Building the main body

The plasma cutter is set up and ready for cutting on a 4' X 4' plasma table. The machine is a CNC Plasmacam with a Hypertherm 1100 plasma cutter, that is capable of cutting plate up to 1-1/4" thick.  The plate I used is only 16ga. that I purchased at Central Plains Steel here in Wichita.  I noticed that on the Central Plains Steels web site, my picture is still on the site as an employee.  I havent worked there in six years I find it kind of funny.

Cutting the plate with the DXF file downloaded into the cutters computer

the main parts are cut and ready for assembly

The plate used is 16ga A36 cold rolled steel, this makes it rather easy to fold and weld the edges.

the connections for the tubes are 1/4" pipe couples with the end turned on the lathe so that fits through the plate and makes the joint easy to weld. The third image is from the inside of the body. Notice that the inside is clean and shinny because the plate had been left outside and only one side got wet and rusted, however I think it is to my advantage for this work. With the couple turned down on the end you can see how the pipe protrudes through and creates a lip to weld on. I chose this method so that the pipe would be perpendicular to the plate and would require less clean-up or grinding.

this next image is the body all welded up and just about ready for some paint. I notice in this picture that not all the parts on the bottom are welding into place, but I think you get the idea on how its all but together.

The paint job I chose is reminiscent of some safety and lifting equipment that was used at steel warehouse I worked at, some years back.