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May 1, 2008
Canopy finished
As you may be able to tell from the photos on my flickr site the canopy is essentially complete and has been for a whille. It is my lack of spare time and inspiration that has prevented me from finishing writing about the project.
I seem to recall that in my previous entry I had the frame complete and was searching for a roofing material. In the end, I settled on 1mm steel sheeting for the best weight vs strength compromise. It's not quite strong enough to stand on, but I reckon if it gets to the point where I want to load some shit on the roof it'll be time to invest in a roof rack anyways.
Working with steel sheeting requires specialized tools (for bending and cutting) to produce nicely fitting sections so I took the ute down to DnA steel. They were hoping to be able to get it done so that I'd have it for Easter weekend but the odd tapers and angles on the frame nessecitated more time to ensure a proper custom fit.
When I did receive the two sections of roofing, they fit the frame like a glove. I rang up my mate Bull who was quite happy to come down to the shed to help me assemble (as long as it was my shout for Hungry Jacks [yeah, Burger King was taken down here already so they're forced to call themselves that]) the rest of the cage.
While I'd been waiting for the roof to be manufactured, I'd kept myself busy assembling the doors for the cage. I used 25x25mm square tubing for the frames and used some old fencing for the cage part. It was a little tricky to work with cause it was dirty and galvanised but a drill with a wire brush attachment and cranking up the MIG a bit more was a workable solution.
With the roof attached to the frame, the next night was spent spray painting everything. Doors, frame and roof had to be done. Looking back, I reckon it may have been done over a few nights...as you can tell, I was working in a well ventilated area.
Once painted, I was ready for final assembly. This basically entailed manufacturing my hinges and attaching them to the frame and doors. Now these bloody hinges took a few more days of work and running around than I'd first anticipated. The original idea called for 2-3 bits of pipe to be welded to both the door and frame with a rod pasing through them all and acting as the pivot point. I'd found a beauty length of rod in the scrap heap so all I needed was the pipe. As it turned out the rod fit snuggly into one of the jack handles hanging around the shed. It wasn't long enough for the job though so I borrowed it to run around town with and find a suitable replacement. Never happened though. I wasn't searching very hard but after being to the third hardware shop and not finding a suitably snug and strong pipe I gave up. After explaining the situation, I changed the plans and welded the rod right onto a bit of spacing plate and then onto the frame. I somehow convinced Rex to 'lend' me the jack handle and it became the pipe sections on the cage door frames.
That brings it up to speed for now. I'm still trying to sort out some simple locks for the cage but it has sorta been put on the backburner as I'm appreciating having some spare time again. Overall, I'm satisfied with the project that only cost about $350 to put together. Obviously there are no labour charges involved....just some tins of XXXX and some Hungry Jacks. Maybe a steak dinner down the road. We'll have to see how the paint job holds up.
Posted by Dr.Unk at May 1, 2008 3:46 AM
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