Metalworking is a very practical and fun hobby, and allows the construction of an enormous assortment of different items. The hobbyist craftsmen of GCH are firmly dedicated to the pursuit of metalworking as a hobby, although ideally a hobby which doesn't cost so much. In addition to metalworking, electronics, woodworking, and simple engineering are active hobbies of GCH. Although practiced as hobbies, the tools and expertise of GCH are available for hire, in an effort to create self-supporting hobbies.
Below is a description of the major tools available to the craftsmen of GCH (Paul Gettings, Eric Cline, and Derrick Hasterok), and some previous and future projects. Anyone who needs some custom metalworking should feel free to contact the craftsmen to discuss possible help or hire. The workshop of GCH is not a full metalworking shop, and hence cannot do everything. But, custom metalworking that requires both engineering and integrated construction (e.g. metalworking and electronics) is definitely welcomed; the more exotic and interesting the project, the more we want to work on it!
In addition to welding, torch cutting, grinding, and other metal working skills, the craftsmen at GCH also have experience with hydraulics/pneumatics, electronics (design, fabrication, and testing), vacuum systems, cryogenic systems, embedded software, scientific computing (including software development), geophysical field equipment (design, fabrication, maintenance, and use), and data acquisition systems (design, implementation, and use). Any and all skills are available at reasonable prices (sometimes even free!) for interesting projects.
This services offered are not a commercial venture in the typical sense of a for-profit company; rather, this is an attempt to be able to work on interesting projects that pay for themselves, and cover the cost of maintaining and acquiring the tools necessary. Consider this scheme to be a non-profit organization formed to work on nifty new ideas, with any "profits" (money left after materials and supplies) re-invested into the organization in the form of new tools and techniques. We are attempting to make cheap hobbies out of expensive ones.
The workshop is currently housed in a shed and the attendant space. The shed holds the main work table (built of steel and concrete, of course), torch, welder, and most other tools. The back of the shed (with a roof!) has the foundry/forge and additional storage/work space.
In addition to the miscellaneous tools (wrenches, sockets, drill press, etc.) common to any shop, there are some particularly useful and less common tools available to GCH:
The first large project in metal work, started just after finishing a welding course. A full-size camper shell using 1.5" square tube as the frame covered with 16 gauge (~1/16") sheet steel. Welded entirely with the torch, this project represents many, many hours of welding. Remarkably light, the shell is easily moved by 2 men when off the truck.
A new version of the shell would use a slightly different frame design, although retain the 16-gauge walled 1.5" square tube. The sheeting would also be bent and then welded, to make a nicer corner line at the top edge of the frame. Instead of inserting the 1.5" square tube into the post holes of the truck bed, a new version would use a clamp system to hold down a horizontal tube against the bed rail. This would allow the installation of a gasket between the bed and shell, reducing noise, wind leakage, and possible paint damage.
Designed and fabricated by Paul Gettings.
Pistol Targets
Made of 1/4" steel cut into a strangely shaped bowling pin, the targets easily withstand the impact of light handgun rounds (9mm, .45 ACP, etc.). Heavy handgun and rifle rounds (.44 Magnum, .308 Win) severly dent or punch holes in the steel. The silhouette is welded to a 1/2" hot-rolled rod that sits in a pipe on either side. The pipe is welded to a 3/8"-thick angle iron. A length of 1" pipe is welded to the bottom of the angle iron to hold the target in a 4x4 post.
With the addition of a spring, the targets will be self-reseting. This particular project is ongoing, as the ultimate goal is an air-actuated, rifle-grade silhouette target for action shooting practice.
Simpler designs using a fixed target are currently in use, as additional work is done to make the stands more portable. Target material is still mild steel, although armor plate is available for a heavy-caliber target. As armor steel is best cut with a plasma cutter, the armor plate targets will likely be built just after the acquisition of a plasma cutter.Designed and fabricated by Paul Gettings (design, welding, cutting) and Eric Cline (additional design).
Radio Box
This is actually a large angle iron formed from two sheets of 1/8" mild steel welded at the corner. The box is custom fit to the inside of a 1972 FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser, and holds a car stereo, CB, two glove boxes, and numerous gauges and switches. The top of the box follows the roof line of the truck, and the whole thing is bolted to the channel iron at the top of the door frames. Mounting holes for the stereo, CB, and glove boxes were cut with the torch, and all the welding done with a torch. A new version would use the MIG welder to speed the build considerably.
Additionally, two speakers were mounted in the rear of the truck for the stereo. This location keeps the speakers out of the way of cargo, and allows the use of 6x9" speakers for improved sound.
Designed and fabricated by Eric Cline (design, grinding, finishing, and installation) and Paul Gettings (additional design, welding, and steel cutting).
Land Cruiser SlidersA set of two box-steel beams underneath the sides of the 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser, designed to protect the body panels from damage due to sliding off rocks on rock-crawling expeditions. These beams are attached via bolts to a set of brackets welded to the frame; one set of brackets comes standard with the Land Cruiser to mount sideboards. For rock-crawling trips, the sideboards are removed and the sliders attached.
Built from 1/4" wall box steel (2"x3") and 3/16" steel plate (brackets), the sliders were welded entirely with the MIG machine (see above), making construction very, very fast compared to previous projects (e.g. truck shell).
The sliders were tested on the Rubicon trail in the high Sierra Nevada mountains, to great success. Numerous impacts left no noticeable damage to the sliders, mounts, or truck. The sliders were not painted (they were finished a day before the trip), but should be sand-blasted and painted by the next outing.
Land Cruiser Corner ArmorFJ40 Land Cruisers are known for destroying the rear brake lights on rock-crawling expeditions. The lights are attached to the rear bumper by two bolts, and extend beyond the bumper with no protection at all. Moreover, the Land Cruiser body has no protection from impacts in the rear corners by default. For the trip down the Rubicon trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains (see Sliders, above), this needed to be addressed.
The resulting prototype is a 90 degree corner made from the same box steel as the Sliders (1/4" wall, 2"x3" O.D.) attached to the rear bumper via a 1/4" plate. The corner armor uses the same mounting holes as the rear brake lights, effectively replacing them for off-road driving (no brake lights will be installed!). An additional fin of 1/4" steel was welded to the top of the box to rest against the inside edge of the bumper (which is channel iron). This prevented the corner armor from bending up when the truck fell onto them.
Reports from the Rubicon trail trip indicate that the corner armor left nice, clean, 90 degree dents in the rocks the Land Cruiser fell onto. No damage to the body was sustained, despite repeated impacts. The corner armor appear unhurt from the drops. However, the prototype does suffer some design flaws: (1) the leg pointing towards the tire needs to be 10" long, not 7"; (2) the end next to the tire needs to be angled away from the body and have a cap, so the armor doesn't snag on boulders; (3) an additional mounting plate is needed on the bottom to help prevent the corner armor from bending back.
The prototypes were built the evening before the trip, in a total of 2 hours from initial conception to final testing on the frame. The improved version will take more time (more parts), but should still be reasonable for an evening. MIG welders are wonderful inventions.
Steel Wall HangingsThese are purely artistic creations, meant solely to decorate a room. They are formed from 1/8" (actually, 11 gauge) steel, and were cut with the torch, by hand. This took a while. They fit in a 2' tall by 5' long bounding box, and represent landscapes; one mountain, one desert. After cutting, the steel needed to be straightened in a few locations, and then ground to get the shiny steel look. Contoured steel blocks were welded to the back side to provide mounts, and the whole thing coated in a clear coat (e.g. shellac) to prevent rust or discoloration.
After cutting, each hanging weighs only a few pounds, and hence is suitable for any interior wall of a house. At nearly 5 ft long, they are quite impressive to see in person.
If you would like a similar hanging, or a different design or size, please contact GCH and we'll see what we can do. These will not be particularly cheap, since the time investment to draw and cut one of these is substantial (10-20 hours).
Derrick Hasterok drew the designs onto the steel, Paul Gettings did the cutting and welding, and Derrick did most of the grinding.
Rifle Targets
Using hardened steel (e.g. AR400) plate rather than mild steel should make it possible to build steel targets that can withstand rifle rounds at short and long range, while still being portable without a crane.
The techniques for forming and working the hardened plate without damaging the heat treating is the major challenge in this project. Plasma cutters minimize the heat-altered zone from the cutting, but do not address the issue of forming shapes in the plate. The most exciting option currently is the use of the foundry to perform a heat-treatment of the finished plate to return the worked steel to 400 hardness. Some work also needs to be done on a suitable mounting and base for the targets.
Work on rifle targets also feeds into the interest in multi-hit body armor (see below).
Class IV Body Armor
This project represents a long-term (slow) research program of attempting to develop man-portable body armor (torso only) capable of withstanding multiple hits from rifle rounds at close range. It is not expected to fully achieve this goal (other groups with vastly larger resources (e.g. U.S. Department of Defense) have tried and failed), but multi-hit Class III should be within reach. The initial design is to use a combination of thin armor plate (e.g. AR400 steel) and ballistic nylon backing to form a breastplate similar to one seen in a suit of banded mail armor. This is a research program of mostly academic interest; there is no expectation of developing a cost-effective or mass-producable design. There will also not be any attempt to build concealable armor.
A refined prototype of body armor also provides a convenient testbed for work on integrating other useful systems, such as radios and GPS receivers, into the suit itself. This will, of course, include forays into user-interface design (how to build a cheap, lightweight, functional HUD?), information management (how to show all the information that's needed, and no more?), and power supplies (how to keep all this going for more than a few minutes?).