Tinkerin with new toys

WessB

About a month or so ago I bought myself one of them Harry homeowner welders.....figurin I was gonna teach myself how to weld...God only knows where this inkling came from....so anyways, I figured I`d give you all a glimpse of my latest and yet still incomplete project...pics to follow........[p]Merry Christmas...
Wess & Sally

WessB

<p />WessB,
Here`s the first shot of 3!!!!!

WessB

<p />WessB,
And a second shot.....and YEP that there is a MINI...

WessB

<p />WessB,
And the final 3rd shot....and NO it aint for sale..LOL

Mark Backer

WessB,[p]You made your own custom spring hinge assembly?!?!?!?!? [p]That's awesome.[p]I may need a moment to myself...

mad max beyond eggdome

WessB,
so i'm takin it that you took a sping loaded hinge for a small, and cut and welded it to fit the mini?? very, very cool. . .i can see the requests coming in to you already. ..hope you are prepared to make bunches of em for folks.. .you may be as busy as lawn ranger or nature boy. ..heeee

WessB

mad max beyond eggdome,
I dont think it would be worth the cost..as I did in fact cut a spring hinge off an older large band and cut it down, and then cut the original mini band...but hey if you want to send me those 2 items I might be in the market to fit em all together..Like I said it could get expensive...[p]Wess

mad max beyond eggdome

WessB,
wow, so thats the springs from a large. .. way too cool. . like putting a turbo charger on bicycle. . ..next up i guess is to use that toy to make some new jewlery for sally. . heeee

Marine Cook

WessB,[p]OUTSTANDING MAN!!! You did a great job. I've asked about one of these at my dealer as well as emailed John at BGE but they say there's not enough call for them. Was it difficult? I bought myself one of those little wire feed welders a while back and have been looking for a good project to break it in on. Of course I've never done any welding before so I hope I dont ruin a $60.00 hinge with my first attempt. Looks like I would need a hack saw, a grinder, a bench vise, the welder and some high temp flat black paint. Any thing else?[p]Thanks for the great idea.[p]Merry Christmas and Semper Fi,[p]MC

tn slagamater

WessB, WOOOW !! That is fantastic ! A mini that REALLY opens! Want another one to practice your welding on ???

Bordello

WessB,
Looking good, now please tell us how hard it was??? I just recently put the new mini hinge and SS vent in mine. Gee, the $30 could have gone towards a spring hinge re-vamp.
Happy Holidays,
New Bob

WessB

Marine Cook,
You pretty much covered everything you may need....The only difference I might mention, is that I started out with one of the "original" spring hinges for the large egg, this had 2 springs on it which are much smaller than the current springs on the large spring hinge. I was lucky that it worked on the mini using only one of the springs. Still yet, I`m thinking of heating it to weaken it a little....it`s got a fair amount of resistance when closing, not hateful mind you, but maybe tweakable....It really was not hard at all, I obviously made the hinge a lot less wide than it was. I had to re-bend the parts that actually attach to the bands..it`s pretty self explanatory if you look at what you`re working with...Keep a close eye on the gap between the top and bottom band, this is pushing their limits to not have a gap in the base and dome....Good Luck[p]Wess

WessB

tn slagamater,
As I said in my reply to Max...I dont hardly think it would be cost effective as you would have to have a large spring hinge to basically trash....Now iffin I can work a deal with BGE to buy just the spring assembly, and the mini bands....I may be in business..LOL[p]Wess

WessB

New Bob,
My reply to "Marine Cook" should explain it somewhat...but basically NO it wasn`t that difficult at all, I do still have some tweaking to do before the final clean up and paint....Thanks[p]Wess

tenntom

WessB,
Hey man, you r pretty sharp with your hands, lik the tile work, Stay safe, merry christmas to you and your's

WessB

TennTom,
Thanks...if you haven`t already seen it, you can see the entire build of the "Tiki Bar" on my website. Merry Christmas back at ya.....[p]Wess
[ul][li]WessB`s[/ul]