My little Saturday job....

[triggerman]

I had a little job yesterday that turned into a pretty tough nut to crack. It was a handrail in a fire stairwell of an almost new office building. A couple of weeks ago, one of their tennants was trotting down the stairs and when he rounded the corner on the second floor landing, the corner piece of the rail came off in his hand. Further investigation revealed the original installers of the handrail had EPOXIED this piece in place and used copious amounts of BONDO to smooth out the ragged appearance. What was supposed to be a simple little welding job turned into quite a task because of time crunch (had to be done on a Saturday morning and once started had to be completed asap) and the non-availability of materials (all my suppliers are closed on weekends). It all had to be tigged because they didn't want any splatter and the gap created when I cut the top rail to correct one axis of misalignment was the biggest gap I've ever filled with a tig. The position and location also added to the problem because it had to be perfect since my grinder wouldn't reach into the smallest part of the gap. Here are some links to show the process and a pic of the final product:

[chris madden]

Looks nice great job on the fill in!!!!!

[tsalagi]

that is when the i/d grindes are worth their weight.

[triggerman]

Thanks, Chris.

that is when the i/d grindes are worth their weight.

I/D grinders? Inside diameter?

[tsalagi]

yea, most folks call them die grinders.
when we are building trusses they come in real handy to get in the 45's of the truss to grind your starts and stops. most you see are air but i know that metabo makes electric ones.

[FusionKing]

Yep saturdays are in a league of there own...gotta love 'em tho!!($$$)
Certainly must have the poop in a group

[fun4now]

epoxie and bondo for a safty railing.LOL thats just freaking great. so did you check all the rest of the conections wile you were there??? could be a few more days werth of work in it for ya if the rest is put togather the same way.
thats a heck of a fill job, i think i would have made another cut and floated the pice in the midle so i could have made 2 smaller fills. good thing you had plenty of filler.
great job.

[Burnindaylight]

yea, most folks call them die grinders.
when we are building trusses they come in real handy to get in the 45's of the truss to grind your starts and stops. most you see are air but i know that metabo makes electric ones.

I bought a DeWalt cut off tool at Home Depot for doing drywall and it came with a 1/4" collet as well as a 1/8", spins at 30,000 Rpm's or something like that. I've used it with carbide burrs on the road before and it worked mint, I thing it only cost me about 100 bucks