new from Indiana

[mauricerichter]

In high school, my family helped me get a 1967 Ford LTD wagon. It was primer grey and needed lots of repairs. When I was 18, I spray painted it, but my father advised I needed to use red rubbing compound on it (turned out bad.) By early 20’s, with a supportive wife, we bought a ’66 VW beetle “frame” rolling stock and engine. Rebuilt the engine with advice from the VW dealership I worked at. I was going to build a fiberglass body on it – in the style of a 1930’s auto. I got as far as bolting on a few wood 2x4’s at the front, coated them with epoxy. It seemed overwhelming and I fizzled out.

I fooled around with a wire feed welder but even today I’m not satisfied with my results. Went to a farm auction, bought an ancient Lincoln “tombstone” Ac welder for $35, it only had a broken switch. I self-taught myself how to stick weld. Built a cultivator to use on my old Allis WD for home gardening.

While my oldest kids were in high school, I had a job in facilities maintenance, during annual reviews, the manager kept saying I needed to learn more about the equipment. After 4 years where I kept up with the engineers and still got the same story, I went to a community college for a degree in Industrial Maintenance. That’s when I found that my employer was never going to pay market rate AND got scared because I took classes. Got better jobs, increased my classes to include HVAC and now make almost 3 times more. One of my electives was TIG welding, which I got A’s for my welds. (Don’t own one yet.)

25 years ago, we acquired 5 acres and a 110+ old farmhouse. We have remodeled, added on, including a bit of duct sheet metal work, built a pole barn styled to look like old barns, raise animals, and had lots of old farm concrete and bricks to dispose of while filling in low spots. I wanted a back-hoe but too expensive. Found plans to buy to build a tow-able one. Took a year or 2 to decide to buy. Took a couple more years to ratchet up the courage to build it. I did find a forum – Machine Builders dot Net where the members are encouraging with a “can do” attitude. (Much like I see in the rules here.) I posted about the backhoe build under “Maurice’s 629 backhoe” and received much excellent advice. (The forum upgraded host servers and I think the archives are not back up yet.)

A friend gave me 3 Dodge trucks (’79, ’83, ’85) when I mentioned I need to put an engine in my WD. (He also gave me 2 1970’s hydro riding mowers which I fixedup and used.) My first try was to build a “tractor” with a Dodge 4x4 frame, Slant 6 engine, 2 transmissions, and transfer case. Most of that build is on MBN as Maurice’s tractor. It stopped when I broke a cast iron bell housing. (Too much torque at the engine.) My winter project is to put a dodge 318 and transmission into the WD.

In the middle of super-insulating our house to save more money for more projects including geothermal, or solar, or radiant.

Yes, I know all this does not fit into AllMetalShaping. This may show you that I can do most anything if I get my head moving in the right direction. If my intro was about metal shaping, I’d have very little to say.

For about 35 years (I am early 50’s) I have thought that elegance is a 1930 Cadillac, Lincoln, Duesenburg Phaeton. Since I won’t have enough money to buy one, my dream has been to build one. I have noticed that the wheelbase of our 2001 Chevy 15 passenger van matches a 1931 Cadillac v-16 Special phaeton.

My 2nd daughter’s ride has been a 1979 Pontiac Bonneville but it has oil leak issues and she does not have time to learn from me how to fix it. (And some rust which I don’t know how to fix yet.) Her dream vehicle is a 1950’s pick up truck. (My deal with her is she can work WITH me but don’t expect dad to be out there by himself! Told her she needs to learn to work on Classics, or marry a guy who can, or get a nice income!) I only have 16x24 feet for a shop until I add on to the barn.

Somewhere between MontgomeryAlabama and the southern state line on highway 231, there is a giant chicken made out of chrome bumpers. My wife raises chickens and decorates with chicken themes, and to grant her wish, I have agreed not to sell my sheet stainless steel for scrap until I can figure out how to make her a large outdoor chicken! Also got lots of brass and aluminum scrap that I might learn to forge into art, but that’s a different forum!

Started looking into fiberglass/carbon fiber and metal shaping. I’ve gotten a “bug” being a visitor on a couple of metal shaping sites! Seems more interesting than fiberglass.

I wrote in Word and then copy/paste here. Did it post correctly?

[Joe Hartson]

Maurice, welcome and thanks for the introduction. Interesting background you have. There is a lot of information here to help you with shaping sheet metal, hope you find it helpful. Thanks for joining us.

[Peter Tommasini]

Welcome to the forum Maurice
Peter

[HEATNBEAT]

Welcome to Allmetalshaping Maurice!
I got to say " that was the longest intoduction so far"

[David Gardiner]

Maurice, you win the prise for the longest intro I have seen to date! welcome to the site, you sound like someone who will not let anything stand in your way so I am sure you will learn metalshaping quick enough.

David

[Joe Andrews]

That's a Hoosier Intro Guys!

Welcome to the Site!

[mauricerichter]

Thank you everyone! I have been looking thru the stuff I could not see before registering! There is soo much content!

[Old Tin Rods]

lol! - Welcome

Originally Posted by Joe Andrews

That's a Hoosier Intro Guys!

Welcome to the Site!

[mauricerichter]

My wife got me these for Christmas:
Ulltimate Sheet Metal Fabrication by Timothy Remus
Sheet Metal Handbook by Ron & Sue Fournier