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Keel / BulbAlison Gai14/10/2007 |
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The bulb base plate as supplied from my local engineering workshop. The Holes are cut and just need a touch with a hacksaw to get them out.
Should be a 2 man lift but I can get it around.
My little welder that served me well on the handrails was not up to the 10 mm steel. I managed to borrow a real welder that made the job so much easier.
A 2 man lift now.
A box of lead and a lttle clamp to hold thing perfect while I weld. Looking great... except I forgot to order the center 6mm with holes. They look terrible but I cut managed to cut them with my angle grinder.
A Real 2 man lift now.
I cut the trailing edge 1st. Then spot welded the tail, clamped up most of the skin and traced out the top edge. Took the skin off and cut the top edge. Then spot welded the 95 % of the side on with the bottom edge over hanging. I then cut the bottom edge at the 10 mm plate, re-welding as I went. The last 5 % I cut so it would fit inside the 10 mm base and with a big lever welded on and a calibrated hammer, fine tuned the leading edge.
The other side was not as easy as there was no way to clamp the top edge. My best guess left me 3 mm short at the top edge for the last 50 mm which was simple to weld shut but time consuming. The hardest part was joining the 2 side at the leading edge. This was done by welding some angle to each side and pulling them together with all my clamps. Removing them and grinding some length off and retrying until a good fit was achieved.
Note to self… when cutting the big lever off, remember the balance. As the post fell to the ground one way the bulb fell to the ground the other way… get out of the way!
Almost beyond a 2 man lift now.