2000 - Volume #24, Issue #6, Page #39

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Student Proves Welding Skills Making Milk Can Stools

Student Proves Welding Skills Making Milk Can Stools FARM HOME Furniture 24-6-39 Alicia Robinson had to come up with a welding project for her high school vo-ag shop class. She came across an old, steel John Deere tractor seat and a lidless 10 gal. milk can that her father, Ernie bought at an auction. Putting the two together, she thought, would make an interesting stool. Both the seat and the can looked like they were more rust than anything else. With a wire brush on a drill and some emery cloth, she stripped off all the rust. Since the can had no lid, they decided to weld a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2-in. strip of 1/4 in. sheet metal to the top of the can and then attach the seat to that. Robinson knew the difference in weight of the can and the sheet metal would make welding the two together a little tricky, but she felt welding was the best way to fasten them together. So she practiced quite awhile on similar materials at different amperages and using different rods before making the weld. "I used a 6013 rod for that, and everything worked fine," she said. Once she'd welded the sheet metal to the can, she ground it down to fit the curve of the can top, so there were no edges sticking out. Then she had to weld the seat to the top of the can. An integral part of the seat was an upside down "U"-shaped bolt that screwed into the bottom. "We had to grind that down, so the seat would fit flat on the can. That didn't leave much room to reach in under the seat to make the weld. I did a lot of practicing before I felt confident to make that weld," she says. After trying out several rods and welder settings, she decided to use a 6011 rod to weld the seat to the can. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ms. Alicia Robinson, c/o Ernie and Janice Robinson, 2659 Q Ave., Villisca, Iowa 50864.