WTF are people thinking?

Just in case you can't tell what is being presented here. This is a 103" plasma flat screen TV with a 50" sitting in front of it. You may think this is in some rich single guys man room or maybe a genetic engineering laboratory. You're wrong, this is in a conference room. Well, large corporations can afford such things, you say. Yes, probably they can, but this is no large or small corporations. This is an Army conference room, for a fairly unimportant unit. Now you ask, why is there a normal sized TV in front of it? This is an excellent question. It's because the building housing it isn't equipped with enough power to run it. I mean it only uses 220-240 volts and consumes 1400 watts. Panasonic says the best application for this type of display is in broadcast studios or large entertainment venues. An Army conference room is neither, in case you had doubt.

I love gadgets and technology and this thing is awesome....I mean AWESOME. However, doing a little research I find the average cost is around 50k! So if you're in the military and are a little upset because we got a slap in the face 1.4% raise this year, this is an example of why. Bullshit spending like this is going on everyday. The govn't is saying save money, stop needless spending, review your budget, etc and our "Leaders" are saying F*#@ YOU we need big ridiculous televisions to look at PowerPoint slides and other assholes on VTC. I know I'd love to get the PS3 hooked up to that bastard and play some Gran Turismo 5 or Black Ops, I'm getting a little excited just thinking about it.

Just a thought.

Scrap Metal Jeep Sliders

So I have a Jeep Wrangler, a welder, some scrap metal, and limited monitary backing. This all came together in me next project, I'll call it "Scrappy Sliders". I've had the welder for a little while and only used it for small repairs and projects. Until I happened to come across a large pile of old hand rails near a construction site. The rails are a combinations of round and square tubing. Since I don't have a tube notcher, the square is the focus here.

STEP 1:
I started with the reciprocating saw and hacked out all the square tube. At this point the biggest pain in the ass is the paint. It catches fire, melts, and flakes everywhere. Probably going to be the only drawback of the whole project.



STEP 2:
As you can see from the picture I already have the passenger side completed and most of the problems work out. Using it as a template I cut the peices needed for the primary structure. The long peice in the back is 47" long, however the tubing is only about 36" long. That means I had to weld two peices together, I hope it's going to be strong enough. I'll get to that later, when I get to adding it the support mounts.

STEP 3: Weld all the pieces from 'Step 2' together. Get spun up in putting up xmas lights and let sit on garage floor one month. Wait for better weather...






TOOLS: No fancy fabrication tools is my garage, just the basics. I'll start left to right. Mechanics gloves, tape measure, speed square, wire brush, reciprocating saw w/ 24 TPI (tooth per inch) metal blade, angle grinder w/ various wheels, and a good hammer. Not in this picture is the welder, it's a Lincoln Electric Weld-pak 100 wire fed core flux 110 volt welder. The angle grinder is the most important in my book. Without it you can't make the clean cuts you need to get the pieces together or smooth down the welds for a sharp looking project. I've used a grinding disc, flapper disc, cut-off wheel, and wire wheel. Sure the welder brings it all together and nothings cooler than melting metal with electricity, but without a good grinder you're just sticking obscure metal bits to one another. Tools are cool.


STEP 4: After my holiday break and waiting out some snow and ice the weather broke and I started back to a little work. Here I'm adding in the center bracing. I cut them so that they fit tight for easy welding. Also making sure that I removed the paint and surface rust with the wire wheel on my grinder. Welding over or near paint will contaminate your welds and make them brittle. So preping the areas are important. In the pictures they are only just tack welded in place. The finish welds were laid in later.