Rookie wanna-be weldor starting to make some cool things!

hurry up before those old rusty ones stain that purty bumper!

I will be the ump-teenth person to say how much @$$ this bumper fab project kicks. Now that it is mostly done, should I be asking about my amateur fabricator-in-residence pannier rack project, or am I jumping the gun a little bit? I'm eager to get a piece of the action. Sometime around the 20th of this month I should be able to order the materials I need to complete a set of panniers for my XT600. I look forward to your response!

I saw the title of rookie welder and expected to see someone tacking pieces of pot metal together. I am blown away by your work, the skull sculpture is crazy, the fire pit looks store bought and the latest post with the bumper looks like a $3,000 aftermarket road armor bumper.

Needless to say keep the projects coming I'm subscribed!

see that Kirk? Would it be worth 3000 a bumper to start manufacturing them? When you cut out each piece, just make 5 instead of one.....As V.P. of RoFab inc, We need to make this company grow!

Thanks! I'll shoot you a pm here in a bit...

Thank you very much!

Well, I honestly still have a lot to learn. I consider myself a 3rd year welding apprentice. Once I have more skills and more quality tools, something may happen. Plus, I have a great day job. No reason to screw that up.

Plus, making 5 of everything means 5x the cost. That would be close to $4000 in materials. The only reason I could afford to make this one is because of the check from State Farm. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the means nor the need to make the bumper. But I know what you're saying. I'm just not quite at that level yet. But then again, I would have never imagined being in my current spot 2 1/2 years ago. Double that, and I might be firing on all cylinders.

If my job ever goes belly up, or I screw up at work bad enough to get canned, maybe I will have the needed welding skills at that time to put some food on the table. Only time will tell...

We had a little 350lb visitor last night...



This cell phone pic was totally dark, but I was able to get this image by fiddling with the edit settings. If you can't make out the pic, the bear is standing on top of the cage trying to get to the bird feeders. He's close to 7' tall slouched over a bit!



My wife's cell phone pic is a bit better...



Gaylord Fokker turned the lid into a taco. FOKKER!

You got me this time, Gaylord.



Yogi cage 2.0 under construction. Fans rolling to get the nasty zinc fumes out of my face.



Chains upgraded to a door. Now I need to trim that out with some expanded metal as well. Maybe this will finally keep Yogi's mitts out of our stanky trash.

....FOKKER!

Never understood why visitors to Oz freak out so much about about snakes and spiders and jellyfish and dropbears when you come from a place that has F#$&% Bears great big 350lb hairy things with big teeth and claws in the bloody backyard !!!! And if you got bears there are probably wolves floating around as well.
Dont have to build steel cages to keep the snakes out of my bin.

Yep. We have wolves, too. Pretty freaky when you hear them for the first time.

You can hear the wolves calling out to one another sometimes at night. If you didn't know what it was, it sends a bit of a chill up your spine.

Dropbears? Is that like a Henway?

I'm not really sure but I think it might be
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Drop-Bear

Thought so.

Henway? about 3 lbs.




Don't let the dropbears get you.

Hmmm... so does one need a cage or a revolver to camp safely in the yard? Maybe I should bring a burrito to chuck at him? Bear-ito?

As long as you're not wearing a suit made of trash, you'll be fine.

I've been in the back yard, sitting in a chair, sucking down some beer while burning brush, and he has walked up on me a couple of times. He just looks at me and moves on. Pretty cool animal to watch, really. He's a big boy.

Santa comes early once again...



In a hurry, I accidentally ordered the long range version instead of the fog or driving beam. Whoops. They only have about 5x the candlepower output. Heheheh...



USA made, glass lens, 23 year warranty, delivered for $80. Probably why I didn't see the "long range" part.



They center up nicely in the tube. Lucky once again. I rolled the dice on the dimensions and the size of the light's mounting foot. Plenty of room for adjustability.



1/2" air gap all around. That will help funnel a little more air to the radiators.



Detail from the rear of the passenger side. No shimming needed to get the spacing I was looking for. Nice!



Out come all the goodies to solder and heat-shrink to factory wiring. The OEM fogs and these lights are both 55w halogens, so I'm able to re-use the OEM wiring and switch. Sounds like a plan.

Once dark, I will fine tune the aim. I will aim them low and out to the sides a bit so as to not p.o. oncoming traffic.

The bumper is a done-deal for now. I'll do some more scuffing on the finish in between projects. If I decide to polish in the future, it's the first step anyway. More mindless sanding!!!!!

admit it! you put some food on top of the trash just so you could test the cage under the weight of the bear!

Don't you mean low and to the right?

And show your insurance adjuster what u got for their money.

I was at the scrap yard today and saw an aftermarket aluminum grill guard laying there that someone had brought in. It was just built out of tube and bolts under the front bumper. I thought of your project and just laughed at how light weight this one was, and how it would collapse at the first strike of anything solid.

You've done a great job with this one.

Either he was hungry or something smelled really good to the bear. He tests the chains on a regular basis, but he's never caved in the lid before. My wife told the neighbors that she isn't sure who is more determined - me or the bear.

Insurance guy actually told me on the phone that he didn't care if I took the money and went to Vegas. I asked "what about the truck?" He then told me he didn't care if I fixed it or not.

I'll probably show my local rep anyway so they can photograph and record everything in case anything else happens.

I've been thinking about driving around in reverse so Bambi can pay for the rear bumper and some rock sliders.