many_methods
Member
- Messages
- 77
- Location
- Croydon, UK
I weld just for a hobby but I really love making stuff - usually just one off projects in my spare time for me and the family. Anyway, for a while I've been using those disposable CO2 bottles which we all know are expensive for what they are. I had a few empty ones lying around the garage because a) I hoard scrap metal like it's gold in the belief that one day it will come in useful for something, and b) because I like getting my money's worth out of things I buy (I like to think of myself as shrewd rather than tight! :P)
The cylinders sat in the garage for months until the time came when my wife asked me to build a SIMPLE lamp for the DINING ROOM. Easy!
However, after a few hours spent deliberating over exactly what I was going to make, I found myself staring at one of these empty cylinders and I thought the shape and scale of it really lent itself to being turned into the engine for a locomotive. Bingo! I'll make a train... and so, of course, the plan to make something simple went out of the window. Ah well, full steam ahead!!
Then part way through the build I chucked more coal on the fire by deciding the train wouldn't look right without a coal cart attached and so I went completely off brief and not only built a complicated lamp, but also one that would now no longer fit in the space the wife had allocated for it. This is to the extent that it is now in a different room of the house altogether! (She's very understanding and loves the end result so I'm still in the good books for now!)
I started out with a pile of junk. This pile of junk specifically:
I took some paint stripper and elbow grease to the old cylinder, chopped it up a bit, welded some more junk to it and it started to look like a train. Being 'shrewd' I decided I was only going to build it using stuff I had lying around. For example, the smoke is made from the insides of an old quilt which is wrapped around some chicken wire which itself is wrapped round a plastic drinks bottle! I don't like chucking stuff away - can you tell?? In fact, the only thing I bought new were the LEDs. Even the switches and cabling came off something else.
Once I'd finished the train, I figured it needed an equally rustic bridge to sit on. So I bent some rebar, chopped up some other scrap bits and cut slots in an offcut of scaffold board. With the wife's permission, (who by this point had completely lost all hope of getting what she'd asked for) the bridge was bolted to the wall and now spans the entire alcove in our lounge.
After many hours of head scratching, angle grinding and welding all the bits came together to form this:
Inside the coal cart are two switches. One for the lights in the cabin and at the front of the train (single LEDs) and one to light up the strip of LEDs inside the 'smoke'. Flicking the switches really makes the whole thing come alive. This is the end result:
Neither the wife or I are particularly into trains but we now have a giant, light-up locomotive complete with 1.2m long steel bridge sat right above the telly. Choo choo!! Meanwhile, the dining room sits in complete darkness. I should probably make a start on a 'simple' lamp this weekend if I want to remain living here once the lockdown is over.
The cylinders sat in the garage for months until the time came when my wife asked me to build a SIMPLE lamp for the DINING ROOM. Easy!
However, after a few hours spent deliberating over exactly what I was going to make, I found myself staring at one of these empty cylinders and I thought the shape and scale of it really lent itself to being turned into the engine for a locomotive. Bingo! I'll make a train... and so, of course, the plan to make something simple went out of the window. Ah well, full steam ahead!!
Then part way through the build I chucked more coal on the fire by deciding the train wouldn't look right without a coal cart attached and so I went completely off brief and not only built a complicated lamp, but also one that would now no longer fit in the space the wife had allocated for it. This is to the extent that it is now in a different room of the house altogether! (She's very understanding and loves the end result so I'm still in the good books for now!)
I started out with a pile of junk. This pile of junk specifically:
I took some paint stripper and elbow grease to the old cylinder, chopped it up a bit, welded some more junk to it and it started to look like a train. Being 'shrewd' I decided I was only going to build it using stuff I had lying around. For example, the smoke is made from the insides of an old quilt which is wrapped around some chicken wire which itself is wrapped round a plastic drinks bottle! I don't like chucking stuff away - can you tell?? In fact, the only thing I bought new were the LEDs. Even the switches and cabling came off something else.
Once I'd finished the train, I figured it needed an equally rustic bridge to sit on. So I bent some rebar, chopped up some other scrap bits and cut slots in an offcut of scaffold board. With the wife's permission, (who by this point had completely lost all hope of getting what she'd asked for) the bridge was bolted to the wall and now spans the entire alcove in our lounge.
After many hours of head scratching, angle grinding and welding all the bits came together to form this:
Inside the coal cart are two switches. One for the lights in the cabin and at the front of the train (single LEDs) and one to light up the strip of LEDs inside the 'smoke'. Flicking the switches really makes the whole thing come alive. This is the end result:
Neither the wife or I are particularly into trains but we now have a giant, light-up locomotive complete with 1.2m long steel bridge sat right above the telly. Choo choo!! Meanwhile, the dining room sits in complete darkness. I should probably make a start on a 'simple' lamp this weekend if I want to remain living here once the lockdown is over.
