A Long Over Due Update...........................
OK time to get this thread back on track!
We had an awesome week in Tassie after Easter. Quite a relaxing trip although we did get out to do some site seeing.
We went to Hastings Caves which are said to be the most stunning show caves in the whole of Australia.
We walked past some huge tree stumps on the way to the cave entrance.
I had wondered how they must have cut the trees down, 3-4meters high off the ground and after reading the information board above it made sense why all the big stumps had notches cut into them.
We soon arrived at the entrance to the caves.
Almost as impressive was the shear amount of concrete that must have gone into the caves to build all the steps as access was difficult and the road was a good few k's away.
Afterwards we checked out the thermal springs.
They had some picnic areas that looked awesome. They had been constructed around a huge tree stump, which was used to support the center of the roof, with lengths of wood then going out to walls constructed from river stones.
I want to build one when I get my land and build my house as I think something like this would work great as an outdoor entertaining/party area!
We took Bec's doggies out for a walk.
We could see Mount Wellington in the distance and I decided I wanted to go up it.
We took the dogs home who were now exhausted!
And off we went up the mountain, which conveniently has a road all the way to the top.
The Trig point was a popular photo point.
We walked down to the lookout.
The views looking down over the capital city of Hobart were pretty spectacular.
Some history.
On the way back down the mountain a hand-glider flew right over our car.
The next day we went to the historic shot tower.
For anyone who doesn't know what a shot tower is, its a tower that was used for making lead shot for guns.
By dropping molten lead from a great height it turns into a perfect ball as it falls and cools. At the bottom it is caught in a bucket of water.
Melbourne has a large brick onr on the edge of the city, but this one is the largest sandstone one in the Southern Hemisphere.
It was a 313 creaky old steps to the top and each step moved a lot when stepped on. We would later learn that they were designed like this on purpose as a sort of suspension system so that the guys carrying lead and other heavy materials to the top didnt hurt themselves as easily.
They used no external scaffolding as the tower was constructed and instead constructed the wooden stairs as they went and laid all the stones from the inside.
The fireplace at the top where the lead would get melted.
Looking down at the house which the guy who built the tower built first and developed his skills on.
And that was Tassie!
Were still planning on going back with LJ for a month next year if everything goes to plan!
Back to LJ..............
I got the Dobinsons +50mm suspension lift kit fitted.
I'm really pleased with the height and ride. The only thing I need to do is adjust the castor as I removed my drop boxes and put the suspension setup back to standard in order to fit the Dobinsons kit.
Auxiliary fuel tank next.....................
Fuel range is an issue when I go on trips and the 90 litre main tank just isnt enough.
Inside the back of LJ.
The drawers are really really deep, to the point where reaching items at the back can be difficult.
Loosing 300mm off the end of the drawers would give me enough room for another 90 litre tank.
Marked where it needed cutting.
Cut it.
This is the space the tank will fit in.
Drawers next.
I'm going to make some new drawer fronts as I want to move the locks up more.
I'm going to move the locks up higher so that they engage into a cut out into the ply top, rather than having them engage with pieces of metal that hang down, which occasionally things in the drawers catch on and jam the drawers.
I'm also going to move the stops which limit how far the drawers open to the sides rather than underneath the top. This should again make things less likely to jam.
Removed the locks.
Cut the end off.
Thats as far as I got on the drawers.
I'm picking up some alluminumised steel next week to make the fuel tank from.
I was thinking of starting to run on waste veg oil and even printed off some fliers.
I spoke to a few of the local takeaway food places and found that they are all currently selling their oil to a company which collects it. The prices fluctuate a bit like scrap metal, but on average they get 20 cents a litre.
They were all willing to sell to me though so long as I match or beat their current price.
But after giving it a lot of thought I've decided to leave it another year or 2 until I'm hopefully living up in Byron. I've got too much going on at the moment and dont have that much spare time.
The Astra let me down the other night for the first time in over 2 years!
I was pulling off briskly from a set of traffic lights.
went to put it in second and the stick snapped off in my hand and the car was then stuck in first gear!
I decided it wasnt worth calling a recovery truck as I was only about a 10 minute drive from home, although it took a while longer driving in 1st.
Got it home and jacked it up and had a look underneath.
Couldnt see anything so pulled the inside apart.
The plastic/nylon part that holds the stick had broken.
Cut some 50mm tube.
Cut a section out.
Cut the piece I cut out in half and welded the 2 pieces on.
Drilled a piece of 2mm and welded it on.
Drilled and bolted in position.
Stick back in and the car is fixed!
I've been practising my welding heaps.
I've been getting very frustrated with my welding lately as no matter what I tried I couldnt get the first weld, the root run, right.
But then I discovered the benefits of purging!
Which is running shielding gas through the inside of the pipe while welding.
Which fixed all the problems I had been experiencing.
I drilled and taped a hole in the bottom of my jig and fitted an air line fitting so I can plug a hose on and off easily.
I then fitted the correct ends onto a hose.
This worked well at TAFE where there are multiple gas regulators to connect my hose onto, but at home I only have one bottle and that runs the welder.
After going to a few welding supply shops and having them look at me very confused when I said I wanted to run 2 hoses off one bottle so I can weld and purge off 1 bottle I got the bits I needed.
This setup means I can purge at 6 litre per minute.
And run the welder at 12-15 litres per minute.
So all connected and ready to weld.
Previously my welds looked perfect on the outside but the inside looked like this.
But now when I purge they are perfect with a nice rounded profile!
So I'm putting in for the big test, which if I pass will make me a qualified TIG welder and will open all the doors to the high paid work I've been dreaming about.
TIG has without a doubt been the hardest skill I've ever tried to learn, nothing in carpentry even comes close! So it feels awesome to finally feel like I've got it!
I've been keen to finish my welder trolley so I can get it powdercoated.
I cut and bent some 40mm flat.
And welded one on each side.
And finally work, if you can call it that!
I went and gave my boss a hand on his farm for a few days.
Firstly we had to pick up his new cows.
Then after driving for a few hours back to the farm we could release them in their new field (or padock as they say in Australia.)
A big elm tree had come down across his section of river and he was keen to get it out and have it milled into timber.
We had his comp truck there with the tricked up Gigglepin winch on the front so decided to winch sections of it out of the river after I had cut the sections off the tree.
It was bloody dangerous balancing on the tree above the river chainsawing but all went to plan and soon we were winching sections out.
Until there was a loud twang and we snapped the winch rope.
We tied it back together and carried on.
The next section to come out was the better of the 2 pieces as it was the biggest.
This is the section I needed to cut next.
It cut OK, considering I was sat on the fallen tree with a leg dangling each side chain sawing across in front of me.
But when we were winching it out we dragged it through a European wasps nest and boy were they angry!
They were swarming all over the 6 wheel drive gaitor so we had to leave it for over an hour until they had calmed down a bit before we could retrieve it.
My boss showed me a huge gum tree near the main farm house that hes getting cut down as gum trees have a nasty habbit of randomly dropping branches.
Hes going to get it cut off level at about 4 meters off the ground.
Then he wants me to buld a 3 storey tree house out of hardwood complete with decks and verandhas and he wants it loosely basing on this bird box!
Back at work I finished the wire rack and got it powdercoated.
Fitted all the bars and bolted the castors on.
We bought an expensive sheet of alluminium 7 meters long x 1.5 meters wide x 5mm thick.
We then took it and got it bent.
This is going to be the hull of the air boat I'm building. We will mount a car engine high up in the back with a huge propeller on and if everything goes to plan it will propel us along.
And finally the top secret project that I've been designing and building for a while now.
I figured for those of you who havent been able to see it progress here:
http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/51513-Guiness-World-Record-Attempt
Its virtually finished now and is almost ready for the world record attempt. so heres a few pics.
This is my white board where my boss has written all my current jobs on.
He wants me to build him:
-A pizza oven out of steel.
-The huge tree house which will be all built at work in sections and will be very ornate.
-2 arched bridges out of steel to go over the stream/mote around his farm house.
-Finish the Jimny chassis project.
-And the air boat.
I've told him its going to be very difficult for me to leave and go off and earn my fortune if he keeps giving me all these exciting projects!
I've got a busy few months ahead.
Less than 2 months till I've got my big welding test which will hopefully make me a fully qualified TIG welder, so I need to practice heaps.
I'm off to Brisbane for a few days in a couple of weeks.
I've got a few 4wd trips planned before my Europe trip in July, and before then I need to finish the fuel tank and drawer system.
I also need to order all the new seals and pull the rear diff out and fix the leaking air locker.
I'd love to do the rear disc brake conversion but I think that will have to wait a while sadly.
