Tools I Purchased
Bluntly said, I love tools! I learned early in life, that having the proper tool for the job produces the best results and delivers greater satisfaction. All too often, I find myself justifying a tool purchase for a single use under the premise that I will most certainly need it again in the future. And while that is often the case, it may be years or even decades until the need arises again. Never-the-less, I am a tool junkie, and I’m not ashamed of it.
So with that little introduction/confession, here are some tools I bought for my first Bugatti project and all the hundreds I will build afterwards to justify their purchase.
Welding Equipment
A fundamental need for this project was purchasing a good welder, helmet, table, clamps, and magnets. So I purchased a Titanium 170 from Harbor Freight. It handles 220 & 120 VAC, and MIG welds with and without gas. I purchased a new auto-shielding helmet, table, and all the other items from Harbor Freight as well. After a lot of practice, I simply love my welder and wished I had bought something like this decades ago. This new ability and skill has so many practical uses. Even though teaching myself was initially very frustrating; each completed project now gives me immense joy. My only regret is that I did not buy the Titanium 200 so I could also do TIG welding. Maybe I will sell this one in the future and upgrade, but for now I love my 170!
Grinders
Very early on while learning to weld, came the need to cut-off or shape metal, smooth edges, prep the surfaces prior to welding, and smoothing out inside fillets. Each operation required a separate wheel type and it became very onerous and time consuming everytime I had to change out wheels. Given Harbor Freights low cost grinders, especially when on sale, I bought one for each operation. It sure made work progress more smoothly and resulted in less skipping of operations because of laziness.
Metal Bandsaw
It quickly became clear that cut-off wheels and grinders for making cuts on smaller pieces or special shaped pieces were laborious and in some cases more dangerous. So it was obvious I needed a metal bandsaw. Unfortunately they cost way too much and took up floor space I could not afford.
So I built my own table top bandsaw based upon a portable unit from Harbor Freight for under $200. This turned out to be one of the better investments I made in tools. See my blog on how I built this very useful and practical tool.
Shop Lights
As one gets older you find light is indispensable when it comes to building. While I had pretty good fluorescent lighting in my garage shop, it did not have enough lumens to really get to places where extra light was needed. So I purchased magnetic, battery operated, mobile lights to clip onto several of my machines like my drill, bandsaw, and tube bender. I also bought a light stand with two very powerful lights to move about. And then, I upgraded my ceiling shop lights with more powerful LED lighting which really lighted up the place. With the addition of a little background music, and heat when necessary, I was now in the perfect happy place to create.
3-in-1 Shear, Press Brake and Slip Roll
I have lusted over buying Harbor Freight’s 3-in-1 shear, press brake and slip roll for the past 6 months. But the $630 price tag demanded pause and reflection. Do I really need this tool? No. Can I afford this tool ? No. Do I have room in my shop for this tool ? No.
So with that realization, I decided to wait until it went on sale so there would only be two out of three objections thereby justifying its purchase. But the sale never came and so I waited and waited and waited. Now I really needed it if I was going to use in on my first Bugatti project, so I prayed everyday that a sale might pop up. I even asked the HF employees when it might come on sale, but no luck.
In the meantime, I had the urge to weld, so I built a mobile stand for this tool out of steel I had laying around. I was a little surprised I had that much around, but this was perfect. I already had high quality swiveling/locking wheels too so this stand did not cost me anything. It was important that it was mobile as I needed to tuck it away when not in use and then position it in the open when needed so there would be plenty of working area. I added a wood box to the bottom to hold scrap metal and wood blocks.
And then just as my wife and I were packing to head out of town for Christmas for a week, HF posted a 20% off of everything they had in stock at the local stores. So without delay I let my wife know I had to run a little errand first before we left. As luck would have it, it was -11 degrees outside as I cleared and prepared my trailer to haul the 300 lb tool. Even in the blistering weather, I could not contain my excitement.
Unfortunately, I had to park the trailer in the garage with my new tool still in its crate as we loaded the car and left for a full week. I love Christmas and being with the family, but leaving a big love behind cooped in a crate in the cold garage, was heart-breaking. I can’t wait to return home!
After our Christmas break, I built a gantry out of 2 x 6 and 2 x 4 lumber as I had to unload and mount the tool onto its stand by myself. I’m too old now to physically lift it as are most all of my friends. I had already purchased a large eyebolt to support the hoist from double 2 x 6s. I chose to purchase a Spectstar 3/4 ton lever controlled hoist that easily let me raise and lower the 300 lb weight twice as I needed to locate the mounting holes on my stand then lift it again to drill them. The gantry/hoist worked flawlessly afterwhich I tore all the gantry apart for the next use.
Tubing Bender
There are a number of ways to build the fuselage, so after some thought, I chose the bent tubing route. Why, because it presented the opportunity to develop a new skill and of course obtain a new tool too! So I purchased one on Amazon and found that patience was essential. My initial attempt at forming the instrument panel station went so smoothly, I thought I was naturally gifted. But when it came to the second half, everything went wrong and it took hours for me to acquire the patience and skill. But now that I have the gist of how this works, I am excited to use it a lot more.
A New Mobile Work Bench
I guess it’s an inherent part of me to always look for better more efficient ways to go about building. For this entire build, I have been using a makeshift workbench using saw horses and a sheet of plywood. Now it’s time to think about a larger and steadier mobile bench.
I initially dreamed of welding a solid masterpiece, but I had a lot of extra 2×6 lumber at hand so that won out. I also had plenty of locking caster wheels on hand, so they were pulled out of storage and put into service.
The design has a steel pull out support to allow me to extend the table for longer pieces when needed but to stay tucked in out of the way the rest of the time. It also works well for when I’m jigsawing parts and lately when using a torch for brazing. The bench has a nice place for all my clamps and plenty of storage underneath for other tools I often use.
I’m sure there are better ideas out there, but this one fits my needs perfectly, I cannot help but wonder why I waited so long to build one?
English Wheel
In order to make some of the curves on the body panels, I simply had to have the English Wheel. I am far from an expert, but I did get enough done to pass. But there were definitely a few hurdles. See my article on Learning the English Wheel to see what challenges I had.
Welding Table Upgrade
I started out with the least expensive folding welding table Harbor Fright had. It was good enough to help me get started, but I soon longed for the new table Harbor Freight came out with. The new table was slightly larger, had holes evenly spaced throughout for clamp fixtures, and included the clamps and other fixtures.
Apparently, others thought this was a good deal too, so much so that I had to wait a long while to obtain one. But the wait was well worth it. If I had more money and space, I’d go with an even larger table and have more clamps. But I don’t have the space, so this fits perfectly in my garage shop and I am super pleased with it.