Author: Mike

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Burning My Foot While Welding

Burning My Foot While Welding

It has been really hot in my shop this summer. So far some minor welding jobs, I have chosen not to wear full protective clothing and just take my chances with the sparks. My Australian friend Marcus Ohms has set a bad example for me in this regard.

Things were going pretty well until a glowing hot piece of metal fell into my shoe and wedged against my ankle to cool. It left a nice blister but I never stopped work, I just shook it out and kept on.

I was showing my dad the blister and he laughed and told me a story of him getting into a similar situation.

He said he had stopped by his father’s welding shop one day after his college class. He was wearing his dress slippers.

As he walked into the shop, they were working on a particularly difficult overhead weld that my dad had always done when he was working in the shop. My grandfather told my dad to hop up on the platform and finish the weld since he was quite good at it.

Dad said he was welding away and having to fill in a large gap when a large piece of molten metal fell into his shoe. He felt the burn so he just kicked off his shoe and continued welding.

The shoe however had flown across the shop and caught my grandfather right in the back of the head. My grandfather asked “Why did you kick me in the head?”

I told these stories to a millwright friend of mine who then shared this story:

He was welding structural steel on about the fourth story. He was sitting straddle of a beam welding in a cross brace. He had his legs wrapped around the beam to hold himself in place.

While welding, a hot glob rolled down the beam and then between his legs. The glob burned through his Levis and into the tender skin below. He tried to wiggle away form the burn while maintaining his balance on the beam. He burning piece of metal worked its way around inside his jeans burning his inner thigh and calf before finally falling out hit pants leg.

I guess the moral of the story is to always wear the proper protective clothing when welding. Or to remember that if you weld with fire you may get burned.

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1966 El Camino on Ebay

I have always loved El Caminos. My first car was a 67 El Camino. But I gave it back to my dad after only a couple weeks driving it. I just could not keep up with its thirst for fuel. And that was at mid 70’s pricing.

We still have that El Camino. It has been slowly working its way up[ the project list for a rebuild.

This one looks like a pretty nice basis for an El Camino Project as well.

Ebay 1966 El Camino

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Trailer Loading Dock

Trailer Loading Dock

For a long time I have wanted a loading dock near my barn so that I don’t have to wrestle with heavy ramps every time I load and unload a Jeep there. I just could not figure out an easy way to build a big hump of dirt.

However, I noticed that with all the rain we have had lately that the place where I normally keep my trailer was getting kinda rutted and the rear deck was getting closer to the ground. That gave me an idea.

Instead of building a dirt ramp, I could make a hole like many of the truck loading docks at old stores in downtown. That way the load would be a ground level and the trailer bed would be tilted just like my little trailer.

At first I thought I would need to dig a big hole. Then I realized only the wheels need to go down. And they really don’t have to go down very far because the overhang behind the wheels is pretty long. I figured out if I dug two slots for the wheels then I would have my dock. I could use the dirt from the holes to make a small ramp as well.

I cleared a few small trees form one side of the driveway and made a couple of holes.

Here is how it ended up:

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Fabricating a Rear Bumper for a Jeep Cherokee

Fabricating a Rear Bumper for the Jeep Cherokee

Old and new bumpers

My old rear bumper had gotten pretty mangled. In fact, it was so bent that it was difficult to open the hatch. Every time I dropped into a ditch or V notch, the bumper was always dragging. I wanted something slimmer and stronger. But I did not want to spend any money.

The whole concept of Scuffy II has been to build a reliable and capable off road vehicle with minimum investment. Sometimes I have had to sacrifice appearance for functionality. I decided I could do the same with the rear bumper and build one out of whatever scrap I had lying around.

I started with a piece of two inch conduit. It seemed strong enough and light enough. But since the back of the Jeep is curved slightly a straight pipe did not look right or provide protection. I wanted to be able to back into a tree and not break the hatch or a tail light housing.

I solved that problem by using my pipe bender and putting a slight curve in the pipe. I then decided to fabricate brackets to mount the pipe so that it stuck out about half the pipe past the hatch and tail lights. That should keep it from dragging when coming up out of holes.

I wanted to use the stock mounting points so I looked around and found a piece of I beam that had holes that looked like they were the right spacing already. I simply cut the beam in half and had my two brackets. I just had to ream the holes a bit to make them match the holes it the Jeep. I made a few notches to get them to clear the hatch and other flanges at the rear of the Cherokee.

I then made half moon cuts to hold the pipe. I used vise grips to line up the pipe in the brackets and then tack welded it into place. I then pulled the assembly off and moved it to the welding table to finish welding it up.

I had purposely cut the pipe long because I was not sure what I wanted to do with the ends. I had thought about making bends to match the front bumper but I could not make a tight enough radius with my bender to do hat I wanted and still protect the bottom of the tail lights.

I eventually decided to make angled cut on the ends to somewhat match the lines of the Cherokee. I set up my band saw at the angle I wanted to cut both ends the same. I liked the look but not the sharp edge it left. Also, there was a gap between the body and the pipe where I could easily hang a small tree.

I decided to make end caps that covered the end of the pipe and extended forward to fill the gap. I searched the scrap pile again and came up with a piece of 3x3x1/4 angle that I cut into two plates. I welded them to the ends of the pipe and smoothed the corners.

I painted the whole thing flat black and bolted it to the back of the Jeep. The rear tow hook is much more accessible now. I can open the hatch easily now. I will have to give it a test drive to see how it handles dragging the mud.

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Remembering the Battle of Athens 8-1&2 1946

Remembering the Battle of Athens 8-1&2 1946

I had never heard of the battle of Athens until recently. This spot where “The Friendly City” received national recognition shortly after WWII seems to be forgotten or more likely swept under the rug.

Yesterday, I drove through Athens and found the historical marker that marks the location of the old Jail. I drove on up to Fort Loudoun to see where the political corruption got its root in the area even before the removal of the Cherokee.

The politics of McMinn county had become increasingly corrupt for ten years or so leading up to the battle. While the real men of the community where away fighting the war, the corrupt politicians had tightened their strangle hold on the community.

Elections had become a total sham and the police force ruled the area with an iron fist or blackjack. Illegal whisky flowed freely at the casinos and night clubs. Political officials would occasionally roll an unsuspecting patron of his cash and then parade him in front of the church folks as an example of how they were cleaning up the very corruption they sponsored.

When the GI’s returned from War, they found the very freedoms they had fought for were no where to be found in their home of Athens, Tn. They also found themselves not too welcome by “The Friendly City.”

They formed their own non partisan political organization called the GI party. Their mission was to make sure ht elections were held fairly and that votes were to be counted as cast.

The voting fraud described from the period seems comical. There were the normal stories of the bally boxes being stuffed with names from tombstones. There were stories of having a midget hiding under the table where the ballot box was and pulling out ballots of the opposing party. And there were stories of busses going around from polling place to polling place where supporters would vote again and again in exchange for cash or liquor.

I am not sure why they even bothered with all that because the real fraud was in the vote counting anyway. Where the polls closed, the ballots were counted in secret and the results announced by the controlling organization.

The trouble began early in the morning when the GI part tried to make sure the polls were operating legally. The Sheriff in power had brought in mercenaries from all over east Tennessee and north Georgia. One of the GI poll watchers was shot early in the morning as a warning to others. Many others faced physical intimidation. However, the incumbents did not realize that the GIs were accustomed to facing death at the barrel of a gun and fighting for their lives. The GIs were not intimidated.

At the end of the day when the ruling party tried to take the ballot boxes away to be counted in secret, the GIs fought back. The boxes were successfully moved to the jail for safe keeping. However, the GIs armed themselves with what ever weapons and ammunition they could find and began a siege of the jail.

By morning they had defeated the sheriff and the corrupt politicians had left town. A new county government was formed from scratch. The episode made national headlines but was quickly forgotten.

The full story if told in an excellent book by Howard Cook. The book tells the story of Bill White who was instrumental in leading the battle of Athens. That is when he was not locked in his bedroom by his mother. The book tells of Bill White learning about political corruption from the Indian stories and visiting places like Fort Loudoun, Toqua and Chota near Athens.

The story continues to show how Bill was trained for battle in the Marines and how he faced death so that he was not at all intimidated by the sheriff’s guns when he got back home.

Swifter than eagles: Bill White and the battle of Athens, 1946 is an excellent story that captures not only the historical and political perspective of the story but also explains the personalities of the men behind the story. Cook gives the background not only of Bill White but of the area to put the two day episode in perspective.

It is a shame that the book is out of print and no electronic version is available. It make san excellent lesson in government and politics that I think we could all learn from these days.

You may find a used or collectors copy on Amazon:Swifter than eagles: Bill White and the battle of Athens, 1946 : a nonfiction novel Thanks to Sherry Crye for loaning me her signed copy.