Thinking about how you can build your own DIY freestanding material rack? Check out this organizational DIY project where I took all my extra wood and built a freestanding rack!

Sooooo I recently bought some wood. Wait, that’s not accurate. I recently bought a lot of wood. A lot being a 16’ trailer that had four pallets stacked with maple, walnut, mahogany, rosewood, white oak….and I’m not even sure what else yet as I haven’t had time to pilfer through it.

A friend of mine stumbled across a shop that shut down over 10 years ago and was looking to sell off their wood inventory. It was such a great opportunity that I said I would take it. You would have to right? Ha, only problem is I didn’t think about where I was going to put everything.

For the mean time I was able to store two pallet loads on the covered porch of my shop, but the remaining two were shelterless. I wasn’t willing to give up inside shop space for it so I decided to very quickly fab together an outdoor lumber rack. Something I could store in my woods, in front of my shop, and cover it with a tarp until I can come back and build a carport….which has been on my to-do list for a while anyways.

So now that you have the backstory and see what I’m working towards, lets get into how I built this material rack. 

I recently built a giant bandsaw mill and when ordering steel for that project, I had to buy 20’ joints of material even if I only needed a few feet. This meant I had a pretty good pile of left overs especially in the 2” x 2” square tubing so that’s what I decided to make my rack from.

I first took stock of what I had and let the material on hand determine just how big I could make the unit without having to buy more. I started by cutting down all the material at the chop saw first.

I do have a plan for this project available if you are interested. The plan includes a material list and a cut list for you. 

Working off my cut list, there were plenty of parts cut to the same length so I grabbed a scrap and would clamp it to the wing of my Chop Saw Station Plans to make a stop block. This way I could make my cut, then slide the material down until it was hitting this stop to make the next cut. 

To start assembling, I first put my two welding tables together to form one long table then rolled over my Power Mig 210 machine. BTW: I love this welding cart because it not only holds my welder but also has a shelf where I can keep my plasma cutter on it as well. Very handy. 

Again, I’m using what I had on hand which is a bunch of 2×2 stock that has a 3/16” wall thickness. I started by joining the top rail to the far left vertical member and to help with this I used a 90 degree magnet. This magnet is so cool because you can actually turn off and on the magnet feature. So I can slide it in place without it sticking to everything, but when things are lined up it has a knob on it I can turn which activates the magnet and causes it to stick and hold things in place. That is savvy. 

I tacked that corner in a few places to hold it still then measured over to where the next vertical needed to be placed. I’m not sure why I thought it was smart to use my worktable as the holding area of my parts as well, but since they were already there, I placed one up at the top and also one a little bit further down, to act as a spacer for setting this next vertical. I got that one tacked in as well then repeated the same process until I got to the end and all the verticals were tacked to the top rail. 

Next was to start tacking in the horizontal pieces that I was using as spacers. I placed these to give the back support and rigidity. Since I already cut all of them to length, this step went really quick as I just had to measure down and tack them in place on both sides. Since I was in a hurry on this one, Scott worked ahead of me to place the joints in place, with magnets, so I could just come and secure them with a few tacks. 

Once I made it to the end, I moved the entire rack back to gain access to the portion of the verticals where the next horizontal braces needed to go in. Of course if you have a larger work surface than you won’t have this issue, but to keep the entire thing from tilting forward, I held it while Scott placed an auto adjusting Armor clamp on it. This is a great example on how the holes in the weld tables come in handy….being able to use a variety of clamps anywhere. Now I could go to the bottom and tack the bottom cross members in place. 

Now with everything tacked in place, I could check to make sure everything was not only positioned correctly but also make sure the entire back was square. Since I didn’t have any mistakes, I went back to each joint and started closing all the seams. 

Ok that’s done, now to start attaching some arms. Since I made a cut list before getting started, I knew I would run out of the 2×2 stock if I tried to make all my arms from it. So I switched to some 1.5×1.5 for the top row of arms. I started off by measuring down where I wanted them positioned then used a right angle clamp to hold them in place.

Squaring up material these days can be achieved through several different means. When I attached the arms to this assembly, I leaned on the help of this Bosch GLL50 Cross line Laser Level in addition to these angle magnets. This unit is able to replace many-uh level and measuring devices and simplifies a variety of projects where accuracy is needed. The cross line laser beam of this unit can cast a beam up to 50 feet and remain accurate within 1/8″ at 33 feet. My favorite feature is the 1/4-20 female thread on the bottom which talks to all of my tri-pods I typically use for my filming cameras. You can also use the supplied BM3 mount to secure it to any surface while having knowing the auto-leveling pendulum with provide reliable references regardless of whether the mount is perfectly straight or not. When you need to transport the unit, you can lock the pendulum in place using the locking feature which keeps the unit safe from damage as it rides along in your tool box.

Once I was certain all of the material was correctly positioned, I stuck them in place with fat seal welds all around the material.

Once I got to the second row I switched back to my bigger 2×2 stock but repeated the process with all the rows of the arms. Now a different option I was considering had I had enough material was to add arms to the back side of the unit as well so it would be duel sided. If you have the room for accessing both sides then this would be a great use of space. In fact, I’ll just add to this one any time I get enough spare steel of one size in the future. 

Alright on to the legs, or feet. For this I moved up to 2.5”x 2.5” tubing, again just because it’s what I had on hand. At this point I exhausted all my 2×2 stock. I marked a line on the side of the foot then against the on/off right angle magnets to get these positioned just so on the back assembly. Not only lining up the mark to that bottom rail, but also using a square to make sure it wasn’t going on crooked.

After all four were in place, I stuck them on permanently. You can see that they aren’t centered….this is because I would have run out of material but if you plan to use both sides of yours then I would center these feet so that an equally amount is overhanging both sides. When I add arms to the back, I’ll also have to extend the material on the backside so it won’t want to tip over once it’s loaded down. 

Annnnd that’s an almost completed material rack. Now it was a matter of standing it up so I could have access to the backside…and of course so I could admire it and climb all over it. ; ) Which is always a fun part of a build this big. 

So I probably could have just left it alone there, but this rack will be loaded down with some serious weight from all the wood I purchased. To add just a little bit of rigidity I went to the bottom first and added in some…..would these be called gussets?….Maybe angled gussets….the purpose of them though is to help keep the back from angling forward when it’s loaded down. 

Next I started capping off the ends of all the exposed ends of this tubing. For this I used this scrap piece of I believe it was 3/16” and my hand held Tomahawk plasma cutter. 

The bottom tubing caps I made square and fit them inside the legs. However for the arms, I went ahead and made them into a lip of sorts to create a stop for the material I’ll place on here later on. I’m planning on storing flat wood on this rack, but you can easily use it for storing metal as well. And a slight design change to consider if you do that is instead of attaching the arms at a 90, to angle the arms up slightly so round material won’t roll away. 

To make attaching these lip caps easier, I would place a magnet on the bottom side to sit the lip on top of and flush it up to the bottom side of the arm. I also cut these 1/8” oversized on both sides to give myself a good welding corner. 

The last thing I cut out and welded on for support was some flat gussets to connect the arms to the back. I first grabbed an angle grinder with a flap disk to get these end welds nice and flat so the plate would sit flush. Honestly, I don’t know if these are needed or not. I tested how the arms felt and the entire thing seemed really secure, however It didn’t take any time to add these on so I figured why not. If it’s much stronger than I need it to be, then I won’t ever be restricted on what I can store on it. 

Ok and then just finishing touches, I went over the entire unit with a flap disk on my grinder and rounded off any corner that was particularly sharp. 

Oh, I almost forgot about these top end caps…..instead of making these square and a standard cap, I also made them a lip cap which I don’t know if they will come in handy or not, but if I’m adding it anyways, why not add an arch to it and give myself a spot to possibly hang something from? 

And that’s really it for the build process. Lets move this beast outside shall we? This was actually the following day that my new shop crane got delivered and I was stoked to not only try it out but to put it to use. I used the crane to pick up one end with the other end being on a furniture dolly. This allowed me to move it outside of my shop and onto the porch where I could then grab onto it with the tractor.

Scott drove while I held onto a strap to try and prevent it from swing around too much and hitting itself on the bucket. And you can see that I went straight off the porch but back into the woods. This is where I’m looking to build a carport for the tractor, my old 72 Chevy, and this material rack. 

Once it was set in place, I gave it two coats of paint, let it dry then started loading it down with the wood. Thankfully my friend Erin was over that day to take some photos (any awesome photos of my stuff you see come from her BTW) and she was kind enough to give me a hand on unloading the two remaining pallets of wood onto the rack. I was surprised and happy at just how much it was able to hold and even fully loaded down, the rack felt very rigid and secure. 

Until I can make time to build a carport, I will be keeping a large tarp over it all.  

That’s it for this project guys. Don’t forget I have plans for this material rack for sale here. Also, don’t forget I am have some pretty cool products such as my plywood dead blow mallets and some new shirts up for sale.

Have a great week and I’ll see you on whatever I’m building next.

 Things I Used In This Freestanding Material Rack Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Cermet Blade
Chop Saw Station Plans
Metal Marking Pencil
Lincoln Power Mig 210
Lincoln Plasma Cutter
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Welding Cart
Lincoln Adjustable Magnet
Armor Tool Self Adjusting Clamps
Cordless Grinder
Bessey Welding Magnet
Woodpeckers Square
Grinder Rack

(Most of the links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Thinking about building your own giant bandsaw mill? Check out this cool DIY project where I built a giant slabbing machine!

I keep hearing Hank Williams Jr yelling “Are you ready for some slabbin?” Hank was too busy to make a special rendition for me to play before slabbing logs but we’re still gonna slab of course! Lots of small things have happened since the last you saw it, so lets go back to when the team left to go home and walk through what’s been happening since. 

The last you saw the mill, we did the bare minimum to at least get one slab made before Matt and Johnny had to head to the airport. The blade guards weren’t on, the gear box motor wasn’t mounted, and we were pulling the carriage with a rigging set up so we could be a safe distance from it.

It worked, and was exciting but the next step was adding a way to mechanically lift and lower that saw head beam to adjust the height of the blade. All of the parts for this were actually made when the whole team was here, so it was just a matter of attaching it in the correct spot on the mill then lifting the motor into place. Now, with a stench of chain that connects this motor to both acme rods, we can rotate them up or down to raise and lower the beam. We also put on the blade guards. 

Well actually I ended up leaving town the same day Matt and Johnny left and I was gone for a week for an event. During that time though, Scott and Cody worked to get the wheels trued up, the blade tracking well, and also the blade guards on. There was still plenty to add on but we couldn’t wait to slab up something so we went and grabbed onto another log.

This one is a cedar elm that a local viewer actually gave me when he heard I was going to build a mill. I used the tractor to get the slab over to the bed, then these really cool tongs to get one end up first, then the other. Aren’t these log lifting tongs awesome? I saw them on a clearance rack and picked them up hoping they were as useful as they looked, and I’m happy to say they are.

Once the log is up on the bed, we would first move it forward enough, then throw in the bed supports and push the log against them.

Since none of us have experience in this, we used logic that made sense to us on where to make the first cut. We lowered the blade down, and pulled the carriage along using a strap again. Of course a winch was part of the plan, but it was going to be a few days before it arrived so this tided us over in the mean time. : )

After getting the first cut done, then we started cutting 2 1/4” slabs. Again, we don’t know what we’re doing yet so I don’t know if this is the norm but since it would be nice to end up with 8/4 wood to sell, we cut them at 9/4. And man, look inside this one. It has a lot of spalting and bark inclusions in it. Moving over each slab to get a look inside the next cut is the addicting part of this hobby! The anticipation and suspense is exciting. 

At this point, we don’t have the winch installed so I’m pulling it. We don’t have the lubrication system installed, so Scott is dripping water on the blade as it’s running. And we don’t have a remote so Cody is having to turn it off and on at the VFD which is inside the control panel. Which might put off some from using it, but not us!

In fact, Erin heard we were slabbing and decided to join us! Then the neighbors heard we were slabbing and also decided to join us! By this time we completed the Cedar Elm so we went after a nice hickory log I got from a local arborist. This time I filmed while Cody used the tractor to set the log. 

Ok now we really need a slabbin party song because that’s what this quickly turned into. This was a Friday evening and we had kids in the bleachers (scaffolding) and adults with cold beverages (beer) and we all took turns pulling the mill. Even the 13 year old wanted to jump in and make a cut!

We were all having such a great time that when it got dark, we all pointed our vehicles towards the mill so the headlights could keep us going! I also enlisted the help of this cool little light from Husky. This light is one bright sucker at 700 lumens at a 20m throw. Since using it this evening, I’ve kept it close by the mill for night time slabbing : ) This light came to me through The Home Depot ProSpective tool review program and it is serving me very well up to this point. Feel free to check em out at the link above….for 15 bucks, you can’t beat it!

If you’ve been thinking of building a mill, think of it as a twofer….you don’t only get wood out of it but also a family friendly Friday night activity that’s good for all ages.

Before cutting more slabs, we took the time to install the winch and the lubrication system and a pendent remote. See, before Cody quickly installed a toggle switch to control the up and down of the saw head beam but was still having to turn on and off the mill inside the control box. He had a fourway pendent in his hoardings so he quickly wired that in so on/off, up/down can be controlled from the remote. This will soon be upgraded to an 6 way remote as Cody (being an engineer) wants even the forward/back motion to be electronically controlled. Which is of course, fine by me. Erin and I have a running joke that Cody needs a show called “pimp my bandsaw”. He offered to add a few subwoofers but I told him it wouldn’t be necessary. 

This pendant install is only temporary since Cody just happen to have one in his box of old control hardware. Those wires he is installing correspond to the pendant input buttons and terminate into spring loaded blade connectors. Ideally you want to depress these kinds of connectors with small “tweaker” screwdriver…however, Cody just relied on a handy new pocket knife I also got through the Home Depot. Although they sent it to me, he swiped it as quick as he could. lol. For less than 10 bucks it’s been super handy little tool and comes from the factory with a super sharp edge!

I also got through the Home Depot. Although they sent it to me, he swiped it as quick as he could. lol. For less than 10 bucks it’s been super handy little tool and comes from the factory with a super sharp edge!

I didn’t get footage of the lubrication system or winch installation apparently, but I’ll cut to some I got after we painted the mill so I can show you.

First off on the winch….we started with a single speed winch with an 8 to 1 gear ratio… which turned out to be to slow so we quickly changed that out to a two speed winch which offers a 4 to 1 ratio. And that was much better. Scott and Cody tried out a few hooking on and routing paths for this winch, pulling from just one side of the carriage first. But they ultimately settled on fabricating two arms with pulleys on the ends which got welded to the end of the bed. The winch was mounted on the backside of the mill on the idle wheel side, then routed under the wheels and blade guards…..in the first arm pulley, over to the second arm pulley, then latched onto an eye attached to this side of the carriage. This means the carriage is being pulled from one side and actually pushed from the other. And this works well. 

Lets move on to the lubrication system. Before this was installed we were using water to keep things lubricated but the permanent plan is diesel. Isn’t that surprising? I didn’t know it, but diesel and kerosene are common for mills. You can see this big container we set right on the saw head beam, kinda in the center. Then Cody rigged up some plumbing that will go from it’s downspout and T out to either wheel. All of the 1/4″ rubber tubing was cut using this new pair of 1-1/4″ ratcheting PVC cutters. If you’re used to using the old school type, you’re going to love these things! Rather than having to actuate the handles over and over again to get the blade to close down on the workpiece, these things will fast travel the blade to the workpiece in one push of the handle, then immediately begin cutting. This ratcheting handle features a one hand blade change mechanism saving you loads of time when it comes to blade changes as well. You can pick these guys up for less than $15 through The Home Depot – total steal!

With those two upgrades, we got serious! People have been asking if we have logs big enough where I live to really use the mill’s capacity….and while we certainly don’t have the variety or the massive girth like the North, we have plenty of species that will use either the entire length, or width….and sometimes both. This is an 11 1/2’ ash that has two crotches. It’s 53” at it’s widest and again going back to a point I made in the first video: since I’m building it myself I would much rather this mill be more than I need most of the time than not enough some of the time. 

I’ll tell you that having that winch system installed was awesome. Since the winch allows for a consistent movement through the log, it made a much more flat cut than the pull, reset, then pull again motion of tugging the carriage along from the front. A funny thing was happening with our logs….they were pink!

This happened first with the hickory (back when we were using water as a lubricator) and we just thought it was that one log but with this Ash also having a pink tint and us switching to diesel, we were believing it was us creating it somehow. We did take a planer and see if it were surface only and it was…it’s was as blonde as can be underneath. I posed the question to Instagram to see if anybody had good insight and the leading assumption is the wood is reacting to the air and it will fade after a few days. I’d loved to hear if you have a different answer though. 

Something else we started doing was leaving the slabs on even after they were cut. The idea behind this is to not only keep weight on the log (which keeps it’s still and in place while cutting) but also prevents us from having to move the slabs twice. However, for recording purposes I told Cody we needed to see inside and I couldn’t wait! Hehe. So we muscled the slabs off the bed to have a peak inside. And let me tell ya….while these slabs are beautiful (I mean look at that heart wood showing through) they are extremely heavy.

Oh and I thought this was a good shot to show off utilizing the blade guides. You can see as I’m turning the winch with one hand, I’m using my other to feed the guide in and out so that it’s always hugging the log. Cody is also doing the same with his guide and this also really helps with making a flat cut. 

Even though we still had more logs to slab up I wanted to get the mill cleaned and painted for this video so I put a halt to the fun activities and brought in the teenagers for the task of removing all the rust  before painting. Thank goodness this fell on Spring Break and some local teens were wanting to make some money. Both were geared up then trained on how to operate a grinder with a wire cup wheel in it then spent a morning and afternoon getting after it.

To keep them off ladders, they only messed with the bed and as far up the carriage as they could reach from the ground. They did such a great job, after wiping it down with rags it looked like brand new steel sitting there.

Next was priming. I’m not great on picking out which paint to go with, so I called PPG Paint and told them what I was doing and they told me what I needed. When applying the first coat, it went on good but not very solid. The oldest and I had two rollers and would get all the flat surfaces first, while the youngest was given a paint brush to get into all the nook and crannies we could reach.

We made a first pass then came back and applied a second and this second coating went on much more solid and easy. It was really easy to level out on the second coat and also had good coverage…It only took a gallon and a half of primer to cover the entire thing. The girls and I started on a Sunday, so come Monday when Scott was back in my shop, he dissembled the guards and saw head beam then finished priming the top of the carriage. 

Apparently with this paint, you can’t prime and paint on the same day. So we let that sit over night and started painting the next day. Just like Cremona I went with black for my mill and man was I impressed with this paint. Because we had such a solid layer of primer down, this paint just glided on. It was thick but so smooth and I was also crazy impressed with how much it covered and also how it drastically different it looked afterwards. 

While we’re painting let me answer a few common questions: Yes I will be building some sort of shelter for the mill. I want to protect it as best I can but I don’t yet know what I’ll be doing. Maybe a roof built directly on top of the mill, but probably something larger to also provide shade to whoever is operating it. Then yes, I also plan on a slab. I didn’t pour the slab first because I still have grading for this entire area to do, and I also want to make sure I’ll be keeping the mill here. You can believe I’ll pour a bigger than needed slab so I can’t push the mill off with my driving skills. 

Ok back to painting: while the body is black, I went with my custom plum color for the wheels and blade guards. This is a color I’ve adopted for some of my shop equipment that I absolutely love and I thought would not only be unique to my mill but look cool in contrast with the black. 

Something else that was going on during this week was trenching for power to the mill! We had been running a cord out through a shop window to plug it in but If you watched the shop building series then you’ll know I had a new power pole and 200 amp service brought in for my shop. So to get power to the mill, all we needed was a new trench from the pole to the mill. Sounds easy right? Well I’m on solid rock so it takes a lot more equipment than a strong back to get through this ground.

Call in the rock saw guy! I love watching this piece of equipment work. The operator started by making a trench from the power pole to the mill, then stopped when he and backed up his saw to the bluff and made another trench in front of the mill towards his first trench.

When it came to connecting the two trenches, the guy let me operate and make the cut! He went over all the controls with me, then stood by and monitored. This thing just chews away at that hard ground. The saw he is using is 60” in diameter and 4” wide. These teeth are titainum carbide that hit the rock as the wheel is spinning to break it up. It’s crazy quick though, the entire line didn’t take more than 40 or 45 mins. 

Next was running conduit and wire. While Scott and I were painting Cody was running to town to gather all the supplies needed, then started connecting joints. They first spread out the wire on the ground so they could thread on each joint of conduit instead of fishing it through later. Cody chose to go with a 4 conductor 240 volt circuit so that later on we can add a few 120 outlets to this area as well. 

The cable he went with is a 4 AWG URD wire that’s intended for primary feed lines. for long runs like this one (about 120′), running aluminum conductors rather than copper is a more cost effective option. Cutting this large gauge wire with wire cutters requires more grip strength than any one person oughtta have. So instead, Cody used a cordless sawzall with a Milwaukee 6in Carbide 7TPI blade. This is one of those all around blades that can thrash through damn near anything you throw at it….metal, plastic, wood, etc. However, it really does best through metals and made short work of these aluminum conductors.

This blade was also used to cut the 2″ PVC to length down on each end where the corner fittings were installed. This URD can be a bit of a bear to feed through conduit fittings like LB’s and sweep 90’s. When making the conduit connections at the pole, Cody accidentally cut the upright piece a bit too ling and needed to trim about 3″ of conduit off the length. Rather than unthread the entire straight piece to cross cut with a sawzall, he was able to sneak up on a clean cut using these new 2-1/8″ tubing cutters from Husky. These cutters are different from the old style in that they have a quick release and quick catch feature. Rather than thread the cutting shaft all the way to the pipe, simply push it past the spring loaded paw and boom!, your ready to start cutting. The same applies for backing out of the cut. Release the paw and simply pull the threaded shaft back and away from the workpiece. Finally, You can use the blade on the back side of the tool to clear out any burs from cutting your pipe. Very handy tool with thats a real time saver compared to old school models.

They went to each joint and used PVC Cement to glue it tougher and put it in the trench. Now the mill has a 100 amp breaker that will make it independent of the shop. On the mill side, this line feeds into a junction box. In the future, Cody is going to rework the control panel to include a main line disconnect and other protective circuitry so the main power can be turned on at the panel, whereas right now it will be turned on at the breaker box, then the motion controls are handled by the pendent. 

You can see here that the conduit actually takes a turn directly toward the mill which was not the original route we planned on. However, it was a necessary move that required a bit of rock digging. That last part should make you laugh a bit…..there is no “digging” in these parts. There is such a thing however a busting the rock up then shoveling out bits of smaller rock. If you find yourself in the same situation, you can easily perforate the rock using an SDS Bulldog Carbide Rotary Hammer bit like this one from Bosch. This bit works well at punching holes in rock but really shines in concrete. Specifically because it’s designed to prevent jamming when it hits rebar embedded with in the concrete. On this day however, it worked perfectly to ease up the effort required to remove this rock and make way for some conduit.

After the guys were done wiring, Cody used the tractor to fill the trench back in and moved on. 

At this point the mill had dried for a day so next we put everything back together. And that’s the only problem with waiting until it’s all done to paint things….you get it all working and tuned in then you have to take it all apart to paint then retune everything once again. The chain up top was rerouted and tensioned, the motor was dropped back in place, the blade was tracked again, and the guards were attached.

Now that’s it’s back together of course we had to throw another log on her! This time we picked a short but wide oak log. I was told from the local arborist who cut this down that it was ash but as soon as we cut into it we saw it was oak. When we set this one on the bed, it was clear that the log would sit much more flat if we flipped it over. To do this, Cody moved it forward on the bed, as far as it could go, we wrapped a chain around it, and he pulled it back. There we go, that sat much more evenly.

There is a science behind cutting logs and after I have some time under my belt and pick up some tips from either viewers or experience, I’ll make another video dedicated to what I’ve learned incase you’re interested. 

We’ve come a long ways but there are still some add ons on the mill coming….one is a guard around the motor belts. You can see there on the left that is a danger zone when the mill is on so that is priority.

Another handy add on coming will be a digital read out. Something that will digitally call out the height of the blade. Right now we have to turn the mill off in between cuts so somebody can manually pull a tape to come down 2 1/4”…which is what I’m slabbing at.

Oh, because I’m anticipating lots of questions on how I’ll be drying these….I am exploring a kiln option but for the mean time I’ve picked a spot in the trees to make a few flat pallets and let them air dry.

In this location they will get a good amount of shade but plenty of air flow. The important thing about making a bed is to make sure it’s flat. If there is a twist in the set up then the wood will follow that profile.

Then since we are slabbing and leaving them in place on the mill, at the end we wrap a few straps around the log to keep things together, then use a chain to pick the entire thing up and move it over to the bed location.

Once here, we can off load it one by one but this method means we only have to move each heavy slab once. It’s important to brush off the sawdust on both sides of the slab before leaving them to dry because the saw dust will absorb moisture and create mold, which is not something you want. You’ll also see that we are using spacers in-between each slab….these are called stickers and they are just little standoffs to allow air to moved in between each slab and dry it out. Same principal as the bed, it’s important that these stickers are the same height so that everything is resting nice and flat and the boards will dry flat.

And I think that is going to wrap up the bandsaw mill series guys. Don’t worry, you’ll see it again as I improve it. If you’re interested in watching me slab up logs as I get them then be sure to follow me on Instagram as I use that platform for posting everything I’m up to.

To date this is the biggest group project I’ve worked on and what a grand, fun project it’s been.

I hope you have enjoyed watching this come together as much as I have. I’ll see you on my next build. 

Part 1, 2 or 3 of this series video!

JD Brewer
Johnny Brooke
Matt Cremona

Matt Cremona’s Bandsaw Mill Plans
Watch Matt’s Video Building His Mill

Things I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

Lifting Log Tongs
ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Cordless Grinder
Paint

Clamps I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

Armor Tool Self Adjusting Clamps
Bessey Quick Clamp
Bessey Duo Clamp
Bessey Rapid Ratchet Clamp (my favorite)
Bessey Small General Purpose
Bessey Inline Handle
Bessey Classic Heavy Duty

(Most of the links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you!)

Thinking about building your own giant bandsaw mill? Check out this cool DIY project where I built a giant slabbing machine!

I’m going to jump right into the information for part three of the bandsaw mill build because I have a lot of ground to cover. 5 hours of footage to be exact. But I’m going to do what I can to condense that for you so let’s go. 

If you missed the first parts of this series, you can check Part 1 out here and Part 2 out here.

Now at the end of part 2 you watched us move the mill outside to it’s final resting spot outside. From here forward, if you see the mill back inside, the footage was taken before we moved it out of course.

A lot of times we were working to move forward whatever piece was immediately up next. Sometimes that task could keep all four of us busy either working together or divided up. But other times one or two of us were left with nothing. To stay busy though, and keep other things on the list moving forward, whoever was free would hop on some of the other parts that would be added in later.

The saw head beam was a great go to item for this as it not only gets holes cut and tapped on all four sides, but also lots of parts needed to be fabricated together to be bolted or welded onto it. 

This is the part that spans the across the carriage and rides up and down to adjust the height of the cut. So many things get attached to this part, such as the motor, the wheels, the blade tensioner, the blade guides and the blade guards. Since the making of all of these things were made at different times throughout the build, I’m not going to do things chronologically but instead grouped together by task. 

Lets start with the saw head beam itself. There were lots of standard holes that were easy to locate on where it needed to be drilled and tapped. After knocking out the easy stuff, we moved on to the more time consuming holes such as mounting the plates for the drive and idle shafts.

These components are 1) expensive but 2) high quality pieces of equipment. You can see the pillow block bearings already come mounted on the two shafts. They are the meat and potatoes of this mill and are one area I chose to upgrade from Matts, which is why my mill came out to be more expensive than his. I purchased my wheels, shafts, bearings, and mounting plates from a Canadian company called Premier Bandwheel

The idle and drive shalf came attached to their mounting plates however we separated the two so that we could make a base plate for the mounting plate.

The saw head beam is 5” wide, but of course this mounting plate is much wider so we first had to make two base plates on the saw head beam for the mounting plates to go. On this side, you can see we welded on a scrap piece of saw head beam to achieve this wider stance. Then we could put our base plate on top and weld it down as well.

And I thought this was cool! Instead of just welding around the perimeter, we cut holes in the center of the plate beforehand so would could also have welding points at the center. After getting the base stuck, we fill welded these holes in. Johnny and I teamed up on these, mostly to try and get a cool shot of both of us welding together. I call it a success. 

Ok base plates are on, so next we let those cool down…which actually took a long time. But the magic of editing means we can skip right ahead to clamping them in place and finding the center of the holes.

We didn’t have a good set of center finders so instead a lot of times we used a bit the size of the hole, in a hand drill. With the bit being the same size as the hole, it would center itself. Then we just gave it a few rotations to make an indent in the metal. This small mark would then give us a location on where to place our smaller bit to actually start drilling the hole so that not only was it was center, but this small indent also prevents the bit from walking around as you’re getting the hole started. 

Next we got into a system where we used a magnetic drill, which by the way is dead useful. We borrowed this from a friend and man alive does it make life easier when drilling through metal. After finding centers we chucked a small pre drill bit in it and punched all the way through. Then still working on the same hole, we enlarged it to the size needed.

After getting one hole in that plate punched, Johnny and I went to the other end to repeat the process over there while Matt tapped the hole. After we got one hole drilled on the other end, Matt came to tap it while we went back to the other plate to drill the second hole.

We continued with our system until all eight holes, four in each plate, were drilled and got both plates seating nicely. 

While the three of us were working on that, JD was working on fabricating the blade guards. This is the enclosure that will be go around the wheels and blade area to keep people a safe distance from them but also protect them should the blade break while in use.

This process actually got started the day before with JD cutting out the overall shape out on three pieces of flat material. Then we could measure each side and cut material to length, you can see JD marking in chalk the length each section needed to be. We didn’t have any flat bar wide enough on hand for this so JD used a metal cutting circular saw to rip strips down from a larger sheet of material. He would then pass me the joint and I would reference the chalk marks to knock each one down then lay them in their respected position. 

We were working later and later into the evenings because as I said in the first video, we only had five days to get this entire mill done. We were now on day three and feeling the pressure. Nobody had any qualms about it though. None of us have a problem working hard anyways, but being with such a cool group and working on such a unique project made working into the evening even more enjoyable.

So here are all the parts for the guard….oh and here is an exhausted Cremona for scale…..

The next day JD made it down to the shop early to prep all these parts, beveling the edges and also removing the rust from the weld zone on the sheet material. Then you can see how this comes together pretty quickly….JD would position each flap where it needed to go, with the help of a fireball square, and Matt would tack it in place.

Then Matt joined Johnny and I on the saw head beam while JD finished up all the welding. And people were asking about the knee creeper….yes, it’s awesome and I do recommend it having it around. If you remember to use it, it saves a lot of up and down to move around and of course keeps your knees off the hard concrete.

After JD finished the parts were moved out to the porch for grinding and pretty-ing up. Somewhere along the way we designated the porch as the cutting and grinding zone. This kept down the noise level and also the metal dust inside the shop. 

Instead of trying to he-man the saw head beam out to location, Cody once again brought in the tractor for lifting and moving. Oh and those Superjaws…it’s something I briefly mentioned in part 1 but these are an unsung hero in this build. Not only were they used for clamping to grind or cut stuff, but hugely for holding up extremely heavy parts such as this saw head beam. They are way sturdier than saw horses plus have the versatility of clamping. 

The tractor got the beam outside, manual labor got it inside the carriage then a Matt Cremona in a bucket got it lifted up : )

He actually just positioned an I beam and chain hoist in order to lift it up. Once it was held in place, we remounted the drive and idle shafts, starting with the drive shaft.

Because these need to be mounted to the underside but are extremely heavy, we mounted the drive shaft then flipped the entire beam over. On the other side, the idle shaft is mounted to the sleeve to adjust the blade tension so they mounted this upright on the sleeve, then the flipped it over as they slid it on the end.

Alrighty next was to slide the linear bearings on the guide rails. These have an inside profile that match the guide rails so they mate together perfectly and can slide up and down. These are kinda tricky to get on because they are full of small ball bearings which are only kept in place by a foam insert that you actually have to push out of your way when inserting the bearing on.

It was pretty exciting getting this far and having another moveable part so we told Matt to lay down so we could test it out. The test simply would not have been the same without Cremona laying on the beam but once we got done playing we divided up and got back to work.

JD started welding on additional parts that were already made while Johnny and I attached the third guide rail under the saw head beam. This rail is to give movement to the two blade guides that we’ll later attach.

In fact, after getting the rail on and tighten down, Johnny and I moved inside to start fabricating the blade guides while Matt started assembling the acme rods which controls the rising and lowering of the saw head beam. 

These giant all thread rods go through the saw head beam and down to a stubbed out platform on the mill. At the bottom is a bearing that this threaded rod can rotate freely on, then at the top is a fixture that is mounted to the underside of the saw head beam.

This fixture is something that Johnny made days earlier that holds a giant nut in place. This way when the acme rods are turned that nut on the bottom of the saw head beam will ride up and down, moving the entire beam with it. 

Isn’t that cool? 

Ok lets look inside at the blade guides. A portion of these I purchased right off the shelf we just needed to fab together a way to get them down and out slightly so that’s what we worked on. Which really just amounted to some tubing cut to size, beveled, and then sticking it together. Once the parts were prepped, I filtered them into Johnny to stick them into place.

Once they were cooled down we could take them outside and mount them to the mill. Hopefully you can get the idea now on how they work. They attached to the two linear bearings on the underside of the saw head beam so that they can be moved left and right. The point is to have them as close to the log you’re cutting as possible to keep blade drift down, just like blade guides on a regular bandsaw. 

At this point, we only had a few more hours before we would lose JD. He was flying home a day earlier than the other guys, so we were busting butt to try and get as much done as possible. We came a long ways in four days. And while the to do list was shorter, a lot of the items we still had left to do were going to be time consuming so we divided up once again to try and kill it. Oh and if you don’t want to be hunting for your to-do list on a job site, put you list on a big ol box and everybody can find it

Johnny and I attached the log holding devices to the bed of the mill. These are made from NTP pipe and we had to drill and tap a few more holes to attached them.

Matt was working on mounting the blade tensioner which is a hydraulic pump. As you can see, as he increases the pressure a foot is pushed out and hits against a lip on the removable sleeve we made in the last video. Once a wheel and blade are mounted on the idle shaft there on the bottom of the saw head beam, the tension will in turn be increased. Isn’t that cool? 

Then JD over there was fabricating a stand off to attach the motor mount to. What a pro welder…..using his glove as a shield to get a good bead. 

A lot of you have been asking if this will be gas or electric, and I went the same route as Matt and got a 10hp electric motor. I placed a power pole and new meter when I built my shop so all it will take to get power permanently to the mill is a new trench and that was worth it to me to have the lower maintenance of electric and also the lower noise levels. This is a three phase motor but I only have single phase available. With that, I’m using a VFD (a variable frequency drive) to run the motor. Going this route, just like Matt, will give me more control over the speed of the motor as I’m running the mill and also give me a slow start and stop which are nice options. 

One of the evening time tasks as we were having a cold beverage and hanging out, was Matt hooking up the VFD to the motor to make sure they talked to one another and worked. It would have been a complete shut down on us slabbing up something before they went home, had there been some sort of problem with either component so it was a big moment when he plugged in power and things turned on. That my friends is the VFD turning on, and then the VFD turning the motor on. All is well. 

Well….except the weather that is. A big storm blew in, not only bringing wind and rain but also the cold. Over night, things dropped to the 30s which made the last day we had to work on the mill pretty uncomfortable. Well, Matts use to the cold coming from MN but the rest of us aren’t and it definitely slowed down production. 

We lost JD unfortunately, he had to get back to work in Atlanta, so we were down to the three of us and we started on getting the wheels mounted. Do these look heavy to you? Because they are incredibly heavy.

These are two 30” wheels that I purchase from Premier Bandwheel. They were machined, ground, polished then balanced. Then crated up and shipped all the way across the country to my mill. We used the shop crane to lift them up then I used some degreaser (carb cleaner) to remove the waxy protective coating that came on the outside surfaces. 

Like I said, these are very heavy so we went from shop crane to tractor then straight onto the mill. This took a lot of slow moving and finessing and a lot of making sure you don’t have fingers in squishable places but to be honest, this went off without a hitch! It was incredibly smooth. 

We’re getting closer! Next Matt mounted the belts that go from the motor to the drive shaft and tensioned them properly.

So now you can see kinda how it all works….the motor turns on, spinning the belt which turns the drive shaft which spins the drive wheel. Then once the blade is on the wheels, that will turn the idle wheel on the other side. 

Now we’re still missing a lot of components such as the gear box motor that will mechanically lift the saw head beam, and the blade guards. But even with the weather being freezing (it was actually sleeting on us intermittently), Matt was determined to cut a slab before heading to the airport. So Cody worked with him on tracking and tensioning the blade while Johnny and I went and snatched onto a log from the pile.

We went with the smallest one since we were short on time and weren’t able to get everything finly tuned in. The blade guard is missing and spinning this thing up was dangerous so to work. So to work around that (but still make a cut before the guys had to leave) was we used straps to grab a hold of the carriage and then 30’ of paracord so that we could stand far enough away that if the blade broke or came off we were well out of range. 

Matt turned it on at the VFD, ran away quickly to the safe zone, then Johnny and I pulled the carriage back making the first cut through a pecan log!

We did it! Group hug!

Haha. And if you aren’t familiar with Matt’s videos, he always throws water on the slab to get a good look at the popping grain, which is why I found it cool to do the same. 

Matt and Johnny’s airport Uber driver was only 10 mins away at this point, so we quickly reset the carriage to get another cut in and get one complete slab cut.

Since even more bad weather was coming in, we quickly threw a tarp on it and I said goodbye to the guys. Not bad for 5 and a half days huh? 

Even though the guys are gone, I’m still going to continue working on the mill. So stay tuned for the next video where I put on the lubrication system, blade guard, the gear box motor, and clean and paint it so I can get through my big pile of logs.

I hope that you enjoyed this part. I’ll see you on the next one.

JD Brewer
Johnny Brooke
Matt Cremona

Matt Cremona’s Bandsaw Mill Plans
Watch Matt’s Video Building His Mill

Things I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Cermet Blades
Wilker Do’s Chop Saw Station Plans
Triton SuperJaws
Ridgid Octane Drill
3D Modeling Software
Plasma CNC Table
Weld Tables
Metal Marking Pencil
Lincoln Power Mig 260
Lincoln Power Mig 210
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Welding Cart
Cordless Grinder
Fireball Squares
Laser Measure

Clamps I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

Bessey Quick Clamp
Bessey Duo Clamp
Bessey Rapid Ratchet Clamp (my favorite)
Bessey Small General Purpose
Bessey Inline Handle
Bessey Classic Heavy Duty

(Most of the links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Thinking about building your own giant bandsaw mill? Check out this cool DIY project where I built a giant slabbing machine!

Alright, Bandsaw Mill Part 2 here we go.

If you missed the first video where I covered all the prep work, introduced the build team, and showed building the 12’ x 6’ bed then you can check out that part here.

This video picks up right where I left off which was to start building the carriage of the bandsaw mill. This is the cage like portion that sits on top of the bed and rolls back and forth. In the future it will have the wheels, blades, and all the other components needed to slice through the log on the bed and turn it into slabs. 

We used the bed of the mill itself as the work table to build the carriage and started by laying out, and clamping together the parts that will make up the first side. Those fireball squares were heavily relied on here, as well as these awesome ratcheting Bessey Clamps. These quickly became everybody’s favorite go to clamp during this build.

Even though we aren’t welding it in place right now, we went ahead and set in the center vertical member just for dry fitting purposes. Once everything was nice and locked in, JD went through and tacked all the corners in multiple places. 

Next we repeated by building out the second side and you’ll see that we built this one directly on top of the first side. This not only gave us the perfect sized work surface but it also meant we just had to line up all the edges and faces to the already perfect side under it. Johnny tacked it then we all divided up to conquer different tasks while JD did his thing and welded all the corners and seams shut.

Even though all of us can weld, JD is the professional and he doesn’t only do a better job, but he can also do it quicker than any of us. So if you’re working on a team, especially if you’re use to doing everything yourself, understand everybody’s strong suits and divide up accordingly. 

Another example: Since this is Matt’s design and he’s already built one, he was very much the foreman of the group and would be the one to divy up the tasks and also make sure we weren’t messing them up. Johnny, Me, and Cremona started working on the saw head beam. This is the large beam that will span across the two sides . We first needed to transfer, drill, and tap a bunch of holes to later attach a linear rail. 

When punching through metal, it’s easiest to start with a smaller bit and step up to the actual size needed. So I went through first with a small bit to get the holes started, Matt followed with another bit to enlarge the hole, then Johnny followed behind him to tap them. Oh, and that knee creeper is another new thing I tried out that earned a permanent spot in my shop after this.

While we did start off power tapping the holes with a drill, it only took breaking one bit inside a hole to get us to switch to manually tapping instead. And just a tip for you if you take on something this size, make a list of all tap sizes needed and get three of each. 

Next we divided up again and started prepping/making the parts needed for attaching the carriage to the bed. Matt started on welding together the housing that goes around the wheels, while I beveled parts next up to weld.

I said this in the first video but working around a professional welder was awesome. JD was great at throwing out information or advice as we were working. In this example, he saw I was using a back and forth motion to bevel with a grinder and pointed out that these flap disc actually only remove material when pulling and kindly showed me the correct technique for getting the most out of the tool. I love stuff like that. 

At this point we were waiting for a lot of parts to cool down before standing the carriage up so we all kept ourselves busy with peripheral tasks. Johnny started making a plate for the motor mount. Then I worked with Matt to make a sleeve that goes on the saw head beam. This isn’t fixed in place but instead it needs just enough wiggle room to be able to slide slightly. This will later be what’s used to tension the blade. To give the plates some wiggle room, Matt taped card stock to the saw head beam before we clamped the plates into place and I tacked them down.

When it came time to weld them, JD came over and guided me through the process. Because just like anything else there is a surface level knowledge of a process which in this case is sticking two plates together, or four, but then there a deeper level of actually understanding what you’re doing, and why…and JD was great at empowering all three of us with the information he knows so well. Check out the video to hear what he says.

Even if you are experienced in something, if you have the opportunity to work with somebody with more experience or maybe even just different experience than you….try to go into the encounter with a really open mind to absorbing whatever information you can, instead of showing off what you can. 

So after welding this sleeve on, we needed to remove it to get rid of that card stock underneath but it was giving us all a pretty good run for our money. JD seemed to take it a a personal challenge and while he had to work for it, he definitely busted it in the end. 

At this point the wheel housings Matt made earlier were cool enough to start cleaning up so JD and I tagged teamed cleaning them up with the grinders. JD would use a cut off disc to remove the bulk of material while I used a flap disk to pretty it up some. And man… are these Armor Tool self adjusting clamps awesome! Definitely another recommend item for the shop. 

As parts all over the shop were made, they wold filter into Foreman Cremona and he would set them up on the mill. You can see he is using magnets to hold things in place as well as the hardware for aligning and centering.

Then we switched off on sticking them in place. While we did use both the Lincoln Power Mig 210 and the Lincoln 260 machine, the 260 was the go to machine for this project. If you’re just starting with welding I would 100% recommend the 210 machine, but for something of this size it was nice having something a little more powerful and scaled up. 

Alright, lets stand these sides up and start assembling the carriage parts. You can see JD over on the right clamping a few Fireball squares in place before we move these onto the bed. These are of course very heavy so these squares will give us a way to quickly attach the cross members to connect these two sides, once they are stood up and in the air.

Once the wheels were placed on the track JD moved a ladder to the inside and walked up the cross member to clamp in place. 

Next the guys stuck two levels on the sides of the carriage and plumbed it up so that JD could tack then weld the corners in place.

And man look at this thing come together! Matt pointed out at this point that (now with a movable carriage) it was a great time to clamp on some temporary stops to prevent it from possibly being rolled right off. 

We then got out of JD’s way and let him weld on the angled gussets. 

As we were building this, and I was documenting in real time on Instagram, a lot of people were asking if it was going to be an indoor mill. And no it isn’t….but it is important that the carriage be built on top of the bed. With that, we built both units inside so that we wouldn’t be reliant on good weather or restricted on power outlets. This of course means we’ll have these two giant assemblies to move out separately. But know another option is to do what Cremona did and build it on site where it will live.

While JD stayed into his zone of welding, Johnny and I prepared the last two verticals of the carriage which would be attached next. These are the two joints that get a linear guide rail attached which the saw head beam will later ride up and down, which in turn adjusts the height of the blade. So they will be placed in the middle of each side of the carriage.

The guys used the help of a few fireball squares clamped into place once again while setting these in their position so they could stand these heavy verticals up then just scooch them up against the squares. 

It is very important that these two rails be as perfectly in line with each other as possible and while my edit makes it look simple and quick, Matt and JD took a lot of time getting this right. I don’t know if you can see what’s going on here, so let me take a minute to point it out. They clamped a speed square to the outside face of the vertical.

Then JD placed the long level on the associated face of the second vertical.

On the inside of this level, JD is holding his laser measure so that Matt can twist their vertical until the laser mark is touching the speed square. 

They’re good. 

After a few high fives and chuckles over their rig, JD welded those two members in place then it was time to move this beast outside. We told JD to get after it, but apparently the man does have a limit… which is somewhere around 3,000 lbs.

So shop crane was put to use on one end while the tractor was on the other. The goal here is to just get the carriage and bed slide out far enough for the carriage to pass under my porch then be taken off and separated from the bed.

Once we got it closer though, we could see we were missing clearance by just a few inches. So we quickly removed the feet on the front half of the assembly and this bought us the clearance needed to make it all the way out. 

It is nerve wracking but it’s also exciting watching such big stuff get moved. Of course having a good operator is essential for feeling confident that things will go smoothly but Cody was on the tractor and if anybody can safety move big and heavy stuff, it’s him.

The guys tilted the carriage into the bucket and you can see they wrapped a chain around the top as insurance incase it tried to get away from them. It didn’t though, they were able to just gently set her on down and then step her right off. 

Then nothing fancy after that, Cody just drug it right over to where it needed to be which is about 30’ or so to the north of my shop.

Then he came back for the bed. To save my concrete porch, we used the crane to drag it off completely, then Cody grabbed a hold of the side to pick it up and haul it away. Again with those awesome rigging straps which are are dead useful folks. Ha, and you can see JD and Cremona acting as counter weights on the back of the tractor there. The bed is so heavy the back end was having trouble staying on the ground.  

After Cody got the bed moved over to it’s rough position, we threaded on the feet we removed earlier then set it down. Now I’ll probably end up pouring a slab for this but for the mean time, the guys positioned a paver under the four corner feet. We finished placing a stone under each foot then threaded out each one so that it was in contact with the pavers. 

Now getting the carriage back on top of the bed was a little bit more challenging. Cody attempted a few things with the tractor but quickly realized it wasn’t going to have the lift needed. No problem, he’s resourceful. He ended up moving out his gantry which was just big enough to straddle the entire bed. This meant we could use the chain hoist to latch onto the carriage and pick it right up.

Before setting the carriage was set in place all of the cross members of the bed got a 2x2x1/4″ wall tube bolted to them. Johnny and I drilled and tapped the holes using the large right angle drill made by RIDGID then secured the square tubing to the cross members using 3/8×16 socket head cap screws torqued down with this new Makita cordless impact driver. This 18 volt driver was provided to me through The Home Depot ProSpective tool review campaign. It’s a pocket sized impact driver capable of delivering 129 ft-lbs of torque which was more than enough to cinch down these tubing bolts. The motor of this drill driver has three different speed setting allowing you to fine tune the torque and RPM you’d like to operate with. Whether your driving self tapping sheet metal screws or torquing lawn mower lug nuts, this driver is right at home.

After toying around with idea of setting it in place with the tractor, Cody finally gave in to using the carriage. : )

And there we go folks, we have a rolling carriage on top of a flat bed. Way to go team. I’m proud of us. 

In the next installment we will be building out and mounting the saw head beam then hopefully turning it on and making a few cuts before the guys have to head home.

Tell me what you think about the build so far down in the comments and of course check out the crew with the links I’ve left for you in the description.

See you on the next video!

Things I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Cermet Blades
Wilker Do’s Chop Saw Station Plans
Triton SuperJaws
Ridgid Octane Drill
3D Modeling Software
Plasma CNC Table
Weld Tables
Metal Marking Pencil
Lincoln Power Mig 260
Lincoln Power Mig 210
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Welding Cart
Cordless Grinder
Fireball Squares
Laser Measure

Clamps I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

Bessey Quick Clamp
Bessey Duo Clamp
Bessey Rapid Ratchet Clamp (my favorite)
Bessey Small General Purpose
Bessey Inline Handle
Bessey Classic Heavy Duty

JD Brewer
Johnny Brooke
Matt Cremona

Matt Cremona’s Bandsaw Mill Plans
Watch Matt’s Video Building His Mill

(Most of the links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Thinking about building your own giant bandsaw mill? Check out this cool DIY project where we built a giant slabbing machine!

About two years ago, Matt Cremona designed and built his own bandsaw mill in Minnesota. At an event last summer (that I attended with Matt Cremona, JD Brewer and Johnny Brooke), I got the idea to bring the guys down and replicate the build here at my place in Texas. It took Matt 4 months to build it all by himself. The team and I have given ourselves 5 days. Challenge accepted.

Things I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Cermet Blades
Wilker Do’s Chop Saw Station Plans
Triton SuperJaws
Ridgid Octane Drill
3D Modeling Software
Plasma CNC Table
Weld Tables
Metal Marking Pencil
Lincoln Power Mig 260
Lincoln Power Mig 210
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Welding Cart
Cordless Grinder
Fireball Squares
Laser Measure

Clamps I Used In This Bandsaw Mill Project:

Bessey Quick Clamp
Bessey Duo Clamp
Bessey Rapid Ratchet Clamp (my favorite)
Bessey Small General Purpose
Bessey Inline Handle
Bessey Classic Heavy Duty

Matt Cremona’s Bandsaw Mill Plans

Before jumping in to the build let me first explain what a bandsaw mill is and the prep work that went into the few weeks leading up to the guys arriving. A band saw mill is a piece of equipment where you can lay a log on its bed and slice it into slabs.

This photo is of Matt Cremona’s mill.

This is an alternative to using a chain saw mill, which I showed you a few videos back. You can certainly buy a large band saw mill right off the shelf, however they are extremely expensive, and most certainly are not going to be made as well. Because I know it will be asked, something with this cut capacity goes for around $75,000, and I was able to build this one for just under $16,000. It has a 76” wide cut capacity, 12’ long. It is more than likely larger than anything I’ll ever be cutting here in the south but since I was going through the effort of building one from scratch, I’d rather be over what I’ll need than under.

This was a huge project to tackle in just a week even with four of us. Luckily after Matt built his band saw mill he produced a set of plans for it. And he was kind enough to send me a set beforehand so that I can start preparing for it.

This meant that I was able to order all the hardware, parts, and steel needed for this project ahead of time. The two weeks leading up to the guys arriving at my place was dedicated to getting done anything that could be done beforehand to make the build go smoother. 

Which included sorting all of the hardware for the individual steps. See, when I ordered every single nut and bolt needed for this project, it showed up in a giant box. So my assistant Erin went through and counted out the quantity needed, grouped together, and labeled the hardware for each portion.

This way whenever we got to lets say, the saw head, we could go directly to the box that was labeled saw head, pull it out and have all of the hardware needed for it. 

I also ordered all the steel, which is around 4,000 lbs. I only have a 16’ foot trailer, and if you haven’t ordered steel before, the material comes in 20’ joints, sometimes 24’. You can have the yard cut all of your pieces for you but they charge a pretty penny for each cut. So I went ahead and had them make one cut on each length to knock down the size so that it fit on the trailer. I then made the rest of the cuts in my shop. 

This task was made easier by a few things:

1) Matt’s plans provide a cultist for each part through the entire build and I first tabbed the plans so that I could quickly move to each page showing a cut list.

2) The Wilker Do’s chop saw station plans I just built. Before this build I was using the floor to cut long joints. Having this station to work off of and have my material fully supportive by its long wings was definitely a game changer.

Then 3) the Diablo Cerment blade. This blade is incredible. It’s brand new technology from Diablo that mixes ceramic and metallic in the teeth. It not only produces little to no sparks when cutting metal, but also makes such little heat when doing so that the steel is actually cool to the touch after making a cut.

This blade also creates a burr free finish which means less time dedicated to clean up work. Not only do these blades last 10 times longer than carbide tipped blades, they also come in at a lower price point than carbide and diamond tipped blades. If you want to look into these cerment blades I have a link for you below but note they do require a slow speed saw, something that operates around 1600 rpms instead of a traditional chop saw that operates around 6,000.

After a part was cut to length, I would label it in a yellow paint pen before sitting it aside. This way we could go over to the pile and quickly grab what was needed. 

After all the joint material was cut I next moved to drilling and tapping all the holes. There is about 2 1/2 days worth of drilling and tapping here. It isn’t hard but it’s slow going because everything is so heavy and takes a second to move around.

I recently built a new drill press stand for my woodworking shop. However for this build, the joints of material were so long I ended up using my Triton Superjaws as side supports. I also used a plywood box that was built based of the SuperJaws height which worked really well. 

When it came time to tapping the holes, I ended up using a drill to get through it faster instead of manually tapping holes. I’ve always known that you can drill and tap a hole but there is a difference between understanding the concept of something and actually doing it. I found tapping metal to be fascinating. For those of you who aren’t familiar tapping means you cut threads into the hole you drilled. Meaning you can put a bolt anywhere without having to get to the backside and secure it with a nut. 

I asked my shop helper Scott to tap the majority of the holes while I moved onto other things, because there was still lots to do before the the guys arrived.

Since I have a plasma CNC, I decided to model all of the flat parts needed for the build and use the CNC to cut them out. I again worked off Matt’s plans to put this cut list together. Three different thicknesses of steel are needed for the parts so this material was picked up at the same time as the joint material. Since my Plasma bed is a 4’ x 4’ that’s what I had the yard cut the sheets to.

Now, getting the very heavy sheets up to the Plasma CNC table was a task all in it’s own. As you can see the tractor, a few straps, and Bessey clamps were called in here. BTW: I have no affiliation but these straps, in the green and the purple length were a huuuuge asset. They have definitely earned a permanent spot in my shop. 

But going back to the plasma CNC, I ended up having issues with the compressor running my table and therefore not being able to utilize it. And unfortunately since I thought this would be one of the quicker tasks, I saved it for last. This meant the guys showed up and I didn’t have any of the flat parts cut out. Of course everything can be cut out with a grinder but since we only alotted five days to the build, that would eat up way too much time. Thankfully, somebody in a near by town was kind enough to open up his shop and cut the parts needed. Special thank you to him especially considering it was on Super Bowl Sunday. 

Alright, I think that about catches you up on what we’re building and what was done up to this point. The last thing I had time to do was stage the parts needed for the first stage of the build, which is the enormous bed.

Now let me introduce you to the build team so you know who is who.

First up is Johnny Brooke who runs the channel Crafted Workshop. He is based in North Carolina and is an all round Maker tackling projects of wood and metal and producing videos on how he does it.

Next up is the master welder and fabricator of our group, JD. JD does welding and fabrication for a living and I’ll tell you now that without him on the team, we wouldn’t have been able to get as far as we did. He is based out of Atlanta and can be found on Instagram under the handle Apexish.

Then last but not least, is the designer of the mill himself Matt Cremona. Matt is actually a fine woodworker but he learned how to weld and build a mill so he could slab his own material. He is out of the Minnesota area and also runs his own youtube channel.

We were missing Johnny at the start of things because he had a later flight than the others. We went ahead and got started, due to the short time frame of things.

Now with all of the parts of the bed already cut to length and drilled and tapped, we kicked things off by prepping the areas where we would be joining things together and welding. The steel comes out of the yard pretty dirty, with mill scale all over it, and sometime rust. To get the best weld, the area should be cleaned off with a flap disk. You’ll see throughout this build we hopped back and forth between a battery operated grinder and a corded one, depending on the task. 

The feet for the bed are made up from nut and bolts. These will give the mill adjustable feet so that when the mill is moved outside (because yes, the mill will be built inside but moved out in pieces later) we’ll have a way to level up the bed to the uneven ground. The nut will be welded to the rails, centered over a hole. We used the bolt to keep the nut centered in this hole, while we came through and tacked and then welded them in place. 

While I worked down one side, JD started on the other with Matt watching. Matt stick welded his entire bandsaw mill and had never mig welded before. After watching JD through a hood, he got to try his hand at Mig for the first time. Needlessly to say, he loved it and took over the other rail while JD set up a third machine and started down the center. 

That was another big area of prep that I did before the guys came in….Setting up gear and workstations to accommodate not only a project of this scale but also multiple bodies working in the shop at the same time. For this project we are using the Lincoln Electric Power Mig 210 machine and also the Power Mig 260 Machine. 

After getting the feet in place, we started joining the frame of the bed together. For this step, and quite a few other steps actually, we used the help of these awesome squares that I had never heard of called Fireball Squares. Thanks so much to JD for bringing them. They are machined perfectly square and come with tabs on them so that you can clamp them flush to your workpiece while also joining things at a perfect 90.

After getting one positioned in each corner, we moved onto the very time intensive, but important step, of squaring up the frame and making sure it was flat. 

And something I love about working with others is seeing other people’s workflow and how it differs from yours. When it came time to measure for square, Matt and I were pulling out our tapes but JD went to his bag of tricks and pulled out a laser tape measure. I never would have thought to use one, but apparently it’s a go to tool in JD’s shop and after this build I can see why. We used it to take the diagonals of the frame and knocked it here and there until it read square.

Next thing was to make sure it was flat. It is very important that the bed is not only square, but also completely flat. To measure this we strung out some string in a tight X formation and moved the corner feet up and down until the strings were just kissing each other. 

I think in real time that step alone took us about 1.5 hours to do. But it’s worth it because of how important it is.

Next JD tacked then welded the frame covers together while Matt and I started setting up the bed’s cross members. To make this a little bit easier, we grabbed a bunch of scrap pieces of metal and clamped it to the ends to create a lip for our joints. This is so we could ensure they were sitting flush with the top of the long rails.

It’s funny because before this project I truly thought I might have too many clamps… and I was wrong! I put every single one to use and there were times where I went hunting for more. Assembling this bed is a great case in point. 

Before actually welding these joints in place, we worked down the line with JD throwing a level on each one to make sure they were sitting in there plumb. Then I threw in a few tacks when he said they were good to go. You can see Matt in the background getting things ready for the next step of the build. After my tacking duties were done I went and joined him while JD did all the finish welding. 

Dividing up tasks and having multiple things moving forward at the same time was a key component to cramming this project into such few days. And even though I did a lot of prep work, there were still a lot that I didn’t get to and we had to do as we went. So while JD welded, we stayed out of his way but kept ourselves busy with making another component. Although we didn’t hesitate to stop and take part or watch when something cool was going on. Like when JD needed access to the underside of the bed to complete the welds and I used my new-to-me (old) shop crane. This wasn’t something I purchased for this build (the timing is purely coincidental) but man alive am I glad it was around because there are a lot of heavy things in this build and it certainly came in handy. 

Continuing on with the bed parts, next JD and Matt worked together to weld on what will be some supports, or stops. The height of these are adjustable, and will prevent the log from rolling off the bed. 

Then the last step on the bed was to grind down the top welds so that a piece of angle iron could be added to the top and attached. This went really quick as the holes for the rail and the holes in the angle iron were part of the “done beforehand” pile. This meant we just had to go through and bolt it on.

Now the bed actually needs additional steel on top of the cross members that will protect them from getting beaten up but also will raise them to the same height as the angle iron. However, the steel yard that I ordered my steel from, left them off my load. Not a huge problem but it is something missing that we will need to add later. 

Other than those missing top pieces, the bed was complete! And I will say we were impressed and happy with ourselves for knocking it out so quickly. We actually got the entire bed done before Johnny arrived. So while he’s missing from this episode he was a vital part in the build and will be in the following parts to come so stay tuned.

I think that’s a great stopping point for this week. In the next video, we will continue the build with building out the carriage. I’m so excited about sharing this project. I hope you are enjoying it so far. See you on the next one. 

JD
Johnny Brooke
Matt Cremona

Matt Cremona’s Bandsaw Mill Plans
Watch Matt’s Video Building His Mill

(Most of the product links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Today my dad and I are going to be making a Garage Gantry. It’s an I beam placed on top of two columns that are bolted to the floor.

Then a trolly and hoist can run along the I beam and be used to lift things up. 

If you plan to tackle this project, a lot of people go ahead and make their unit mobile so it can be moved around, however Dad didn’t like the idea of it being mobile and wanted his to be bolted to the floor. So that’s how we’re going about this one.

Things I Used In This Garage Gantry Project:

• ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
• Triton SuperJaws
• Bessey Clamps
• Woodpeckers 851 Square
• Metal Marking Pencil
• Cutoff Saw
• Lincoln Power Mig 260
• Welding Hood
• Welding & Grinding Hood
• Welding Jacket
• Welding Gloves
• Trolley
• Chain Hoist
• Cordless Grinder

The first thing we did was pull some measurements across the stud bay where we would be placing the gantry. This is so we could cut down some boards to go across the bay. We’ll use these later on to help secure the top beam.

While I set up the SuperJaws, my Dad grabbed the material and saw then we cut a few pieces to length. 

I spaced them equally across the length that the I beam would be placed and attached them with four screws into the bottom cord of the truss. 

Alright, next step was to lift the beam into place. The I-Beam used for this garage gantry is a standard A36 5″ x 10lb beam which got cut at 14′ long. This beam was purchased off the shelf at one of the local yards and sold for $153. Unless you have an acetylene torch, it’s best to order this size of beam pre-cut at the steel yard (which is what I did). This beam isn’t super heavy duty but it’s more than enough for what my dad will be doing. We wanted to get the beam into place first before cutting each of the side columns to height and to do that we first ran some straps through the trusses to create two cradles.

Then we took our time to stab one end of the beam into one of the cradles then the other. With the beam loosely in place we roughed in the position left and right on where my dad wanted it. And then as one of us lifted up on the beam, the other pulled the slack out of the strap.

If you do this project, it would have probably been better to use ratchet straps because this kind without the ratchets wasn’t enough to pull 100% of the slack out. However, next we grabbed some Bessey clamps and again, as one of us lifted, the other secured the beam flush up against the cross members we stuck into place earlier.

Even though it felt secure in the clamps we still left the straps up just as back up while we worked on the next step which was cutting the columns.

Next up was the columns. These will be made from some left over 2 x 6 material from a carport I built my folks two years ago. To mount them to the garage floor, I sketched up some mounting brackets quick in a 3D modeling software then cut them out on my Torchmate plasma table. If you don’t have a table, then of course you can use a handheld plasma cutter. But if you do have a table, I have a free .dxf on my website. 

I started by laying the plate on the ground, then taking an exact measurement that the column needed to be cut to. Once I had that, I used the chop saw to cut it to size.

Then to make situating the plate on the column qo quickly, I found center on the mounting plate and made cross hairs. Then did the same on the 2×6 material. This way I could set the plate on the ground and line up the markings on both to center it.

Now to stick it together! You can see I’m using magnets to help hold it in place where I want it. I’m using my Lincoln Electric Power Mig 210 and I started off by first tacking it in two places then having my dad read level in both directions while I added more tacks when it was set correctly. Now I could remove the magnets and weld all four sides shut. 

With the bottom done, it was now time to move to the top. We previously figured out the left and right position of the beam. But now was the time to figure out the front and back location.

In my Dad’s garage he has a chest of drawers we needed to work avoid….not only making sure the column wouldn’t hit it but also the larger mounting plate at the bottom. We also moved the plate and column over enough so that a drill can get in between these two. Once we had that spot set, we placed the column and moved the I-beam on top of it. Then, as my Dad read level I could get up to the top, tack it and then weld it shut just like the bottom.

One down! I repeated the steps on the other side for the second beam. First welding on the bottom plate then sticking the column into place and welding it to the I-beam. Dad has his garage set up so that his workbench splits the middle of his space, and by this second column being on this side of it, it will give him an entire bay of the garage to be able to use the gantry after it’s complete. 

Alright, columns are done. To stick it in place permanently, we are going to drill some holes in the garage floor and put in some anchor bolts. We first grabbed the bolts and marked off a drill depth on the bit using some tape.

We used a hammer drill, aiming for center on each of the slots in the base plate. We used tape on the bit as a depth reference and drilled down to this tape line. The tape just gives a visual for the rough depth each hole needs to be. 

Next we stuck a washer and nut on each bolt and hammered them into place. You want to place the nut on while you are hammering them in, to protect the threads from getting damaged. You’ll see that I left the nut sitting at the very top. Once the bolt reaches it’s depth, then we threaded the bolt on completely and tightened it up. 

This thing felt really secure as is but we still wanted to go ahead and stabilize the top to the rafters somehow. For this, we placed the shoe pieces only on the left and right side of the gantry. They also act as hard stops so you can’t accidentally knock the trolly off of the I beam.

Next we assembled the trolly then attached the hoist. The trolly is only $60 at Harbor Freight and that’s before using their 20% off coupon, so in my opinion it’s worth adding on to make moving the hoist quick and easy. 

The last thing we did was get rid of some of this awful looking rust. To make this job go quick, we threw a bristled cup attachment in the grinders then got after it. Oh, and my dad also placed a hook in the wall over on the right hand side to give him a place to loop the chains around when storing. 

And that’s it! Now, whenever my dad wants to use the gantry, he just pulls the trolley to the center, and lifts whatever he needs to lift. And then when he is finished, he moves it over and secures it out of the way.

For as much function as this will give my dad, it really didn’t take that long (3 hours, to be exact). If you are needing a gantry, I hope this video has helped you out.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed this project. I’ll see you on the next one.

(Most of the product links listed above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you!)

Thinking about building your own DIY log hauling trailer? Check out this project where I literally built my own log hauler using a flat bed trailer!

Things I Used In This DIY Log Hauling Trailer Project:

• ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
• Lincoln Power Mig
• Welding Hood
• Welding & Grinding Hood
• Welding Jacket
• Welding Gloves
• Triton SuperJaws
• Cordless Grinder
• Corded Grinder
• Metal Marking Pencil
• Lincoln Torchmate
• Lincoln Plasma Cutter
• Triton 4″ Belt Sander

Maybe it’s because I now live in the country, or maybe it’s because I’ve been hanging around my buddy Matt Cremona too much….but I want to play around with milling some logs. I intend to build a chainsaw mill next week then tackle the giant Matt Cremona bandsaw mill in early 2019. Before that though, I need to modify a trailer so I have a way to go pick up logs and haul them home. That’s what I’m doing this week.

The premise is to make and attach an arch to the back of a trailer that can pivot forward and backwards. You connect a winch to the arch, then you can tilt it forward to grab onto something, then winch the arch back to pull it up and onto the trailer. 

Now that you see what I’m going after, lets get into building it. 

This project might seem big, and I suppose it is in size, but it’s actually a pretty simple build. Also, I’m using it in this case to haul around logs but it’s also worth mentioning that this design would be good for lifting and hauling anything that’s big and heavy that you can get a chain around. I personally have a lot of rocks on my place I’ll be going after next. 

I started off by cutting the tubing I’ll use for the arch to length. I’m going with 1/4” material for almost this entire build. We don’t have the stellar tree diameters that you in the north do, but I still want to build this thing hefty so I’ll always have the power should the need arise. 

For the mean time I only cut the four bottom parts of the arch. I didn’t want to weld the complete arch on my shop floor then the risk it not fitting exactly right on the trailer. So next I started prepping these parts to be welded. I started by sticking each one in my Triton SuperJaws and grinding in a bevel on all the edges that would be welded to another joint. 

Then I moved the parts back down to my floor and stuck them together. I first tacked them into place then welded them close. For this project I’m using my Power Mig 210 MP Machine and if you’ve been wanting a welder it’s worth noting that this machine is currently on sale. You can save over $400 until November 8th, 2018 by using the promo code PM999 at check out over at LincolnElectric.com

Now Cremona has his arch mounted permanently to his trailer, but not yet knowing how often I’ll use mine, I wanted the arch to be removable. I’ve been traveling a lot recently so Cody actually tackled designing this removable system for me. Then on top of that he even cut out the parts needed with my Torchmate CNC so everything was ready for me to assemble. Annnnd he even got footage of it! What?! What a guy. I do have these tool paths available for download in the plans section of my website if you’re interested. 

These mounting brackets have a bottom plate that will be attached to the deck of the trailer, then two vertical plates that will sandwich either side of the arch. Then all three components will get a hole so a pin can be placed all the way through. This will create the pivot needed but also make the arch removable should we want to use the trailer for regular hauling. 

I started these off by lining out the placement of these side plates,  the important thing here is to make sure they are parallel to one another. You wouldn’t want that arch pivoting up and having an interference issue. 

I’m using a 1” diameter pin and to give it a little more support than the 1/4” plate material, I welded on some collars, just cut from a 1” steel pipe, onto the outside of both side plates. 

Next I set it onto the trailer and threw a level on it. Not surprisingly, the deck of the trailer needed some attention before the plate would be level. Note: you do want to make sure your trailer is level before reading level on this bracket. To fix my unleveled situation I used my 4” belt sander to take down the high spot on the deck. After fine tuning the left and right I moved on. 

With that done I moved to working on reinforcing the bottom side of the trailer with some steel. For this I’m going with 1/4” angle iron and the important thing is for this angle iron to line up with the holes in the mounting brackets. Instead of welding the brackets to the trailer, they will be attached using nuts and bolts so they too will be removable. The arch will be removable with the pin but should we need/want to remove these brackets as well, then we easily can. 

So back to placing this angle iron, I first transferred over the hole location from the mounting brackets to the side of the trailer. Then I cut the angle iron to length and stuck it in place…be sure to leave room for not only the bolt but also the washer. I used some scrap wood to build up the deck some so I could get a clamp in place to hold it while I set up to weld. 

I placed a piece like this in line with the front holes as well as the back. Then started drilling the holes through the deck and through the angle iron. I am using 1/2” hardware but started off with a small bit then stepped up a few times until getting to a 1/2” bit. Oh and the important thing here is to make sure these plates are parallel to one another, just like the plates on the brackets. You want everything on the same line so that the arch doesn’t run into anything going up or coming down. 

Once all eight holes were drilled, I stuck the hardware in then tightened everything down. 

Now while I was working on all that, Brain was working over at my puny drill press, punching a hole through both of the uprights. It was a 1” hole through 1/4” material so it was a job that required patience. By the time I was done with the deck, he was done with the holes so I took the uprights and smoothed out my welds with my grinder before pinning it onto the trailer. 

To attach them to the trailer, I set it in place between the two vertical sides plates on the mounting bracket. Then moved to the end of the leg so I could lift up on it, align all three holes, then shove the pin through. It’s worth noting these pins come with a hole in the end to place another pin to keep this pin from coming out. Which of course is a good safety. And now you can kinda see how it will work….

After getting the other side mounted I squared up both uprights to each other and the mounting brackets, then took a dimension for the final arch piece. I cut it to length then welded it in place. It’s not only easier moving the arch into place, building it this way but it’s also a safer bet over fabbing it on a shop floor, moving it into place on the trailer, and hoping everything lines up. 

With that welded up, the last bit on the arch was to weld on some gussets over each one of the seams. These I hand cut with my Tomahawk plasma cutter because I used thinner material. For these I went with 3/16” material. I only placed these on the front of the arch so I have four total. The middle two were easily done with the arch laid down but the fender wheel of the trailer got in the way of the outer two so I stood it up to complete these. 

Now while I worked on the arch Cody and Brian were figuring out how to mount a winch to the trailer so it could work! I actually went out of town the day they were working on his portion and unlike earlier, they did not get me any footage, but here an overview for ya. 

Cody cut out a giant plate on the CNC plasma cutter to fit in the tongue of the trailer for the winch to sit on. He welded it to the bottom side of the trailer instead of the top side so that when the winch is under load it will be getting pulled into the tongue vs being welded from the top it would just pull against the welds. 

The winch and battery were mounted then a heavy duty D Ring was welded onto the arch to create a grab point for the arch. 

And that’s pretty much it! Next we just had to go find a log to test it out. A buddy offered two down oaks at his place for us to remove so we loaded up and took off. They both had giant root systems still attached so I first cut those off to make hauling them up on the trailer easier. 

I’m already considering some add ons to make hauling easier. Somebody on Instagram suggested adding Jacks to the back end of the trailer, which I think is a great idea. Then I’m also playing around with the idea of ramps with rollers in it to make getting the log up and over the trailer lip easier. But we’ll see! Of course if I do any modifications I will be sure to bring you guys along.

If you have doubts about what something like this can handle then be sure to check out Matt’s Instagram and YouTube channel as he lives where the beast trees are but his arch trailer hasn’t met one it couldn’t handle yet. Also he has been into urban logging for years and has a ton of knowledge on the subject. 

That’s it for this one. Watch my video above for a better look at this project. And stay tuned for the next video where I build a chainsaw mill and slab up these logs. I’ll see you soon. 

Thinking about installing your own giant property gates? Before you do, check out this DIY project where I fabricated and installed my own!

Things I Used In This Giant Property Gates Project:

• ISOTunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
• Lincoln Power Mig 260
• Welding Hood
• Welding & Grinding Hood
• Welding Jacket
• Welding Gloves
• Welder JD
• Triton Super Jaws
• Cordless Grinder
• Corded Grinder
• Metal Marking Pencil
• Rust-Oleum Primer
• Rust-Oleum Brown Spray Paint
• Lincoln Plasma Cutter

In two previous videos I have shown how I built two different gates for my property. One to the house, and one to the shop. This tutorial/video shows how I got them both installed, which was a pretty big ordeal as they are both large and heavy.

The location of the gate is pushed off the road so that an entire truck and trailer can pull completely into the driveway, off the road, before hitting the gate.

Also, before punching the holes in the ground, I waited until I built the frame for the gates so I could get an exact measurement on how far apart these holes needed to be. They need to be pretty accurate because you only have a few inches of play in both directions. And since I live on solid rock, I had to hire a contractor with a rock auger bit to punch all eight holes.

The holes were about 30 inches deep and there are 4 posts at each gate location. Two for the main posts and two for the sub-posts that will support the main posts that the gate is hinged to. These sub-posts give the main posts much more rigidity.

I started by mixing up concrete and setting up the main posts that the gate will be hinged to, as well as the two sub-posts. All of these posts are left tall at this point and will be cut to their final size after the gate is installed. We made sure all of the posts stayed plumb while they were curing.

For the stringers, I used a smaller diameter pipe. To butt up flush to each other, the ends of these stringers need to be profiled. Cody found this awesome free software online where you can type in the angle and diameter of your pipe and it will spit out a printed template that you can cut out, wrap it around your pipe and trace it to cut. I used my Tomahawk 375 Plasma Cutter to make these cuts.

The main thing to pay attention to here is that you want the profiles to line up to one another. The center of the dip on one end is center with the dip on the other end. We then put the stringers in place to test the fit. And then took off a little bit here and there with a grinder until both sides rested snugly.

I then used a grinder to clean up the posts at the welding point to get a nice weld. And then welded them in place by hooking up a generator to my Lincoln Electric MP210 machine.

The angles of these stringers were chosen because the bottom of these posts is the most secure, being knee deep in concrete. However, the higher up you go, the easier it is to pull the post over. So, you want the stringer placement up high on the post to provide as much support as you can get.

I then put on two coats of primer and two coats of paint.

Moving on to the mounting the gates. We started off with the shop gate. I pulled a straight line down the middle on the hinge side of the gate. And another down the center of the hinges. It’s worth noting that these hinges are rated for 700 lbs. Which is well above what this gate weighs.

We first set a 4’ level on the gate to get it plumb. And then placed the hinge in its spot to get it plumb with a smaller level, using a magnet as a resting shelf.

After getting the hinge where I thought I liked it, I tacked it in place and then welded it shut.

Huge lesson: we found out that the barrel of the hinge wasn’t welded on straight from the manufacturer, which created a big problem of course. So the lesson is to plumb the barrel of the hinge and not the mounting plate. To fix this problem, I cut through the two welds holding the barrel on, just enough to move the barrel over and push it into plumb. I then welded it all into place.

We then used the 4’ level to span from the top hinges down to the bottom hinge to make sure they were on the exact same line. It’s really important to take your time on this step so that the hinges wont get bound up by being misaligned.

Ok, now time to get the gate down to the entrance to weld on the second part of the hinges. Cody wrapped a strap all the way around the gate and lifted it up with the tractor to move it, which worked beautifully. We moved slowly down the driveway so that Brian could keep the gate steady. And then they slowly crept up to the gate to set it in place.

We piled scrap wood on one side and a floor jack on the other to prop up the gate to the height we wanted the gate to be. We then put a level on the gate and then used the jack to raise or lower the gate into level. Once the gate was level, we then scooted the gate into the posts until both of the hinges were resting flat up against the posts.

Now using a magnet, I attached the second part of the hinge. We then used a level to make the gate completely plumb. I tacked the hinges in place. And then we again checked level and plumb before I welded them closed.

And the moment of truth: We were able to let off the tractor and the jack and open it up to see if it worked. And it looked great. We celebrated with a happy dance.

Now that the gate is installed, the second main post can be set. You want to wait until the gate is in so you have a little play over the amount of space between your second main post and the gate. I mixed up a little more concrete and set the second post, leaving about an inch gap. The post came out super nice and plumb, with a super nice and even gap.

Next up was installing the other gate leading to the house. We repeated almost all of the previous steps with just a few differences. One difference was in the stringers that attach the sub-poles to the main poles. This time, we welded them on horizontal instead of at such a steep angle like the ones for the first shop gate. I personally think it looks way cleaner keeping them horizontal.

We plan to add concrete to this driveway in the future, which will require an additional 4 inches of room underneath the gate. So to account for this, we mounted this gate higher (8 inches in the air) than the other gate.

After we got the gate welded on, we once again had that really cool moment where we were able to back off of everything and watch the gate open and close for the very first time. There’s something really cool about building something so huge and then seeing it function and operate.

To finish up I cut all of the posts to their final height. I cut the main posts to be about level with the gate itself.  I primed and painted all of the poles and did some touch up paint on the gate where needed. Since I had two bags of concrete left over, I went ahead and filled up both of the main posts that the gates are hinged to. Then to cap off the posts, I ordered some 3 1/2” post caps that are domed on the top that will just slip right over the posts.

The very last thing I did was cut out a small metal flap and welded it to the back of each gate so it will reach out and grab that main post and keep the gate from swinging past it.

I don’t know what it would cost to have these gates built. But I can tell you that we only spent about $1200.00 between both gates. We still need to buy the actuators. But I can still guarantee that is a lot of money saved since I built the gates myself.

Thinking about building your own custom metal wood gate? Check out this DIY project where I built my own metal gates with a custom touch!

As I explained in my last video, my property has two driveways, one that leads to the house and one that leads to my shop. The house gate I made was more traditional but this gate I wanted to design something one of a kind and something to do with woodworking. After some thinking on it, I came up with a metal frame gate, with a wooden slab center. The slab will have cracks cut into it and bow ties spanning them.

Tools and Materials I Used In This Custom Metal Wood Gate Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Ultimate Workbench Plans
Triton Biscuit Jointer
Titebond III Woodglue
Rockler Blue Clamps
Lincoln Power Mig 260
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Phillip Morley
Welder JD
Triton SuperJaws
Cordless Grinder
Corded Grinder
Triton Track Saw
3D Modeling Software
Power Carver
Metal Marking Pencil
Triton Router
Infinity Straight Bit
Rust-Oleum Primer
Rust-Oleum Brown Spray Paint
Lincoln Plasma Cutter
Triton 4″ Belt Sander

If you aren’t familiar with woodworking, a bow tie is something used to span over a crack in a slab of wood to hold the crack together and stabilize it. It’s something decorative but also functional.

The end result might look heavy, but it’s isn’t too bad. To keep the weight down, I went with cedar for the center slab. The gate needs to be 14’ across so I started off with 16’ foot boards and I began by laying the boards out on my shop floor to arrange the grain pattern.

I wanted the gate to end up around 5’ tall so I bought 8 1x7s and started gluing them together one board at a time. This process took four days total as I could only glue up about two boards a day. I used my triton biscuit jointer to cut in a slot every foot or so. Then I used Titebond III wood glue as it’s waterproof and this will be exposed to the elements.

Once I got the slab clamped up to start drying, I hopped over to the metal side of my shop and began working on the frame

I built this frame the same as my previous gate, with thicker material on the bottom and the hinge side, then lighter material on the top and unhinge side. I started by cutting my square tubing to length at the chop saw, making sure I leveled each joint by shoring it up with scrap wood, before making the cut.

After getting the frame pieces cut, I cut a V notch into a scrap piece of wood then used this to hold the joints off the ground so I could bevel the ends to ready them to weld.

I would get the pieces nice and square, then also make sure they were flat to one another then tack them in place to start, make sure things didn’t move, then complete the weld.

A few things about having a giant wooden slab center. The wood will need room to expand and contract. I consulted a master craftsmen friend of mine, Phillip Morley, and he recommended incorporating a U channel that will hold the slab and have empty space at the top that will give the wood room to move. I had trouble finding the size of U channel that I needed, so a welder friend of mine, JD, told me to make my own from flat bar.

Perfect idea. So that’s what I did.

I tipped the L frame up and used magnets to hold it flush to one side, which will ultimately be the front. The plan is to make a channel to hold the slab by welding on a piece of flat bar to the front and then the back of the frame all the way around.

After getting the front bar in place, I set a 1x piece of wood in place to represent the center slab then set in the back flat bar. This back bar isn’t as easy as the front because it isn’t flush to the tubing like the other. To make holding this in place easier and consistent all he way down, I used another scrap piece of wood as a spacer in between the magnet and the flat bar.

While this held the 1x tightly enough, it also left it just a little bit of wiggle room. This process was really slow as this long length of flat bar wasn’t perfectly flat, so I worked in small sections, moving that scrap board down, then tacking behind it, moving it down, then repeating.

After getting the bottom wrapped up, I repeated the process no the upright of the L frame. Starting with the front since it’s easiest, then moving the wood spacer in place to start on the back.

All the while, I would jump back over to the woodworking side of my shop when the previous board was dry, in order to glue up another board to the slab. I very quickly ran out of long enough clamps so I resorted to using good ole ratchet straps instead. These don’t provide the best clamp support, but as this slab is all visual and not structural, I wasn’t too concerned about getting a perfect joint.

I eventually outgrew all my clamps and had to rely solely on ratchet straps for clamping. Then I also eventually outgrew my workbench and had to move the slab to my shop floor to continue expanding on it. One bad thing about using ratchet straps for clamping is they want to curl up the material when tightening down. To keep the board straight, I would use a scrap piece of wood

Lots of scraps being utilized during this build

Running these perpendicular to the glue up and under the strap. This way as I tightened down on the strap, this board would be drawn into the slab and keep it from bowing.

Finally, the glue up was complete, so it got moved to the metal side of my shop so I could start cleaning it up and cutting in some cracks. It was pretty difficult working with such a large piece. I used two sets of saw horses that I staggered to try and provide support to the entire slab. I started off with my 4” belt sander and went over the entire thing. I wasn’t going to perfect flat or smooth here. I’m fine with it looking a little rustic but I did remove the glue squeeze out and the majority of the fuzz that comes with cedar off the shelf.

Next I measured my frame….about three times….to see exactly how long I needed the slab to be, then I used my track saw to cut it to length.

Ah, ok moving on to the cracks! I sketched out the idea for the gate in a modeling software before getting started, so I already knew what I wanted the cracks and bow tie arrangement to look like. To replicate it as close as I could, I used a tape measure to mark a few key measurements, then connected the marks by free handing it. This process is simple, but it still took me most of the morning as I would draw something, look at it, then change it slightly and look at it again just to change something else.

However, once I finally had three cracks drawn on that I was happy with, I started cutting. I started off by using my power carver. I was hoping the cutting tool would be able to cut all the way through the 1x material, but the diameter is just a tad too small. So I used this tool to make the initial cut from the top, then came back with a jigsaw afterwards to complete them.

Up next was the making the bow ties. I’m making these from some 18 gauge sheet metal and will paint them the same color as the frame. I started off by laying out the pattern. Again since I first modeled the design to scale in my software I already knew how big I needed each bow tie to be. I’ll need five total with the biggest coming in at 24” and the smallest at 16.

To cut these out I’m using my Tomahawk 375 plasma cutter which has an on board air compressor. I freehand a lot of stuff I cut out with the plasma cutter, but since I want these lines to be as spot on as possible, I set up a torch guide using a scrap piece of tubing and two magnets. I positioned this bar 1/2” off my cut line so that I can rest my cutting torch against it and cut perfect along my line. The set up is very quick and easy to move around so it took no time to get these bow ties cut out. Man! Doesn’t that look cool!

I love the giant one, but heck, even the small steel bow tie is awesome in my opinion.

The cutting leaves a build up of whats called dross on the back and since I’ll want these to lay flush into my slab I stuck each bow tie in my super jaws then used a grinder to knock off all the back dross. I found a 40 grit flap disc is the best tool for this step.

And now is a step I probably spent way too much time on, considering there isn’t huge amount that can be changed…..but next was to position the bow ties on the slab of cedar, across their cracks. There is no right or wrong here, but I still took my time and made sure I liked the placement of all five before tracing them on to the slab.

I wanted to inset the bow ties so they would be flush to the slab instead of resting on top. So after tracing them onto the slab, I stuck a straight bit in my router and started carving away the internals of the trace. I would start by going along the perimeter and getting the outline done, then worked my way inside. I learned on the first one to work backwards though because by starting on the outside and carving away towards the middle….I eventually loose material to keep my router base flat and the cut consistent. So instead, I would cut the outline then start on the inside and work towards the perimeter.

I bet you can imagine that this was a pretty time consuming process, but I was enjoying myself as it was beyond exciting see these bow ties click into place one at a time. I did mess up on two of the cuts, but I don’t believe I got any footage of it. On two I completed the outline cut then when I was working on hogging out the center material, I lost track of my outline and ran outside of it. I was kicking myself, especially doing it twice, but it is easy to lose track of that outside line after a few mins of cutting. So I recommend stopping and cleaning out the cut every few minutes to keep a clean eye of sight. I ended up fixing my mistakes with sanding them and easing their edges some. In the end, you can’t see them unless you are specifically looking for them.

After getting all the bow ties cut, I removed them from the slab and took them outside for a coat of paint. I started off with two coats of primer first. While that was drying, I moved inside to give the slab a coat of protection. I’m using a Semi-transparent stain in the color of cedar. This will keep the slab from graying-out over time.

By the time I was done with the slab, which I coated on the front and the back, the primer was dry on the bow ties, so I gave them two coats of paint. For this gate, I’m going with a Hammered texture paint by Rust-Oleum. It’s designed for outside use and also for metal. While the can calls it a brown, I would almost call it a pewter color mixed with brown. Whatever it is, I think it’s a lovely color that goes very well with the cedar color.

While I was in the painting step, I wanted to get the frame outside to also get doused. But first a few details needed to be sorted. First I drilled some weep holes in what will be the bottom of the frame, so that when it rains, water has a route to escape. Then I also cut some flat bar material and welded the ends of the open tubing close.

Now the frame could be moved outside and jiffy-rigged to stand up while being painted. You can see I used a set of super jaws on one end, then a ladder rung for the other. Same as the bow ties, I gave the entire frame two coats of primer then two coats of paint. I’m painting it first because once I have the slab in the center, I will weld the frame closed and then it would be a nightmare to paint without getting it all over the slab.

Once everything was dry, it was time to set the slab into the bottom frame. This was nerve wracking as the slab at this point isn’t that secure feeling, because of the giant cracks. So I first used a scrap board to scab over the largest crack and provide some support. Then, with help, I inset the slab into the U-channel of the bottom “L” of the frame.

Next was to lift the top half of the frame into place, but before that, while I still had access I placed some nuts in the bottom channel, under the center slab, so when it does rain, the slab won’t be sitting in a pool of water.

Alright, next I grabbed Cody’s help to set the top frame into place.

I could now weld the frame close. Since I repainted the frame, I used a grinder to ground off any paint in the way of where I needed to weld. Then after laying down a bead, I used a grinder to knock it down smooth so it would look seamless.

To do any touch up paint, I ripped off some cardboard thin enough to fit between the slab and the frame.

Lets move to adding in those cool bow ties, shall we. I thought about gluing them in but instead decided to anchor them in from the back. I cut some 3/4” square tubing and first welded them into the frame where they would be covered up by the bow tie and not able to be seen from the front.

Going to the back, I drilled a hole through the back tubing, set the bowtie in place, then marked where on the bowtie lined up with this hole. This is so I could grind off the paint on the back so that I’ll have a clean work surface to weld the head of the carriage bolt to. You can see I marked with a sharpie where the head will land.

Now, before setting it back into place I slip in the carriage bolt again but this time with the head facing the bow tie, then place the bow tie in it’s spot. Then I could ground off to the bolt itself, shove it up against the bow tie then give it a few good tacks to hold it there.

Next I could thread on a nut and have an easy way to draw in and hold onto the bow tie. I like this method over gluing them in because I don’t know how the wood will react over time to these. I’m curious to see if the wood movement will pop them out, or maybe deform slightly around them, or if it will all work great together. Either way, I wanted to leave myself a way to take them off and do some work if the need arises.

Man alive, it was a ton of work to get this far and I can’t tell you how pleased I am with it. I love having a gate that is super unique and representative of something I love. I also really like that only a small population of people will be able to see the gate and understand what it is. Stay tuned for the next video where I cover the installation process of this gate and the previous gate. I’ll see you then.

Thinking about starting to build your own metal property gate? Check out this DIY project where I built and installed my own metal gate!

Now that my shop is built, I’ll be tackling a project that’s been on my to-do list since moving in….gates. Since I have two driveways, one that leads to the house and one that leads to the shop, I’ll be building two. This video is covering how I built this one leading to the house, so lets jump into how I did it.

Things I Used In This Metal Property Gate Project:

ISOtunes Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Lincoln Power Mig 260
Welding Hood
Welding & Grinding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Triton SuperJaws
Cordless Grinder
Corded Grinder
Portaband
Rust-Oleum Black Spray Paint
Lincoln Plasma Cutter
Ultimate Workbench Plans
Triton 4″ Belt Sander

This gate will be 15’ long and 6’ tall and made entirely from steel….which meant I got a good workout in while building it.

As I don’t have anything set up or built on the metal side of my shop, I built the entire thing on my shop floor. I suppose even if I had a workbench, I would have still needed to build it on the floor.

I started by cutting the square tubing joints that will make up the bottom and two sides of the main frame. One thing about metal working that’s a huge stand out difference over wood, is how heavy everything is, it takes so long to set up even one cut.

I built up a standoff from wood scraps for the out feed support on the material and made sure every joint read level before making my cuts.

I’ve never built a gate before so before jumping into this project I asked a few welder friends about what material thickness I should go with and also if a diagonal should be included in the design. The information I got back was no diagonal as it wouldn’t help with sagging since the gate is longer than it is tall, but to go with thicker material for the bottom joint and the hinge side of the frame. So that’s what I did. The heavier stuff is 1/4” then the top and unhinged side are 3/16”.

Something else that will help with sagging is the top arch. Not only is it decorative, but it’s also functional. I first bought 2×2 straight tubing thinking I would find a fab shop to bend it for me. Nuh Uh. It was really expensive going that route, but it turns out a local steel shop called Triple S sells different arches right off the shelf.

Before cutting them to length, I decided to weld up the bottom and two sides first to get them in a fixed state before trying to measure for the arch. I took my time to not only get the sides completely square to the bottom, but to also make sure the material was nice and flat to each other. I placed a few tack welds in different spots on both sides, measured everything again to make sure it was still square and flat, then came back to weld three sides close.

With that stuck in place now I could cut the arch. The main thing to consider here is I wanted the center of the arch to be center with my gate. So I first found center on the bottom, which was easy.

To get center on my arch though, I pulled a tape from side to side then used a framing square to find center on the tape, then transfer that line to the arch….which was about 14” above the tape.

Then I used my framing square on the bottom to get a straight scarp board lined up to my bottom mark. Then moved the top arch until the board was also lined up to the mark on it. Now I could mark either side of the arch where it lined up to the sides of the gate. I marked the underside so I could avoid doing math and figuring out the angle needed.

Just as a double check, I measured both sides I was about to cut off and when they measured the exact same, I knew things were correct and ready to cut.

The second arch is the exact same length as the first, so once I had the first one cut I could lay it on top of the second and use it to trace my cut lines.

These were pretty quick to install as I just had to make sure things were nice and flat as I was tacking and installing them. And of course that they were spaced a part the same distance from the left and right side.

Since I planned for this side to be the front of my gate, after I completed the welds for the aches, I came back with a grinder and ground down my welds until they were nice and smooth. Using this awesome new hood from Lincoln Electric that is an auto darkening welding hood, but can be flipped up to quickly become a clear protective grinding shield. This prevents having to switch out head gear when needing to go between the two tasks repeatedly during a project. Very cool in my opinion.

The frame body is done at this point. For the center I’ll be filling in the space evenly with 3/4” tubing.

I first divided the space out evenly to figure out what the spacing between each picket needed to be so that I could cut a bunch of spacers made from wood. For these I cut up anything that was in my scrap bin set to be tossed out. Before placing them I would make sure there wasn’t bunch of metal dust or other debris between the spacer and the metal picket. Then I would draw a tape across the span to see how tall the next picket needed to be cut to.

The bottom is cut at a 90 of course, but the top has that arch to butt up to. This means the cut angle varies so when I pulled my tape I would read the left and the right then mark two dimensions on my material so that I could connect the two with a straight edge and have a visual of the cut needed.

A lot of pickets were needed for this gate. Which meant this was a time consuming process. To speed things up, I set up two cutting stations so I could keep my chop saw at a true 90 and get my bottom cut, then I used my portaband for getting the angled top cuts. Sticking the picket in my SuperJaws to cut it and also grind down the ends if just a bit needed to be taken off.

Once I got to the half way point things really picked up speed because I was then able to take the pickets I already cut and use them to make a twin for the mirrored side. This killed all the measuring, I just pay attention to keep them in the right order.

After all the pickets were cut, I started attaching them by first going through and tacking them in place. I wanted these pickets to be on the center of the bottom rail so I grabbed a spacer that was the thickness needed and moved it to sit under the picket.

The important thing in this step was to make sure the picket was not only sitting flat against this bottom spacer but also pushed up against the spacer dictating it’s distance from the next picket. To keep all the pickets on the same line, I used the same spacer for the bottom and moved it from picket to picket. I would tack a few along the bottom, then repeat the process, taking my same spacer with me, to the top.

Once I got to the end of the gate and verified that everything looked nice and straight and evenly spaced, I went back through the pickets and welded them closed. Actually, I only welded the front side with the gate laying down. After getting those done, I stood the gate up, using my SuperJaws to keep it from falling over, then welded the sides and back. This was awesome getting to see the gate up and being able to move around it. For some reason when it was laying on the ground, it seemed large but not 15’ x 6’ large. Stood up though, it really sunk in how big this gate was.

With the gate up right I was now able to weld what will be the backside of the gate’s frame. This was the side laying against my shop floor when it was on the ground. Annnnnd I also capped off the end of the open square tubing. I did this by clamping down some flat flat and cutting off a portion just big enough to fit inside the tubing. I used a magnet to hold it in place, then tacked then welded it close. Coming back with a grinder afterwards to make it nice and smooth.

I’m using the new Lincoln 260 Power Mig for this project and one thing I’m loving is how quick and simple it is to change the thickness of material. A few clicks and turn of a button and I can jump from 3/16” settings to 16 gauge.

And that! Is a finished gate. It’s funny because even though this is one of the largest things I’ve built, it only took three days to get this far. One to build the body, two to cut the pickets, and one tack and weld everything in place. So if you have a gate on your to-do list, then don’t think it’s out of the question to build one yourself.

Next up was paint. I called Brain and Cody for help on this one as I wanted to move the gate outside to the porch to first clean. As this gate weights about 350 lbs, they grabbed the tractor, a few straps, and made quick work of getting it moved. I used my Triton SuperJaws once again to stabilize it and discovered they actually have enough throw out to the side to stand on their feet and still grab onto the gate…..so that’s cool.

I set the gate on some OSB and scrap wood blocks to protect my porch from the paint. Before painting though, I gave the entire thing a good scrubbing. I filled a bucket with soap and water then used a stiff bristle brush to go over the entire gate and get all the mill scale off.

This was not a fun step.

After it was clean, I let it dry, then started painting. For this gate I went with a textured black spray paint by Rust Oleum. This is a protective Enamel Textured paint that is fast drying rust preventative, and is suitable for indoor or outdoor applications. Even though I went with black, it does come in a huge variety of colors. You can’t see it in the video, but I can’t say enough about how much I like the texture of this paint.

I started by painting the fast and easy part of the gate, the frame, then moved to the pickets. The technique I found to work the best, as far as moving quickly and making it look nice, is to start at the bottom and stand up while holding down the trigger. Once you get into a groove it becomes easy to keep your spaying line straight and in line with the picket. After getting the fronts painted, I repeated on the sides and the back.

I might come back later and add something decorative in the middle of the fence, but I’m leaving it as is for now. As I said, I have two gates on my property, so be sure to stay tuned, not only for the second gate, but for the installs as well!

Thinking about building your own cool grenade stool? Check out this fun DIY metal project where I build this really cool grenade style stool!

WooHoo! The time has come for me to release a very exciting project I’ve been working on for the past couple of months. As my contribution to a recent group project for Lincoln Electric, I designed and fabricated a Grenade Stool from 11 gauge carbon steel that came out looking incredible. The design is super sturdy and damn near bomb proof (lol….see what I did there? lol). I showcased it for the first time at FabTech 2017 and the reception was so great.

As you can see these pieces of furniture resemble an old WW2 “Pineapple” hand grenade. With different sizes and materials available you can decide which of the options works best for you. If you think building one of these sounds like a lot of fun, I’m right there with you.

These work perfectly as a cool end table to compliment nearly any space. However, if the need arises, the smaller version can quickly double as a sitting stool around the kitchen island, family table, or in the shop while you handle the spanners on whatever you may be working on.

Ultimately I think this is a really versatile piece of furniture that has a ton of character and is a guaranteed conversation starter.

Thank you so much for stopping by to learn about this exciting project. I really appreciate your support and will see you on whatever it is I build next.

Cheers – April

Thinking about building a kayak trailer? Check out this DIY project where I built my very own metal kayak trailer for pretty cheap!

Getting the kayaks to the river can be a bit tricky and since I’ve been wanting to build a trailer for a while this project just seemed to make a lot of sense.  I had so much fun building this kayak trailer : )  I started with a basic harbor freight trailer and added a bunch of steel to it in order to make the side rails and center mast. After pricing the material out it was more cost effective to buy a small trailer from harbor freight, which comes in a box, and then modify it to fit my needs. It came out very stiff and feels great when loading the kayaks as well as pulling it down the road.  Check out the video down below to learn a bit more.

Things I Used in This Building A Kayak Trailer Project:

Trailer
Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Right Angle Grinder
Portaband Saw
Women Work Pants

Welder
Welding Hood
Welding Jacket
Welding Gloves
Welding Cart

Magnetic Ground Clamp
Metal Marking Pencil
Chop Saw
Plasma Cutter
Drills
Self Tapping Screws

These links are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase using one of these links then I will receive a small commission from the product sale. In a small way this really helps this website to stay alive and kicking and I sincerely appreciate the support. Take care and have a great day – April. 

Thinking about building a kayak rack yourself? Check out this awesome kayak rack I built myself in this easy 1-day DIY project!

Sorry, but “Yak Rack” just sounds too cool to pass up as a name for this project. You’ve probably seen by now that I’ve had a couple of projects focused on supporting my new kayaking hobby. This project is focused on creating a good storage solution for my two kayaks. The build is very straightforward and was a lot of fun bringing it all together. I had no idea there was so much to consider when building a storage solution for kayaks.

Kayak Rack Plans

$9.99

Shop now

The main take-aways are this: 1) Keep the yaks out of direct sunlight as best as possible when storing them. I suggest using a UV protectant spray as well to prolong the integrity of the plastic. 2) Storing the yaks upside down and supporting the plastic material with a soft foam will keep the plastic from deforming due to heat and its own weight. 3) Store the yaks in such a way that varmints won’t want to burrow up in side of them and ruin your investment.

The video I put together that outlines the build is down below. The thing I like the most about the design is that it’s built very strong and requires only basic wood working tools. If you’re interested, I have a set of building plans for the yak rack found here.  The plans come with a complete cut list, material list, and step by step instructions.  This would be a fun build to share with your kids or your favorite paddling buddy too….feel free to check em out : )

Kayak Rack Plans

$9.99

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I almost forgot! – Last week I released a basic how-to on building an ice chest stereo for the back of the Kayak.  It’s also a really fun build to either share with a buddy or knock out on your own. Feel free to check it out over here.

Thanks for stopping by to learn more about this project. If you have the means, get out on the water, have fun, and try your hand at one of these Yak Racks : ) Have a great week and yall take care – April

Things I Used For This Building A Kayak Rack Project:

Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Super Jaws
Circular Saw

Miter Saw Stand
Miter Saw
Drills

Design Software
Triton Multi Stand
Foam

Kayak Rack Plans

$9.99

Shop now

These links are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase using one of these links then I will receive a small commission from the product sale. In a small way this really helps this website to stay alive and kicking and I sincerely appreciate the support. Take care and have a great day – April. 

Thinking about building your own free standing metal carport? Check out this cool DIY project where I built my own carport with metal!

Well, I have to admit that I am pretty excited to finally publish this project. About a year or so ago my dad mentioned that he would really like a carport one day built in front of his house to keep the sun off of his vehicles. This week, I finally tackled this project and let me tell you, it was a lot of work.

If you haven’t already, feel free to check out the build video I posted to my YouTube channel seen above.

Things I Used In This Metal Carport Project:

Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Plasma Cutter
Welder
Welding Jacket
Welding Hood
Tinted Safety Glasses

Welding Gloves
Angle Grinder
Magnetic Ground Clamp
Chop Saw
Welding Cart
Red Primer Paint

Polycarb Roof Panels
Clousure Strips
Triton Drills
Custom Tool Belt
Ridge Cap

After searching through countless images of carport on the internet my dad and I finally agreed on a style. Once I had a good direction of what the project needed to look like I went to the computer and began modeling the carport.

This carport is built very stout. All four posts are made from 6 x 6 material that is 3/16 thick. All of the trusses, girters, and purlins are built from 2 x 6 rectangular tubing that is 14 gauge stick.

After I decided on a design, and purchased just the basic material I began the process of locating and digging the post holes. The ground at my parent’s house is very rocky and not easy to dig. But, I’m a pretty stubborn person, so I don’t mind just toughing it out.

Rather than putting the base of the pole inside of a hole and surround it with concrete, I am going to set a half inch base plate into the concrete and weld my post to the base plate after the concrete has cured. This makes locating and truing the post much easier.

Note: it is very very critical to get the position of these plates located precisely. Before committing to a final position for each one of the plates I checked the diagonal over and over again to ensure that the layout for my carport was as square as possible. If special attention is not paid during this step, it will make the entire project very difficult.

The anchor plates are held to the concrete using 3/8 diameter eyebolts. These bolts get inserted into the holes of the plate and then pushed into the wet concrete mix that is in the post hole. The eyebolts serve as anchors to the base plate.  After everything is measured for what might have been the 15th time, I set the plates in the concrete and allowed one full day for the concrete to cure before I began attaching the post.

Before attaching the post it’s very important to note that each one of the post has a square cut end. This will ensure the post will naturally rest in the plum position before I weld it. Just as expected, after setting the first post it measures perfectly plum and got welded to the base plate.

The remaining three posts got the exact same treatment. As it is, all of the posts are cut to 9′ long which is longer than I need. The ground is not totally even on my parents property, so I will leave the post long for now and cut them to length in the following step.

Because the ground slopes upward toward the back of the carport, I cut the back two post first. I cut my first post to 102 inches tall (102 = 96” of ground clearance + 6” of rectangular tubing). From there I used a line level to project a straight line from my first post to the second. I repeated this process until all four posts marked with a level cut line with respect to one another. Finally, I cut all the posts and each post top is level to one another

The next step is to cap off the posts. Before hanging any of the purlins or girters, I covered the top of each post with 1/4 inch plate. This place serves two purposes. The first is to provide a good base to weld the trust material to later in the build and the other purpose is to prevent rainwater from getting inside of the posts. The quarter inch plate was cut a little bit smaller than the opening of the square tubing so that I could weld the open corner joint of the plate to the post all the way around.

After the plates were attached, I could finally hang my first piece of rectangular tubing.  Again, this material measures 2″ x 6″ x 14g thick and each joint is 24′ long.  If you’re curious, each joint weighs just over 100lbs. suffice to say they were a little challenging to move around. Anyhow, to start with, I cut the first girter that spans between the front two posts.

I enlisted the help of my husband to lift this mammoth up to the top of a ladder where I then welded it in position. I’ll ad,it that it felt pretty good getting the first piece in the air.

From there the process for the remaining three sides wen the exact same: take a measurement, cut the long joint to length using a chop saw, then climbing up the ladder with it so I could weld it in place. Admittedly, it takes a lot longer than one would expect. Hanging the first two front and rear girters as well as the side perlins took an entire day.

With my first two girders and purlins in-place I turned my attention to making the trusses. I built these trusses with a 3/12 pitch. To make the trussses I cut an angle on the end of the rectangular tubing and then welded the two pieces together to make the top chords of the truss. It is important that the two pieces of rectangular tubing that make up the trusts are nice and level to one another before they get welded together.

Before welding these two pieces of material together, I cut each rectangular tube about 1 foot longer than the final length needed so that way I can come back and cut them to length once they’re in the air. This just makes the assembly a lot easier to work with when positioning it in the air. With the two top chords welded together I lifted them up into place and then welded them in position. I took my time to carefully position the truss so that it is not only centered but also plumb. I used a piece of equipment to set the first one in place but did the second one by hand with Cody.  Oddly enough, lifting them by hand and setting them in position without the use of the machine was easier.

Obviously, the same was repeated for the opposite side. It’s important to mention that the top of each post has two gusset plates welded to the trusts and the top of the post. I made these gussets by cutting them out of quarter inch plate material with two plasma cutter.

The supports inside of the truss are known as “webs”. After carefully measuring the length for each web I transferred those marks on two short pieces of tubing and cut them to length, then welded them into position.

And that’s run going to stuff this week for this project. Check back in next week when I wrap up the remaining perlins and hang some roofing material!

Thanks for dropping in – April.

Thinking about building your own free standing metal carport? Check out this cool DIY project where I built my own carport with metal!

Welcome back to the second part of a two part series covering the carport build at my parents place. Now let’s focus on the last few steps to complete this build. If you have not done so already check out the YouTube video I put together down below that shows all of the following steps.

When we left off from the last post I had just hung the end trusses and welded them in position as well as installed the webs inside of the trusses. The very last thing after calling addresses complete, was to cut the ends of the top chords two links that we’ll later on create to eave using my plasma cutter. Now I get to turn my attention to cutting all of these long purlins to length and hanging them up in space. Lucky me!

Things I Used In This Metal Carport Project:

Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Plasma Cutter
Welder
Welding Jacket
Welding Hood
Tinted Safety Glasses

Welding Gloves
Angle Grinder
Magnetic Ground Clamp
Chop Saw
Welding Cart
Red Primer Paint

Polycarb Roof Panels
Clousure Strips
Triton Drills
Custom Tool Belt
Ridge Cap

These purlins way about 100 pounds a piece and are not very easy to maneuver by hand. After cutting the perlins to length using a chopsaw, I set the first end perlin in place after clamping a temporary shelf onto the trusts. This small shelf allows me to temporarily rest the weight of the perlin while I welded in position.

Later on, I welded some scrap material together to create two shelves out of the rectangular tubing. Instead of using clamps to hold the shelf in position I would temporarily weld the shelf (made from tubing) to the bottom of the trusts so that the perlin could rest on it. After the perlin was secured in position, I would simply use a grinder to cut off the welds that were holding the shelf in place. This system worked much better than messing around with clamps and so on.

With Cody’s help, we were able to move along pretty quickly using this temporary shelf method. I would hang my end on the shelf first and then Cody could hang his. Although it seems like it would have moved faster, it took us one full day to hang all of the purlins.

After all of the purlins were hung in place I could now focus on getting the structure ready for paint. This material was purchased from a steel yard and was very dirty with mill scale. Obviously this would not make for a very good surface to apply paint. Consequently I took the time to buy four scrub brushes and scrub the entire structure down with soap and water to remove all of the mill scale and get it ready for paint.After a good wash and rinse job I then focused on painting the entire structure. Surprisingly, this step went pretty fast. I used a commercial paint/primer that was recommended by a local paint store. I believe it is a PPG product but it is certainly used for steel structures and is very durable. It rolls on very thick and is quick to dry in a red oxide color.

The roofing material that I’ve gone with is made by a company called Tuftex. It is a transparent polycarbonate material that blocks UV rays but still allows light to pass through. In between the roofing panels and the purlins I used closure strips that are also made by Tuftex specifically for the roofing panels.

Each panel is held in place using exterior self tapping screws. The self tapping screws have a small rubber washer which seals against the panel material. I will admit that the roofing took a lot of time due to all of the drilling. It is important to pre-drill each hole so that the panel does not crack as a consequence of expansion duty heat.

Each panel overlaps the next one by one for corrugation and gets a bead of silicone down the entire overlap. This will help with water leakage. After about a full days worth of installing panel material, the roofing was complete minus a ridge cap.

One of the major lessons learned with the ridge cap is that I should have installed it as I moved along and installed panels. But, because I did not I was forced to get on top of the roof and move down the ridge as I installed the cap which was pretty complicated and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I got it done – ‘cause that’s what I do : )

After the ridge cap is installed, I’m calling this one done. This was an incredibly fun project that I learned so much on. It makes me look forward to working with steel in the future and continuing to put time on the welder. I appreciate you stopping by to learn more about the project.

Take care and stay safe – April

Is it your first time sand casting brass? Check out this fun DIY project where I sand casted my own brass and ended up making a cool brass axe keychain!

I’ve always had a fascination with sand casting and finally decided to just jump right into it. After taking the time to learn the basics I jumped right in. The first major hurtle to get over was making the foundry. If you haven’t already, feel free to check out the video I put together on how to build a propane heated foundry.

With the foundry out of the way, I now focused on making the pattern for my part. I made mine out of wood. The part I am casting will wind up as a miniature axe head made from brass….not for chopping, just for decoration. The pattern did not really take long since it is mainly just a tapered wedge.

Things I Used For This Sand Casting Brass Project:

Bandsaw
Belt Sander
Bluetooth Hearing Protection
Triton Drills
Welding jacket

Gloves
Face Shield
Boric Acid
Crucible

Tongs
Dremel
SuperJaws
Two Part Epoxy

I then focused on making my own green sand. Green sand is available for purchase but I wanted to try to make my own a first. I used THIS video tutorial to help with making my first batch of sand. Unfortunately, my sand did not come out very good but did work for my first casting.

I later wound up finding some good sand through a casting shop. They sold me a 5 gallon bucket of some really good stuff that worked much better than the first batch I made.

The flask is the part of the operation that actually receives the molten metal to make the part. It is basically a box that is made up of two halves. The top half is known as the “cope” and the bottom part is the “drag”. You can find these pre-made online but they’re easy enough to make on your own if you’d rather go the DIY route.

An important thing to note about the flask is that the two halves need to come together perfectly flat without any spaces between them. I made mine from ¾” plywood and sanded them afterward to ensure they were nice and flat.

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The other important feature of the flask is that you build in some kind of locating feature for the two halves so that they come together correctly every time. I built a simple male/female feature along the sides which worked really well. A dowel and socket approach would work also.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. I placed my pattern for the axe head in the drag and cover it with green sand through a fine sifter. The part gets placed in the drag while it is in the upside down position. (once the cope is packed with sand it gets turned back over).

The first layer of sand around the pattern gets sifted so that the sand in contact with the pattern is as fine as possible. This will ensure the surface finish of the casted part is as fine as possible.

After sifting, I then packed the sand around the pattern. You’ll need to be careful to not move the pattern around during this step. After the first layer is good and packed in, I continued filling and packing until the drag is full of packed green sand.

With the pattern all packed into the drag, I turned it over to where it was right side up and get to see the back side of the pattern tightly held in place by the compacted sand. Im now looking at the top of the drag. The top of the drag gets a little bit of baby powder sprinkled on it to help with releasing the cope which is about to go on.

The cope now gets placed onto the drag and a sprue and riser are created. The sprue is the fill hole where the molten metal comes in and the riser is basically a vent to allow gasses to escape as the mold is filled. I used a short piece of aluminum tube (about .5” in diameter) for the sprue and a pencil for the riser.

Carefully holding the pencil and tube in place, I packed sand around them so they are held firmly in place and then gently removed them after the cope was completely full of packed sand. The cope and drag now get pulled apart and we are almost ready to pour some material into this little flask.

With the cope and drag separated, I cleaned up the holes just a bit from removing the pencil and the aluminum tube. Once I was happy with the shape of the two holes I set the cope aside for one last touch on the drag.

The drag still has the pattern in it and will need to be gently removed. I predrilled a small hole in the back of my wooden pattern (before beginning this process) so I could thread a wood screw in (by hand) and then carefully remove the pattern using the screw as a hand hold. After the pattern is removed, I carved in a couple of “gates”.

The gates are a just small veins in the green sand where the molten metal flows from the the molten brass to make it from the sprue to the pattern and vent. If you’re looking at the top of the drag where the part was just removed, you can see where the pencil and the aluminum tubing were in contacting the drag in the form of two small circular impressions. The gates get carved in the sand from these little impressions to the void in the sand where the pattern was held. They do not need to be very deep but it is best if they have nice smooth edges after they are carved in so take your time.

Time to heat up some material! With the cope and drag built up they get joined back together in the same orientation from when they were first put together. Obviously, this is to keep the sprue and the drag properly aligned. Now lets fire up that foundry : )

The foundry needs to heat up to operating temp before dropping in the brass material. With the crucible placed down in the foundry, I let my unit heat up until the crucible is a bright orange glow and then add in the brass. With a medium size crucible filled to the brim with chopped up brass door handles, it took about 30 minutes for the brass to become fully melted and ready to pour.

Now is a perfect time to address some safety concerns. If you are recreating this process, you are operating at your own risk so please be careful. Steel toe leather boots, jeans, leather gloves, long sleeve jacket, and a face shield are the bare minimum safety attire needed for this process. If you have some leather chaps, use those as well to better protect your legs. It’s best to perform this operation over dirt and not concrete. Concrete can pop and make tiny little explosions if it comes in contact with an 1800 degree crucible or molten brass. Again – please be very safe!

Mini Axe Pin

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Back to the melting process. When the brass is fully melted, I sprinkled about 1/3 of a cup of boric acid (aka roach killer – found at the dollar store) in the crucible. The boric acid not only helps gather the slag but it also helps to prevent the zinc from burning out of the brass. After adding the boric acid, I waited about 5 more minutes and then got ready to remove the crucible and pour the material.

I broke up a cheap pair of stainless serving tongs and used one side as my scooping tool to remove the slag off the top of the melted brass. Moment of truth – time to remove the crucible and pour the brass.

Using a large pair of steel tongs, I lifted the crucible out of the foundry and slowly poured the brass into the sprue hole of the foundry until I saw the brass coming out of the vent hole. This lets me know that the entire pattern is full.

After carefully setting the crucible back in the foundry, I let the part cool in the flask for a second then opened the flask to find my completed part – how exciting is this! You can see the extra material from the sprue, gates, and vent are still attached and will need to be cut off. Other than that, I’d call this first part a complete success!

The final steps are pretty standard. I spent about an hour sanding and polishing this part and then added a small handle to it to complete this little miniature axe.

The handle is made from Red Grandis wood and is finished with boiled linseed oil.

I’ll say this is by far one of the most fun little projects I’ve done and has been a real eye opener for me. I cant stress the importance of good safety measures though…..as you can tell by now there are many safety risks working with melted material so please please please be safe!

All and all I am very happy with my miniature axe. If your are interested in purchasing one of these little gems, feel free to check them out HERE. Since these are custom made, the lead time may be longer than some of the more standard “stock” items.

Mini Axe Pin

$15.00

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Thanks for taking the time to learn more about this process. Be safe and take care – April.

All the information you need to know about a DIY metal backyard foundry. Learn how to build your own metal melting foundry for metal casting.

We recently moved out of our very first home together and relocated ourselves to the country. I wanted to take a little piece of the home with me and found the perfect keepsake in the way of some brass door handles. I decided to melt the brass down and cast them into mini axe handles and make a couple small key chain type things.

To be clear, I used Grant Thompson’s how-to videos as a basic guide for making the foundry and the propane torch. I modified a couple of things here and there and just wanted to share my thoughts and experience with you guys in case you are interested in recreating this project.

Here are the three videos to get you started followed by a little more personal input from my experience:

Plaster of Paris

Using plaster of paris is the quickest way to get going. The material is readily available at most hardware stores and it is very inexpensive. However, it is not very durable and will break down quickly. This route will certainly get hot enough to melt brass which exactly what I needed it to do. Since I decided to make multiple axes, I moved forward with getting some refractory cement which is a more robust option for extreme temperatures.

The plaster of paris route can be reinforced if you’re not able to get your hands on some refractory cement. Much like rebar in concrete, steel wool works very well to add some rigidity to the matrix. Using large stainless steel wool from something like a “Scotch-Brite” is the best route but the smaller stuff will work also.

Refractory Cement

 Refractory cement will certainly be more durable and will last much longer than plaster of paris. The only draw back is it is difficult to find on the shelf. Consequently, I ordered some on Amazon for about 20 bucks.

If you choose this route there is a slight change in the way the foundry comes together in the steel pale. Because this stuff gets so hard once it cures, you will need to drill your torch hole in the pale before pouring in the cement matrix. This is not the case with the plaster of paris; the torch hole can easily be drilled through the pale once the plaster of paris/sand matrix has cured using a good hole saw.

After drilling the hole through the pale, place a small pipe in the hole and leave it there while the refractory cement cures around it. Coating it with a couple dabs of oil will help with removing the pipe once the material cures.

Propane Torch

If you are following Grant’s parts list you will quickly realize there aren’t many of the needed fittings on the shelf at the big box stores….at least that was the case for me. Consequently, I just ordered everything through Amazon which made my life much easier. Other than that, there really isn’t anything else to offer in the way of advise for the propane torch.

I will caution you though that working with propane gas is extremely dangerous and you should be extremely careful. If you are not absolutely certain of the methods for heating material with a torch, I strongly encourage you hire someone to do it for you. Lastly, USE PROPER SAFETY ATTIRE. Molten metal is extremely dangerous; safety glasses, face shield, welding gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and leather boots are the absolute minimum safety attire for this type of casting operation. If you decide to take it on by yourself, take your time and know that you are operating at your own risk.

Be safe and have fun – April

Thinking about building your own custom steel fire pit? Check out this cool DIY project where I built my own fire pit for my backyard!

I cant stand our current fire pit. I mean, it’s ok….but I didn’t make it and it’s also too small for the amount of wood we burn when we start a fire so I would really like to build one myself. This week I am going to do just that. I have been itching for another steel project and some under the hood time with this welder and plasma cutter of mine. I  think that a custom outdoor fire pit is the perfect fit for the job. After browsing the internet and shamelessly looking at other designs for inspiration, I decided on a simple hexagon shaped fire pit made from steel plate and some sturdy steel feet. Lets get it done…

I recently visited Matt Cremona up in Minnesota and had the chance to drop into a place know as “discount Steel”. It just so happens we have a location in my neck of the woods and they have a huge selection of different material. Once I got there to pick up my material, I felt like a kid in a candy store  They have everything from large plate steel all the way down to little 1$ right angle gussets. Stocking stuffers anyone??

Things I Used For This Custom Steel Fire Pit Project:

Drafting Kit
Discount Steel
Revmarker
Welding Gloves

Welding Hood
Plasma Cutter
Welding Cart
Angle Grinder

Magnets
Triton Work Center
Dark Safety Glasses
Large Compass

I called in an order for the steel and had the side and bottom pieces cut to the size that I needed. I used 14 gauge steel for the sides that make up the body and 10 gauge plate for the bottom. After getting the steel to the house I started making a cut pattern for the sides. I went with a geometric pattern but you can get really creative with this and do whatever you are personally into.

I kept it simple and used some generic drafting tools to draw up the pattern of diamond shapes. After drawing the pattern on the first piece of steel I went straight to cutting it out…..big mistake. Unfortunately, the steel began to warp slightly due to all of the heat from the plasma cutter. So I decided to change directions.

I switched gears and started welding the body portion all together with the plates and then cut the pattern after the hexagonal body is built and attached to the bottom. This will give the plates a lot more rigidity when the pattern is cut away and warping should not be an issue.

After beating and pounding on the first plate to get it back to nice and straight, I attached it to another plate with the help of a jig. I made a couple of jigs to hold the plates 120° apart from one another and make joining these together easier. The first one was for the bottom and it was made from scrap 1″x2″ material. I cut the ends at a 30 degree angle then used two pocket holes to attach them together. This jig could rest on my work surface then I could slide my two pieces up against it. To handle the top was harder since there is no work surface to support a jig, so instead I made a smaller version of the 30 degreed cut jig but this time used a forstner bit to countersink to magnets on either end. This way I could place the jig at the top and my two plates were held in place for me to tack together.

Note: If you are working with straight stock like I am and need to make a 120° wooden jig, simply cut two pieces of material at 30° using something like a miter saw. You can join the 30° ends together with pocket holes or toe-nailed screws. Remember: (30° + 30° = 60°) and (180° – 60° = 120°).  This is the measure of the inside angle of the hexagon shape I’m building…..and all others for that matter : )

I positioned the first two pieces of material together with the two jigs I made. Instead of going with a butt joint, I used what is called an open corner joint. This joint does a little bit better job at holding two plates together than a typical (single sided) butt joint.

At this point, I am only tacking the material together. After repeating this process for the remaining pieces I completed the hexagon shape. With all of the pieces tacked together, I went back and completely welding all of the joints.

Rather than weld one full seam at once, I would spread out the welds and only weld a small amount on each joint at one time. This helps keep the material from distorting and changing shapes on you. So I would weld a small length along the top, then stop and do the same to the bottom of the same joint. Then I would move to the next joint and repeat. Once I went fully around the body I came back and completed the weld in between the top and bottom to seal it completely.

As I mentioned above, the bottom is made from 10 gauge steel and the top is made from 14 gauge. The bottom piece is by far the heaviest out of everything. To cut the bottom, I laid the top hex on the bottom plate and traced out the inside shape onto the bottom. This trace line will be my cut line for the plasma cutter but since I traced the inside of the shape and I am wanting this bottom to fit snuggly in the body, I made sure to make my cut on the outside of the line. Once you trace the bottom onto the bottom make a mark on both the body and the bottom so you can realign them again later in the same orientation.

Tip: as I said before I had my steel place cut this bottom plate to size for me. I did this so I wouldn’t have to haul home a bigger sheet than needed. I would recommend asking your steel place if they offer the same service. I knew I wanted my fire pit to be 30″ across (from flat side to flat side) so I had my guys cut the plate at 30″ x 40″.

I used the plasma cutter to cut the hexagonal shape out of the plate. Since it’s thicker material I had to slow down my cut rate a lot and also turn up the current. Be mindful of your feet! These cut offs are heavy and will break toes without blinking an eye if they get ya. I always try and hold onto the cut off so it doesn’t fall off.

The fit was pretty snug but it took the help of a hammer for the body to go on around the bottom. I made the bottom edge of the top piece flush to the bottom face of the baseplate. Once it was in position I moved to the inside to weld the top to the bottom.

I did the same here as I did before when making the top and spread the welds out so that I did not dump too much heat into the plates at one time. This may have been unnecessary but I figured I would be safer than sorry.

When I was done, the inside corner joint of the top and bottom plate was completely seal welded. At this point my fire pit was beginning to take shape and actually look like something.

Now it was time to focus on cutting in the pattern to the three sides of the fire pit. My original plan was to cut one side then use it as a stencil, however since I had a change in plans and that was no longer an option I went ahead and made a stencil out of quarter inch wood instead of drawing the pattern on each individual side. I use the same pattern as before cut the pattern out with a jig saw, and then traced the pattern onto the remaining sides that I wanted to cut.

Note: I first started this project using a red sharpie. A good friend of mine stopped by and gave me a silver sharpie which is intended for writing on metal. It worked much better when looking through dark safety glasses and using the plasma cutter.

Tip: I find it best to pull the cutting torch toward your body as you make straight cuts. Pushing the plasma torch makes it more difficult to keep a nice clean cut line. If you are not comfortable “free handing” cut lines or absolute straightness is a concern, a nice straight edge will do the job. I personally prefer either a piece of flat bar or a large framing square.

I came back for a little bit of post-process grinding to clean up all of the edges from the plasma cutter and while I had the right angle grinder out, I also cleaned up the the welds on the side joints.

After all of the edges were cleaned up, I focused on adding some small drain holes to the bottom so that the fire pit does not hold water. With the fire pit upside down, I traced out a simple pattern for the drain holes by first using a compass to draw two circles, then coming back with a roll of electrical tape so that I could trace the inside diameter.

I don’t even know if this next step is necessary but I wasn’t sure if these drain holes were large enough for embers to fall through or not so I decided to use some expanded metal as a screen for the underside. I simply cut a large circular shape with a cut-off wheel to cover the entire drain-hole pattern.  The expanded metal screen was then attached with small tack welds.

At this point I focused on making some legs to hold the fire pit up off of the ground. I used my current generic fire pit as a gauge for how high I wanted my fire pit. The legs are made from 1-1/4” square tubing with a 30° cut on each end….one end for welding the leg to the base and one end to weld on a small “foot”. This is just to give it more surface area so it doesn’t want to sink into the ground.

I used four of the diamonds cut outs (from making the sides) to make some small feet for the bottom of the legs. I simply cut a small diagonal off of each corner to create the octagon shaped foot and welded them to the leg material.

I attached the legs on a square pattern that was larger than the circular drain pattern. I made sure to weld the legs on so that they do not stick past the edge of the top.

After some clean up, the final step was to paint the entire fire pit with high temperature automotive paint. This paint is used for high temperature exhaust manifolds which see temperatures above 1500°. I am hoping this finish is strong enough to hold up on this fire pit so that corrosion does not set in. If it does, I suppose I will be forced to take the next step and send it to powder coating.

That pretty well completes this project. I had a lot of fun with it and though some portions were challenging, overall the project was pretty easy. As always, I managed to learn a lot during this build and look forward to adding some additional features in the future. I am considering a small grill section that will rotate over the fire so that I can cook meat and vegetables on it and maybe some type of “trim” such as small square tubing around the very top edge. For now, I’m going to turn my attention toward building a nice sitting area in the back yard to place this fire pit for my family and I to sit around on cool evenings.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about this build and supporting what I do.  Have a great day and stop back by to have a look at the outdoor sitting area I’ll be releasing soon.

Cheers – April

Thinking about building your own scrap wood burn pit? Check out this awesome DIY project where I built my own using a sideways barrel!

These scrap wood in my shop is simply never ending. The shorter pieces tend to wind up in the miter saw stand where I keep my scrap bin. If you haven’t already, you can check out how I built the stand here.

Although my scrap bin gets a lot of action, there are plenty of longer or larger pieces of wood which simply will not fit in my scrap bin. Solution: A burn barrel!   The timing for this project is perfect since I just received a new Lincoln Electric Plasma cutter which will work excellently for building a dedicated scrap wood burn barrel.

Things I Used In This Burn Pit Project:

Plasma Cutter
Safety Glasses
Hearing Protection
Welder
Welding Gloves

Welding Jacket
Welding Hood
Super Jaws
Angle Grinder
Die Grinder

Welding Magnets
Spindle Sander
Face Clamp
Step Bit
Drill

First things first, I needed to decide on a design. I had a pretty good feeling I would use a 55 gallon barrel as the main pit so my focus was on what type of foundation I wanted it to rest on. After looking on the google box for some design inspiration, I was leaning toward a design that somewhat resembled an old cast iron sewing machine base.

With the design kinda narrowed down I reached out to a local steel company and rounded up four pieces of 10 gage plate steel that I used for the base. Fortunately I found a couple of barrels on a local sales website for 20$ each. I bought two of them just in case I made a huge mistake and ruined the first one.

Lincoln electric recently sent me a new plasma cutter so I was anxious to start cutting out some shapes. I chose to practice on some small piece of 2” flatbar I had in the shop to get the feeling of how to operate the machine. After about 5 minutes of cutting through strap, I felt good enough to go ahead and commit to cutting on the actual project.

I started on the barrel first. After thoroughly rinsing the barrel out, I drew a cut line just above the center and took off. Let me pause for a second and comment on how smooth this plasma cutter works. Now I do not have any experience running a cutting torch so I am cant speak for how it compares to a standard acetylene torch, but I can tell you that the learning curve was not steep whatsoever. It’s almost just a point and shoot kinda tool : )

Anyhow, the barrel was super easy to cut through and took maybe 15 minutes to cut out the section I laid out. I used a piece of flat-bar clamped to the barrel as a straight edge guide that worked perfectly for keeping a nice clean cut.

I then turned my attention toward making the base. The base is made from two large plates from the plate material I mentioned earlier. The plate steel that I got from a friend comes from the bit of scrap left over after making large diameter circular cut outs for tank lids. After looking at it, I decided I would use the shape to my advantage since it was already kind of inline with the shape I ultimately wanted. However I wanted to add some circular cut outs to break up the space and I also needed to cut the shape of the barrel into it.

I used a large piece of cardboard to trace out the section of the barrel that would rest on the two bases. After cutting the traced line out, I used the cardboard template as a guide for tracing out the shape on the steel, and as a guide for my torch head. Fortunately, the head of this torch is so well insulated, the cardboard was totally unaffected; which is good to know for future projects.

Cutting the circles was a bit more tedious than I originally thought. I decided to make a couple of circular blanks out of wood and use them as a guide for my plasma wand. This really helped to keep cutting head nice and smooth and kept the circles from having too choppy of a profile.

Following all the circle cut-outs, I had three more cuts to make; the bottom cut which established the height of the base, and a couple of interior cuts to add to the middle shape of the base. These cuts were pretty easy and did not require the use of a straight edge. I simply free handed all of them and they came out pretty nice.

After all the cutting with the plasma torch was complete, I cleaned up all of the perimeter edges with an angle grinder and then used a pneumatic die grinder to get inside of the circles and clean up those edges also.   Although the plasma cutter is known for creating super clean cut lines, I preferred touching everything up so the project has a nice finished feel to it.

I used the first completed plate as a template for the remaining side by simply tracing out the entire shape onto the remaining plate material I had. From there, I just repeated all of the steps once again to complete the second and final plate.

I was now ready to focus on the “trim work” if you will. I chose to use 2” flat bar (also called “strap”) as a kind of edge banding for the plate material. This part was especially fun because it required bending and shaping the steel into the shape of the perimeter of the plate.

I started the process of trimming it out by first tack-welding one end of the strap to the plate and then hammering the strap along the curve shape of the plate. Once it was hammered into the general shape of the plate, I would clamp the strap to the plate and simply stitch weld a series of tacks all along the length of the strap. I got into a sort of rhythm when doing the trim work and repeated the process for all sides of the plate material.

I must admit that I was pretty darn happy with how these came out. I have very limited experience with metal working so for these to come out so closely to what I had envisioned is very satisfying.

As you know, the same steps were repeated for the remaining side before I was ready to attach them to the barrel. Welding the two bases on however was very easy. I rolled the barrel onto the section I cut out earlier and then ground away a bit of paint where the two bases will be welded in place. To hold the first base in place I temporarily held the base with a right angle magnet, made sure it was level then put down a small tack weld.   After a little double check, I welded the rest of if, again using the short stitch welds on both sides of the 10 gage plate. The opposite side got the exact same treatment.

With both of the ends attached, I went ahead and welded a cross member between the two plates just to give it a bit more rigidity. Without the cross member, it would probably be a bit on the flimsy side….and we just can’t have that : ) After ward, I stood her up! How cool – this thing is super sturdy and nearly complete.

The final step for this little project was a bit of paint work. I used a wire brush on a 4” angle grinder to get all of the old paint off the barrel. Once I had it down to bare steel, I shot 2 coats of outdoor grill rated paint on the barrel and base to give it a finished look and keep it from rusting. After drying for a full day, I got to test it out : )

This project was more fun than I originally thought it would be. I was a bit nervous about the plasma cutting but the little machine I used made it super easy to get over the nervousness and just get the work done. Thanks for taking the time to check this project out and I encourage you to give it a try if you’re interested. Happy making!

Thinking about building a plywood rack for hauling lumber such as plywood and 2x4s? This DIY rack is made from steel and lets the material sit above the truck bed.

Of the many items I’ve had on my “things to do” list, I’ve been super excited about two of them in particular: learning how to weld and building a plywood rack for my old pickup. Fortunately Lincoln Electric recently reached out and asked if I would be interested in trying out their new Power MIG 210MP. Naturally, I was totally on board. For my first welding project I decided to make a rack for the bed of my truck bed to allow me to haul plywood flat and elevated. It’s a pretty simple project, especially if you already know how to weld.

Things I Used In This Plywood Rack For A Truck Project:

Welder
Hood
Jacket
Gloves

SuperJaws
Reciprocating Saw
Drills
Angle Grinde

Wire Wheel
Right Angle Magnet
MIG Welding Wire
Gas Bottle for MIG Welding

After purchasing a bottle of 75/25 Argon/CO2, I was ready to go. I used a couple of good YouTube resources for learning the basics.  One of them was from the Lincoln Electric YouTube Channel, and the other from Welding Tips and Tricks Playlist. After a days worth of laying down some practice beads on flat plate, butt-joints, T-joints, and lap joints, I felt I was ready to start sticking material together and build the rack I’ve been seeing in my head for the past 6 months or so.

I was having quite a lot of fun learning how use this machine.

When I am hauling a nice piece of cabinet grade plywood with a finished veneer, I always cringe when I have to slide it on the old black rubber bed mat. The rack I’ve had in mind would be simple, lightweight, easy to remove and install, and most importantly, would not cause damage to finished materials. My idea has been 2 rails, which span the width of the bed and hang in place. This way material can be hauled while lying flat and it will be off the bed floor where it may become scratched due to small debris.

A good friend allowed me to help myself to some steel on his property and I wound up with some 2″ angle iron, 1-1/2″ steel tubing, and some 2″ flat bar. After cleaning the surface rust off the material with a wire wheel on an angle grinder, I started cutting the angle iron into 6” strips. These will serve as the hangers on the inside of the bed rails. Since I’ll have 2 rails, I needed a total of 4 of the 6” angle pieces (2 per rail). Then I cut the flat bar material. The flat bar material creates the “drop” for the rails. I needed the plywood rack to be below the top of the bed rails and decided cutting all 4 pieces at 6″ would do the trick. I waited to cut the steel pipe until the brackets were made though. More to come on those later.

With the material cut I could finally start welding together actual parts! Super exciting! I aligned the middle of the flat bar with the middle of the angle iron, made sure it was all nice and square, then put a couple of tack-welds on it. Afterward, I double checked for square-ness, then put a full fillet weld on the lap joint between the flat bar and angle iron. After the first one was completed, I trucked on with the others the same way.

Finally, all four brackets were made and it was time to cut the cross rails. Rather than measure with a tape, I decided to take the “mark and cut” approach. I started by clamping two brackets in position on the bed rails of the truck. Once they were in place, I enlisted the help of my niece for marking the cut length tubing on the other side of the truck. I butted up the tubing on one end, and then she marked it on the other where it needed to be cut.

After the tubing is cut, it was time to weld the brackets into position. Now if you don’t have one of these handy-dandy right angle magnets, this part can be a real pain. Fortunately I found one of these in my husbands tool box and it did an awesome job of holding the tubing at a right angle to the bracket while I put on a couple of tack welds. Again, after double-checking it for square, I welded it in position permanently. One bracket – done!

The opposite end of the rail gets the same treatment. However, it’s easy to forget that it needs to be “clocked” according to the first one so the rack sits snug on the bed rails. For this part I took the workpiece out of my Super Jaws and then used the concrete floor to “clock” the orientation of the bracket. I simply placed the end with the welded bracket on the floor so that the angle iron was flat on the floor, raised the pipe up until it was level, placed the other bracket in position where it’s angle iron was flat on the floor, used the help of the magnet once again, and then tacked that sucker in place! That’s a lot easier said than done for me but it was beginning to take shape….I felt so awesome! lol. The last step was simply run a bead of weld around the tubing and she was done. This is the part where I should mention that I absolutely love this welder!

With the one rail complete, I moved on to the other one and simply repeated all the same steps. The second one took much less time since I was on a roll. I decided to shoot a coat of paint on the rails for rust protection and aesthetics. I had some flat black in a rattle can on the shelf so that’s what they got.

And even though my old truck has rough and weathered paint, I still wanted to add a bit of scratch protection for the bed rails. I know my truck is old and the paint is patina’ed, but I really can’t stand the idea of it being scratched. So, to keep the paint in good nick, I decided I would cut up an old mouse pad and glue it to the underside of the angle iron. This worked perfectly since it was nice and thin and had a soft texture to it.

The last finishing touches called for some 550-nylon cord (paracord) and a couple of bolts. I wrapped two sections of the rails with some paracord to keep the veneer from scratching when wood is sliding in to the truck. This part was a little time consuming but very well worth it. Although I think the rack is not likely to slide back and forth on the bed rails, I still placed a small bolt through the angle iron material and the bed rail for peace of mind…yes this required me drilling through my truck body….yes I teared up a little. : )

And that’s pretty much it. Overall I had loads of fun with this project and learned a ton of great things. Welding is something I have always had an interest in and I am just absolutely tickled that the time has come for me to move forward with it. Who knows where the hobby will take me or the things I’ll be able to create having experience in both wood working and welding.

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