Welding & Good Neighbors
Two weeks ago, I purchased the 2″ square tubing that I needed to make the window & door frames. I bought the chop saw a few weeks ago & finally opened the box to cut the numerous 45* angles & shorten the 20′ lengths of tubing to fit in the van for the ride home.
Last week, I talked again w my neighbor on the next street about using his 110 welder, but he was skeptical that it’s low power would successfully weld the tubing. Instead, we asked his neighbor next door who graciously loaned us his full-size full-powered unit complete w rods & truck.
Time was getting late by the time it was ready to use, but we got one door frame successfully assembled. The next day, we spent nearly 5 hours assembling the window frame.
Billy (my neighbor) was doing most of the welding, but he’s an older guy & was getting quite tired after only half the frame was together. I offered to finish the work & did the other 2 corners myself. My angle cuts weren’t perfect so we had to do some fill in (old nails) & other work arounds. All-in-all it didn’t turn out too badly. I laid a decent line, possibly better than Billy.
However, what did turn out badly were my original torch cuts. The frames aren’t the right size for the openings. The door frame will need to be cut shorter, so that’s no big deal. The door we planned to install is quite a bit smaller than the frame, so we might end up adding onto the current door to make it large enough to fit or making our own custom doors. Could be fun. The window frame is larger than the opening, but the window frame does fit the window w ~1″ of ‘slop’. Close enough to install it.
2 more windows and another door to go!
Big Family, Small House 