, lol. How do you come by so many horse shoes?

 

[crash325]

Very creative, the stairs are for a warm climate, we would never have them here or we would be on our arse have the year, lol. How do you come by so many horse shoes?

Were this a climate like yours, first I'd burn a few small holes and having some expanded metal with sharp edges, it would be welded down. Quick & dirty would be to glue some real coarse sand paper down.

Have a big pile of old horse shoes. Use to be the furriers were glad to get rid of the old take off shoes. Had these several years now and may have some more down in Tombstone.

Just hope the cement mixer will work as a tumbler. Got to speed up the cleaning some how. :confused2:

 

[Baby Grand]

<snip>

Just hope the cement mixer will work as a tumbler. Got to speed up the cleaning some how. :confused2:

I bet if you threw some pea sized quartz stream pebbles and some good, high quartz content, wind blown (dune) sand in with those shoes you'd get a real nice finish.

 

[crash325]

I bet if you threw some pea sized quartz stream pebbles and some good, high quartz content, wind blown (dune) sand in with those shoes you'd get a real nice finish.

Had tried the mixer a while back and it has a load of dry wash (creek bed in some places.) sand & gravel in it. With the pulley on it, turns so fast the sand just stays out against the drum.

Pictured are the 2 ends of the rack. Despite a random selection of horse shoes they came out near identical. Wire wheeled enough for second end.

Have enough 1" pipe & 1" angle iron to keep moving on this guy.

Getting use to the new E6011 and welds have improved over the first side.

 

[crash325]

Long story but at last the cement mixer is turning at near the right speed and the tumbling does work. The shoes in the picture were tumbled about 2 hours and came out pretty nice. Will make welding a lot easier and better welds.

Sure beats standing at the grinder with a wire brush on it. Going to run the next batch a little longer.

Shoes were not sorted, some small ones, a mule shoe or 2, some bent . One shoe shows that the horse it was on was a cripple, worn thin on 1 side. tumbling also takes off the sharp edges on most of the shoes.

Mixer has a lot of un screened sand with quite a few good sized rocks. Also a lot of odd ball metal, useable cut offs, some stobs as used on my sheep foot build.

More later as the build continues. May finish this year. :laughing:

 

[creekbend]

Innovative project. :thumbsup:

 

[bironacad]

They look pretty good Crash, very cool to have such an abundance of material close at hand. It is always a good feeling when one sees man's creativity at work, not to mention recycling. Keep on keeping on.

 

[DJ54]

I like the wood rack..!! Much more practical than my two projects below, but had a lot of fun making them. :thumbsup:

I've experimented with the cement mixer shoe cleaner too. Around here, I've found #8 limestone works best for me. Something with sharp edges, and when it gets rounded, I can always put it on the driveway. Still need to clean out the nail slots, as we have a lot of clay, and really gets packed in there. I sharpened the handle on an old worn out file, and makes a nice cleaner for that, then buff up with my 4" angle grinder, with a wire wheel.

Experimenting now with rust removal by electrolysis. Worked pretty well, and a lot quieter..!! Just need to rig up an elongated box of some sort, to hang a bunch in a row. Can't do it inside in the winter though, becase the process gives off hydrogen gas. Probably a toss up on electric usage, cement mixer versus battery charger.

Great work..!!

 

[crash325]

I like the wood rack..!! Much more practical than my two projects below, but had a lot of fun making them. :thumbsup:

I've experimented with the cement mixer shoe cleaner too. Around here, I've found #8 limestone works best for me. Something with sharp edges, and when it gets rounded, I can always put it on the driveway. Still need to clean out the nail slots, as we have a lot of clay, and really gets packed in there. I sharpened the handle on an old worn out file, and makes a nice cleaner for that, then buff up with my 4" angle grinder, with a wire wheel.

Experimenting now with rust removal by electrolysis. Worked pretty well, and a lot quieter..!! Just need to rig up an elongated box of some sort, to hang a bunch in a row. Can't do it inside in the winter though, becase the process gives off hydrogen gas. Probably a toss up on electric usage, cement mixer versus battery charger.

Great work..!!

Got the wood rack finished today, even threw some paint at it. Will get some pictures posted in a little while.

Very nice art work. Lots of work in that guy. I do a little forging now and then. My old forge is still hand cranked, at some point in time plan to hook up an old vacuum with a speed control up to it.

May just have to steal your Christmas tree idea. That is real neat. Now you need to make an angel to go on top. :laughing:

Sure wish I had though of and tried the cement mixer a few years ago. Ran a batch today for around 3 hours. That pretty much got the dirt & rust out of the groves. Think adding in some odd ball scrap and stobs helps, sort of hammers on them.

In the pictures is an old chair done a few years ago. Don't think I cleaned the shoes at all other than a quick wire brushing. Look close at Christmas tree and you can see the angel. Was making a pintle hitch eye in the old forge. In the pan are a bunch of stobs. They are all clean now.

 

[crash325]

Well the horse shoe wood rack is finished. Even threw some paint at it and tested it. :laughing: :thumbsup:

Every part except the bolts, nuts, paint, welding rod and electricity are all out of my treasure pile. (Some folks might call it a junk pile.)

Some Minor wort's, when lining up the 2 ends I matched them up wrong. So the 1" they were out of square wound up being 2" over all. When the cross pieces were welded in, that put a little twist in it. But being a wood rack these are not real problems.

Rack is roughly 30"X30", cross pieces are 5/8" rod. Adjustable feet are 1/2" carriage bolts.

Were I building it for someone else, the wort's would have been fixed. Now that it one is done, the next one will go together a lot faster.

 

[Baby Grand]

If you're not in a rush, I have heard that a 1:10 mix of molasses:water will give you a nice phosphoric acid rust remover. Takes a few days, but it's cheap and your work piece size is only limited by your tank dimensions and how much molasses you can bring back from the store.

 

[DJ54]

Yeah, lots of hammering on that sunburst..!!

Have at it on the Christmas tree... That one took 96 shoes. Used a piece cut out of an 8' conduit reel, to line the shoes up on, and weld together. Giving the boughs somewhat of a sweep to them. Then welded a small tailpipe clamp low on the end, for a jig to clamp it to the pipe, and weld.

I've had more than several requests to make more. I tell them to save their shoes...

I've read about the molasses thing, but think that may get pretty rank, and around here, probably draw yellow jackets.

 

[crash325]

Yeah, lots of hammering on that sunburst..!!

Have at it on the Christmas tree... That one took 96 shoes. Used a piece cut out of an 8' conduit reel, to line the shoes up on, and weld together. Giving the boughs somewhat of a sweep to them. Then welded a small tailpipe clamp low on the end, for a jig to clamp it to the pipe, and weld.

I've had more than several requests to make more. I tell them to save their shoes...

I've read about the molasses thing, but think that may get pretty rank, and around here, probably draw yellow jackets.

I was going to ask how big the Christmas tree was. If I did build one it would be a lot smaller, maybe 4', 5 at the most.

Forge work is fun. Just can't do much anymore as my shoulders just wont take the pounding. About 5 years old I would turn the crank on Grandads old forge. When he would get busy, I'd start winding it up. Thought it was great fun to really make it burn.

Happy with how the mixer cleans the shoes. Around 2 1/2 hours even the dirt & rust around the nails is gone.

Not sure if I'll build another rack very soon. Would like 1 about 4' long to put on the back deck. But may just do another project instead.

 

[DJ54]

That tree is right at 5' tall. 1-1/4" pipe for the center, and 1" X 1" light square tubing for legs. Just stuff I had around. The top two little red shoes are attached to a 1/2" bolt. It's so heavy, it takes the tractor to move it, LOL... I have a 1/2" eye bolt I put in it to move.

I made my own forge. Found plans online where a guy made one from a F-350 front brake rotor. As luck would have it, I had two from my F-450, that were beyond turning. Sits real well in a mobile home rim.

I tried using a shop vac for a blower, but the noise got unbearable, it was one of those small whiney ones. I looked around, and got an AO Smith 140 cfm mini squirrel cage blower from ebay. It is the berries..!! The roar of the fire, is louder than the blower.

I control it with a pivoting dump gate at the bottom. Works great.

 

[BobRip]

Cool stuff. I have made a few of these. My wife likes reindeer, and moose.