Vince Pitelka on tue 6 jun 06
> Drill holes in the mounting tabs on the track and corresponding ones in
> the
> floor. a bolt welded in will act as a locating peg. In our setup I made
> the track extensible using this set up (although we've never used it).
Tom -
The only problem here is that you face the same challenges as with the
"track-in-a-trough." The holes will collect debris, and perhaps be even
harder to clean. How did you address that challenge?
For my car kiln, to make a removable track section, I just took several
lengths of 5/8" square stock and ground one corner down so that they could
be welded flush under the 1"x1"x1/4" angle iron track, protruding several
inches several inches from the ends of the angle iron, creating a "plug"
that slides into the space under the end of the stationary section of angle
iron track, which extended a few feet out of the kiln. The fit was very
snug, with no lateral movement at all, and you could hardly tell that there
was a joint when you rolled the car across this connection. Otherwise, the
removable track section was not attached to the floor or indexed in place in
any other way.
Of course, this system only works if there is just a single extension of
track because the section you plug in to needs to be bolted down in order
for there to be a snug, immovable "socket." to accept the square-stock plug.
But it worked great for me.
The removeable track section was welded together with several 1"x1/4" flat
bar cross members, and I welded small verticals on the end of the track to
prevent the possibility of the car rolling off the end. Since the track
was just 1"x1"x1/4" angle, and the cross members were just 1"x1/4" flat
bar, the 12'foot removeable track section was not very heavy, and was easily
picked up and moved into the kiln room when not needed.
For those concerned about the track being in the way on the floor, there is
no reason to use angle iron any larger than 1"x1"x1/4", and that sticks up
from the floor only about 3/4". Yes, that's still high enough to trip over,
and thus I think it's worth it to build the kiln with a removable track
section.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
Tom at Hutchtel.net on tue 6 jun 06
>> Drill holes in the mounting tabs on the track and corresponding ones in
>> the
>> floor. a bolt welded in will act as a locating peg. In our setup I
>> made
>> the track extensible using this set up (although we've >
> The only problem here is that you face the same challenges as with the
> "track-in-a-trough." The holes will collect debris, and perhaps be even
> harder to clean. How did you address that challenge?
We just use a drop in bolt of the same size as the track. If tripping over
the bolt head is a perceived problem, grind it off to 1/8 or so.
We found that we didn't really need to do much to mate up the track ends.
Just butted them up. There's a slight click as you cross it, but no major
shake or bump.
Tom
| |
|
