I've had an idea for a while to help stabilise the steps. It's not that they are unsafe but there is some movement under your feet as you walk up and down which can be a bit disconcerting. The most common question I get asked by people when they first see the steps is :
Q : "Are you going to have a handrail?
A : "Put your $@*&*%$ hand on the side of the $@*&*%$ truck".
The only reason I haven't done it until now is it involves welding inside a storage bin under the floor. Guess I can't put it off any longer. It's really very simple - drill a hole in the corner of the outer square tube and weld a nut on using a long piece of "all thread" rod screwed into the opposite corner to keep it aligned across the diagonal.
Take out the rod, slip the inside tube in (also square) and screw in a bolt. This presses the inside tube tightly into the opposite corner and nothing moves. It's just that I have to turn off and disconnect all the electrics so they don't get destroyed by welding "eddy" currents and make sure I don't set fire to anything with welding spatter. At least it's done now. Later I will make a hand wheel for the bolt so I don't have to keep looking for a spanner.
Speaking of looking for things . . . . have you ever spent twenty minutes looking for the red handled hammer only to find it right in the middle of the bench (WHERE YOU LOOKED A HUNDRED TIMES) only you were never going to see it because the handle was yellow?
I have had this idea of making the legs of the dining table from some stainless steel tubing. I was sure I had some in the rack except whenever I looked I couldn't see any. After arranging for a friend of mine to look in his rack (where I was sure I had seen some) I was putting something away in my rack ( a rare occurrence at the moment given the state of untidiness abounding) I went to move something wrapped in CLEAR plastic only to realise it was half a length of brand new stainless steel tubing of the exact size I wanted!
No more excuses - all I need to do is make some end fittings.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it - the stuff costs over $1000/metre, I have some 100mm diameter stainless bar left over from a previous customer's job.
There's $100 right there and I need 4 of them.
Back to the CNC lathe.
I tried a shape I liked but it was physically heavy and now being extremely weight conscious (yes I know this is going to make about 1kg difference, total!)
I decided to go with the more traditional
Seeing there are four of them to make and machining stainless is not the fastest job in the world I could do some other little thing while keeping an eye on it. Underneath the truck body you may remember the electrical bulkhead connectors. Well the negative ones aren't really a problem but the positive ones are a bit of a hazard. A bit careless reaching in there with anything metal could see a short circuit powerful enough to melt part of the chassis!
Some time ago I had found some covers which would do the job but needed the cables disconnected to get them on, and I wasn't sure I could get them over the terminals in any case.
I figured slitting them down the middle and then "ziplocking" them on would do the job.
Around this time the CNC had finished it's job.
So a quick ten minutes on the mill and they all had drilled and countersunk holes on the inside of the spigot - I just think they look better without screws showing, and
"TA DAH"!!
Well I think they look good anyway.
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