Putting the Cart Before the Horsemen

September 19th, 2020

Pre-Tribulation Diversions

Did some more work on my propane torch cart today.

As mentioned yesterday, I have been building a cart to hold an oxygen bottle and a propane tank, so I can finally start using my cutting outfit. I had no success when I looked for manufactured carts, so I bought a cheap Home Depot handtruck and started fabricating.

Yesterday I put a larger base plate on the cart so the propane tank wouldn’t hang off the front, and I added two brackets with chains to hold the oxygen cylinder in place. Today I made a bracket for the propane tank and welded it in place, and I also put some little tabs on the base to prevent the tanks from scooting around. These tabs were completely unnecessary, but they can’t hurt.

I would have done this work yesterday, but I was under the mistaken impression that I didn’t have enough flat bar. Today I saw some lying on the workshop floor, so that changed everything.

To make the bracket, I cut up 1/8″ by 1″ bar, bent one piece into an L, and welded another piece to it. A photo will show you what I mean. I ground some paint off the handtruck and welded the new bracket in place.

To make the tabs, I did what I usually do. I looked for something I had lying around. I found some heavy-duty angle iron cut short pieces out of it, softened the edges using the belt grinder, and welded them to the cart’s base plate.

Now all I need are paint and a rubber strap to hold the propane tank in place. I went to Tractor Supply and bought truck bed coating, but they didn’t have a suitable strap. I bought two new propane tanks and had them filled. Now I have dedicated tanks for the weed torch and cutting outfit. Tractor Supply was selling tanks for $10 off, so that was nice.

Tomorrow, I should be able to paint the cart and set the torch up. Maybe I’ll heat the bent ears on my middle buster and bend them so they’re straight again. Then I could weld in gussets to strengthen them, and I could also try out the long 7/8″ bar I bought to replace the pins that attach to the three-point hitch.

I tried to do another project. I put a big square of 1/4″ plate in my finger brake and tried to turn it into a pan. Didn’t work. I was trying to make a bend a little over 15″ long. The brake is rated for 15″ at a quarter-inch, so it should have worked better than it did. Not sure what’s happening. I hope the people who made the brake were not dishonest.

I figure I can still bend the pan if I do it in short steps, moving the pan sideways under the brake as I go. We’ll see.

The brake is still a great product. How often will I want to bend something that thick over 15″? Not very. Most bends are much shorter, and the brake can handle 3/8″ steel as long as you don’t go too wide.

When I look at the news, I feel like I’m rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I’m isolated here, amusing myself with pleasant hobbies while insanity spreads over the face of the planet like mold. Oh, well. I may not be doing the world much good, but least I’m not in Portland or Chicago.

A couple of days back I spoke to someone who is also watching the mess from outside. I spoke to well-known conservative blogger Baldilocks for the first time. I guess we have been acquainted since around 2003, and we have communicated via email and blog comments, but we never spoke until this week.

She seems to have the same basic opinion that I do. Leftists are eat up with demons. It’s good to know someone who isn’t uncomfortable discussing the supernatural.

Hope I get the torch working tomorrow. It will be a huge addition to my shop, and I foresee an uptick in metal fabrication after I learn to use it.

15 Responses to “Putting the Cart Before the Horsemen”

  1. terrapod Says:

    Those are pretty good welds on the brackets. What MIG unit are you using/

  2. baldilocks Says:

    Finally!

  3. Steve H. Says:

    I have been using a Titanium 200 Unlimited,or maybe it’s Unlimited 200, welder from Harbor Freight. It was very cheap, it’s light, and it does stick and DC TIG. It’s my favorite welder. The torch is easier to handle than a big Lincoln torch. I suppose that means it’s less durable, too, but I haven’t managed to break it yet.

  4. vlad Says:

    Wow! Really good work.

  5. Steve H. Says:

    Thanks. I still don’t weld well, but paint and grinding cover a lot of sins.

  6. Aaron's cc: Says:

    I met Baldilocks at a conservative blogger lunch that accommodated me by being held at the Pico Kosher Deli.

    Kinda pricy but the portions are huge. The pastrami and thw Dave’s Special (turkey breast and corned beef) are reliably impressive. Their rye bread crust is perfect.

  7. Steve H. Says:

    Ocala has a great bagel place…that doesn’t serve lox.

  8. Aaron's cc: Says:

    I was Zillowing Florida cities with eruvs this week. I have a daughter who lives in Hollywood. Jacksonville looks very affordable but is too far for easy driving. Orlando is better. Property taxes aren’t bad in most of Florida but there are communities with insane HOA fees. I don’t care for golf. Looking to spend $400k to buy a home outright and to only have to pay for property taxes, utilities, food and healthcare. Haven’t had cable TV since 1996 so we could raise our kids but I need high internet bandwidth for work.

    Ben Shapiro is moving his business from LA to Tennessee. His family, I’m reliably told, is moving to Florida (I know the community but won’t reveal). He will probably still have to pay for 24/7 physical security due to legitimate death threats, but it’ll be easy for him to get a CCH license. He’s physically small, 5’8″-ish, and lightly built, but the slogan about Sam Colt making men equal will be operative. He is a concert-level violinist so I suspect his hand-eye control will help with pistol accuracy.

    I think I’d prefer Tennessee, which has eruvs in Memphis and Nashville, but being more than a 2 hour drive from at least one of my kids is a non-starter with my wife, with whom I just celebrated our 32nd anniversary.

    My 2 kids in Queens are there for their husband’s schools but I don’t see them there 5 years from now. Another is in Silver Spring, which is a lovely suburb near the government R&D work my son in law does, but MD is among the most 2A-hostile states.

    I doubt I will be in California by the end of 2022. Hoping real estate doesn’t crash before I sell. Trump got the 2028 Olympics for LA, which was hugely successful and profitable in 1984, so I’m hoping there is demand due to people liking that stuff.

  9. Steve H. Says:

    Orlando and Hollywood are not a lot better than Miami, but in Hollywood, you would have the advantage of a large Jewish community in Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade. You would have more people to make a Masada-style last stand or strategic exit with.

    Florida’s future is dubious at best. It’s full of illegals, and there has been a gigantic influx of liberal Puerto Ricans. Northern retirees never stop coming, either. They come down here and vote twice.

    Memphis and Nashville are not conservative cities, and Memphis, with an overwhelmingly black Democrat population, has high riot potential. Wikipedia says it has the nation’s second-worst crime rate.

    Northerners think a 5-hour drive is long! Funny.

  10. Steve H. Says:

    I’m looking at the list of cities with eruvin. It’s amazing, the depth of the trouble you’re in. It’s like a list of places Ralph Lane or Al Sharpton would retire to. You can’t move to a safe place. The best you can do is to move to a place that isn’t too far from a safe place.

  11. Aaron's cc: Says:

    Suburban eruvin tend to be in very expensive areas.

    The point of an eruv is to accomodate people concentrated in an area typically smaller than 10 square miles so people can walk to shul. Historically, a shtetl could be easily enclosed. Back then, pogroms, not BLM or Antifa or Democratic party mayors were the downside of shtetl life… probably akin to Orthodox Mayberrys, but with fewer bullets than Barney Fife.

    The Los Angeles eruv is so huge it includes many nice neighborhoods. Instead of wire, it turns out the freeway embankments constitute walls.

    For whatever reason, G-d prohibited pork for me and needs me to be within walking distance of a minyan.

    I don’t need a community with kosher restaurants. With a big enough home, I’d be fine with driving once or twice a month to a city for kosher meat and cheese and freezing. I’ve fantasized of a back yard with a kosher bbq pit and a separate wood-burning outdoor pizza oven. Time to make the calzones.

    Maybe in Trump’s second term RTC will become national.

  12. Steve H. Says:

    Maybe you can find a decent area in Orlando. You would be within bugout distance of my farm.

  13. Aaron's cc: Says:

    Leave a note: In Case of Rapture, the .45ACP ammo is for [my name here].

  14. Steve H. Says:

    You kid, but that has been on my mind.

  15. Aaron's cc: Says:

    Interesting times. Google: red heifer Colombia.

    I’m too old for Levite Temple duty. I blow shofar pretty well.