plate bumper build... or another way to waste tons of time.

[v7guy]

I'm kinda up and moving at this point. Turned out the achilles was completely torn in half and the calf was damaged, just like the E.R. said. I had surgery and the incision is healed but I've only been moving the foot for about three weeks. I've gotten so I can just about make my foot flat at this point. With an orthopedic boot I can stand and I sorta get around.
The doc says it takes three months for the tendon to heal and roughly four months until I can work. I'm roughly 2 months in. At the end of the week I go back to the doc to see if I can ditch this orthopedic boot and work on walking and wearing a normal boot. I've welded a little bit, but the orthopedic boot is open toed and even though I wrap it up I'm nervous about dropping some molten metal on my toes covered with a sock.

Jeff, I had the same experiences as Mike. If you spend some money for some better cutoff wheels you'll get further faster. You just got to let the disk do most of the cutting. If you start getting real heavy handed you'll dust/break any disk. Light-ish pressure seems to be key.
For support of the winch base plate I used suggestions from Mike. Metal structures get their support from bends, ridges and curves. So accordingly I welded on a lip on the back of the plate and the front (the fairlead mount). On the bottom of the plate I welded on some ribs to stiffen the winch mount plate up. I posted some pictures above of how I stiffened it.
My biggest concern while welding on this is to not warp the shit out of it. That seems to be what I fight more than anything.

While laying on the couch for the past couple months it occurred to me that it would be easy to mix up the different plates. I figured I would number the mock up piece and then label each plate as I cut it out. Then I took pictures of it so I would know where they went. I've got to finish up welding the braces on the bottom and then I'm going to put it back on the truck so i can start tacking the pieces on.

Most of the work I've done since my last post has been in the last few days. I'll keep working on it, but I don't want to make the healing take any longer than necessary cause i really need to get back to work. This injury has made a noticeable dent in the ole savings. When I can wear some jeans and my boots again, work will progress at a more rapid pace. Apologies for the slow build. I have every intention of having it finished before I go back to work.

[Shdwdrgn]

I know what you're going through, waiting for your foot to heal. I was in a head-on a few years back and snapped my femur. I went stir-crazy waiting for it to heal up enough that I could just get around on crutches, and couldn't wait to get back to working on projects again.

I've had mixed results with the cutoff wheels. I certainly noticed that the HF discs wear out a lot faster, however I did not see any difference in the cutting speed. I just use a cheap angle-grinder, so I can't put too much pressure on it anyway without lugging down the motor, but maybe I'll give some of the better ones another shot now that I have a lot of practice with the cheap discs.

I did see the picture with the ribbing before, wasn't certain that was to stiffen up the winch mount. Thanks for clarifying. My setup is of course a bit different, but I think this gives me some good ideas to work with. Thanks!

[Rob93]

Props to you for doing this with an angle grinder

[v7guy]

Props to you for doing this with an angle grinder

You're just saying that because it doesn't look like a steaming pile yet lol

I was seriously considering picking up a plasma cutter for awhile. But it's looking like I won't be cleared for work for another couple months and I decided to hold off on spending the money. I'm not really looking forward to cutting out all those pieces.

[v7guy]

These days I'm getting around a lot better. Still can't walk normal, and I cant even think about hurrying anywhere. But I'm getting around pretty well. My endurance has much improved.
Today I was able to spend a few hours in the garage. I had to take a few breaks but I was able to cut another dozen pieces before I was too shaky. To be honest I'm really frustrated how weak I've gotten overall. I never would of guessed a lower body injury would of affected my entire body so much.

Enough whining. Today I cut more than I have in the last month. Tonight almost half the pieces are cut. I'm pretty confident I'll get the rest cut tomorrow. Last I checked the bumper is 42 pieces.
I'm a little concerned that I didn't mark the orientation of the pieces. They can spin 3 ways and can flip. Hope my pics are enough. I can figure it out, but more info is better. Something to think about when you're building a super stupid crazy bumper with a ton of pieces.

My current pile of parts with the base plate in the "background"



Expect rapid progress in the next few days.

[v7guy]

Got all the bumper pieces cut out and then spent a bit sorting out where they all go. I think I've got them all laid out and oriented in the proper way. Going to take a flap wheel and clean up the edges in the morning, maybe even start tacking it together.

[Trail X]

Hey, at least you kept it simple.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Jigsaw puzzle..

[navigator]

kind of looks like an origami project Tim Allen style!

[dvanbramer88]

Your bumper makes me happy.

[Mudwheelin]

Cant wait to see the finished product!

[v7guy]

Figured I'd go ahead and remove all the scale from the pieces since a lot of em will be really difficult to grind on after they're tacked together. Got about a 1/4 of the way through before it was time to help do another body lift on a buddies trailblazer.
It doesn't seem like there's any good way to get down to clean metal other than with some flap wheels. I'll post again with some pics when I get it tacked up and it really looks like the steaming pile of shit that it's going to become. Hopefully bedliner covers the poor craftsmanship. The best part of all of this is that it's good exercise and seems to be helping a lot with the injury.

[v7guy]

Took about 8 hours to clean up the metal reasonably well on the weekend. Today I finally got the pieces on one side tacked up and I guess it looks spiffy. The foamboard and tape I used to mock up the whole thing was a little flexy. I found there were three pieces that needed a little adjusting but it looked like everything mostly lined up. Going to go back outside in a couple hours to do the other side since welding is pretty quiet. Then I'll start working on finish welding it.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Nice

[Mudwheelin]

Wow, looks great man. Your skills are great.

[bartonmd]

Looks good!

Mike

[fishsticks]

[SaltWaterDrinker]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW MAN IM SCHEDULING A VISIT.

[drwfaulk]

I want one!!!

[navigator]

looking good!