I’m in the final stages..!

The trim and guttering has been ordered and should be ready on Wednesday. Don’t know how much it’s going to cost yet but it shouldn’t be too expensive.

Yesterday I worked on the lock part and I’ve made this out of 1/4 inch plate and a hefty lump of cast iron. Both of those parts have been painted with primer and they’ll have the first top-coat of enamel today.

I had to cut the 1/4 plate to size and then fashion a rectangular hole in it. I made the rectangular hole by marking it out and then putting a 3/16 drill through at each corner. Then, using my 4″ angle grinder with a thin cutting blade, carefully cut along the sides, tapping it out with a hammer when I couldn’t cut anymore. A good touch-up with a file and that was that.

I had to cut the 1/4 plate from a longer piece and about a year ago I bought one of the new bi-rotational cutters. It’s like a circular saw but with 2 blades that rotate in opposite directions. Up till now I’ve only used it for small stuff, mainly in wood and I thought I’d use this to part the 1/4 plate.

It’s one hell of a tool and cut through really quickly!

One thing though, if you have one of these, or are thinking of getting one, then be very careful with it! It’s very unforgiving! Hold on to it very firmly and ALWAYS use good quality safety gear, the swarf that comes off the blade is lethal! Oh and don’t forget to always follow the manufacturers instructions.

By the way, for the uninitiated ‘swarf’ is the name for all the little bits of material that is cut away by the blade. In this case its tiny little metal chips that are very very sharp and pointy. Get one of those shot into your eye and you are in trouble.

The make of mine is a Rockwell and I think I paid about $100 for it. I’m reasonably pleased with it as it makes most hard cutting jobs pretty easy however I’m not completely happy with the safety guard on it as I don’t think the spring is strong enough.

I’m glad I bought it though.

Went to a mates birthday party last night and took a couple of large jars of my HomeFarm Beetroot for the BBQ…..got heaps of comments about it and the lot was eaten. Can’t do any better than that!!