I've gotten minor burns on my arms 'cause of slag, but nothin' serious.
When in college, many years ago, I was welding some brackets. I suddenly noticed an odd smell and felt a warming on the left side of my chest. A hot piece of slag had flown into my shirt pocket and ignited a book of matches. Luckily, there was a pack of cigs between me and the match book. Burned the whole front off my shirt pocket. Haven't had any probs with the towel, *crosses fingers*, I suppose I should use a light piece of leather instead. Although, I have'nt gotten any slag in my helmit without the towel, yet. [&:]

 

Hey Dave, glad to see you back in the swing of things. I know what a pain it can be trying to work around the weather, did lots of under the truck repair's in the snow and other ugly weather for too many years. Anyway, the service rack sounds interesting, are you building it in a semi-permanent spot above your pit? Drive on ramps to the rack height? Just be careful with unstable earth especially in this wet season. If you don't have leather protection when welding, 100% cotton is the next best thing. Take your time, be careful, good luck. Bob

 

Hey Bob,
I hear ya on the bad weather repairs. I've done stuff in my younger years that I wouldn't even think about, let alone do today. [&o]
I filled in the pit. The rack will be on 2' x 2' x 4" reinforced cement pads for each support. Drive on, removableramps for sure. The whole structure will be able to be unbolted to dismantle and stow away.
That is if ya can really "stow away" two 11' x 1' x 2' 300 lb.steel structures.
I'll take some pics as it comes together. It'll prob scare the heck out of ya.
I did get a couple of the upright supports cut at work today. I just played dumb and the maint guy cut them for me.It's O.K. though, I've scratched his back more than once.

 

The rack is a good size project all by itself but it will make things allot easier and much more safe workin' underneath the starship. As you can see from my post today about my engine build, I may not be gettin' to the transplant anytime soon. I was hoping for a couple of weeks layoff from work this winter but I have been requested to work on a special project. We're working on a showcase house with geothermal heating and cooling. I've been gettin' my 40+ hours on this job for the last 3-4 weeks and still have a few weeks of piping and control work left. I love the work and the general contractor is great but it's cuttin' into VETTE time.

 

So smoking could've saved your life. [sm=icon_rock.gif]


More than the tripod setup you were using to pull/install the engine? [sm=icon_cheers.gif]

Good luck with your project.

 

Ya mean this little contrivance of "Redneck Engineering"?



Well, it worked!

 

[sm=yikesomg.gif]

Yep. [sm=signs007.gif]


I wasn't scared.

[sm=jawdrop.gif]

Can't argue with success.

 

It's the redneck engineering that helps keep our hobby affordable, if I had to farm out all of the work on any of my vehicles I would have fewer of them. I enjoy the challenge of doin' it myself.

 

Ya, it's just as much fun designin' and buildin' a contraption for cents, that others would pay big $ for. I'm always tryin' to come up with a cheaper alternative.