Steel fabrication on lake Michigan again.

[00:00:01]Well, good morning everybody. I don't know if you can even hear me. The wind is blowing so hard out here, but we're back on Lake Michigan. Up there's the stair set that we put that kayak slide on last time I was out here.

[00:00:15]And as is typical of all things Lake Shore property, everybody's got to keep up with the Joneses. So, if the neighbor has one, everybody else has got to have one. So, now they want a kayak slide. Now, their kayak is shaped a little different.

[00:00:32]So, this is going to be a similar project, but with some design changes.

[00:00:38]Here's the fun I'd like to point out though is last time we were here there was about oh, shoot, 60 ft to beach here. Now, the wind has really pushed the lake all up to this side.

[00:00:49]I got a bunch of weld to do down at that post, and if you watch the waves for a minute or two, you'll see it's regularly dousing it. So, I'm pretty excited about getting to go down and weld there. We're going to start at the top and hope the wind dies down over the course of the day, but anyway, so got some guys that are huffing material down the beach out down to the bluff for me.

[00:01:15]I'm getting ready to start cutting cross arms. So, I'll bring you along for the fun. So, this is the view that several millions of dollars gets you out here on Lake Michigan.

[00:01:28]I try to uh be respectful of people's privacy, so I don't shoot pictures or videos of their house.

[00:01:35]I say it's uh pretty exclusive club that can afford this water stuck waterfront real estate.

[00:01:45]But, that comes with is an expectation of privacy. So, just hiking back from the truck. I had to go get my safety glasses. So, I was about halfway back when I fired up the video. I was going to give you guys some idea of what it's like to get tools, materials down here.

[00:02:07]It's a serious workout. Like this uh particular hill, I'm going to say Yeah.

[00:02:21]You're talking a good 30, 35° angle coming up that.

[00:02:30]Anyway, I've got some strings run out here.

[00:02:34]Doing a little playing with just eyeballing where I want this thing to run.

[00:02:37]Since I shot video last, ran into a holy fits. My generator wouldn't run.

[00:02:42]It popped off, started a little, and then died.

[00:02:45]So, I went all the way back, grabbed the other one, and before I came back, tried it, it wouldn't run either, and finally decided I came home with these a week ago in a pouring rainstorm, and apparently it's done something to them. I don't know if they just need to dry out if they're smoked, but anyway, so I busted out this old beastie, which is got all kinds of elements, but still running. So, hopefully it's going to get us done, but anyway, so here's the plan. This one, the rocks in the middle aren't as high as they were down on that one, so we don't have to put the dog leg in the middle, I don't think. So, and then because this is a different type of kayak, it's a whole different slide rail mechanism, but anyway, and as you can see, the lake is still just ripping roaring. I was just down there and got royally dosed by big wave coming in.

[00:03:32]I already told the guys we're not going to get done today, and there's a decent chance that if I get this first section started or in, and we're getting anywhere near close to the end of the day, I may just call it. I'm coming back tomorrow anyways, and hope that the lake calms down. Just getting drowned while you're trying to arc weld isn't my idea of entertainment, so anyways, we're going to have at her.

[00:05:49]Yeah.

[00:06:03]>> Well guys, we got to go here.

[00:06:07]I've got those two tagged in.

[00:06:10]And this is what we're up to next, so We're about to get wet.

[00:06:17]Oh goody.

[00:08:55]>> All right, guys. I got a problem. I don't know if you can tell it, but probably see how this one is bowing in that way?

[00:09:02]And this one is bowing in that way.

[00:09:05]As far as I can tell what's going on here is over that long distance, they're sagging and angle iron stood on edge like this tends to sag in towards the um inside lip, so to speak. The problem with that is the kayak or sailboard or whatever it is that's going on here has a flat bottom and the plan here is to put in UHMW runner here and here to capture it side to side.

[00:09:38]Right now, this width is set up to give me 35 in between the outside rails. The boat is 34 in.

[00:09:46]When I go down there to the middle, I'm at about 33 and 3/4 right now because I'm going in towards each other. So, that means it's going to bind up and pinch the boat.

[00:09:58]Now, the easiest and obvious fix would be to just put a spreader in there and weld it in, but I can't because the boat has a 9-in skeg on the middle that's got to be able to go down through here. So, I'm just racking my brain. Well, good morning, everybody. We're back.

[00:10:18]You can see Wiggles came along today.

[00:10:21]And I uh talked to the customer. We're going to add another arm and set of legs up in the middle. Going to be a little bit tricky just because, you know, here and there I might want an identical post.

[00:10:36]Here, what I got to do is pick the middle spot, put a leg out, and then figure out my height. Going to look a little funny just because those bottom arms won't be in line with each other, but I don't think that's going to be a fatal flaw.

[00:10:50]They agreed that that was better than uh having it sag in the middle. Cut myself some 2-in blocks cuz that's the actual height these are supposed to be operating at.

[00:10:59]We're going to weld this one on, put the blocks under that side, weld that one on, and then I'm going to go ahead and start adding the arm to this one. So, or the center support arm, anyway.

[00:11:10]Wiggles is going down to try and get wet. So, let's have at her.

[00:11:15]So, you guys can pretty well get the idea of what I'm doing here. I've got that cross brace cut for there, and then uh you can see before I came here this morning, I went and chopped off a 2 by 4 at exactly the right length to hold these at the width that I want them because otherwise, sitting here because they're all welded in on the ends, you know, bowing in in the middle.

[00:11:36]So, that way I don't have to worry about keeping that dimension. Now, they do have some sag in them this way yet. So, I'm going to put that crossmember in.

[00:11:46]And then I think what I'm going to do is calculate the length of these uprights down there ought to be.

[00:11:52]Weld them to the crossbar and they won't be hitting on the top side cuz it isn't sagging by as much as the clearance I'm putting in there is.

[00:12:00]And then I'll go in there and jack up on those and clamp them with these level is the plan. So, should be able to get them right where I want them. This 10-ft is not a bad span at all. I'm 4-in angle iron. It should handle that no sweat. 20-ft was just pushing it. So, anyway, you got the idea.

[00:12:21]I don't know where Wiggles is at. He's down here somewhere.

[00:12:25]Oh, yeah, there he is. Down there digging through the rock pile the lake's been thrown up here.

[00:12:31]Beautiful day out here.

[00:12:34]Wiggles is down there chipping the flux off my welds for me.

[00:12:40]I was just doing a little math. So, the next run is 25 ft. You know, it has to go past that end support.

[00:12:48]And then up here I want to put about a 4-ft landing on here. So, anyway, we're going to use just about every bit of this up. So, I got two full 20-footers.

[00:12:59]Well, this is a 20, but by the time I cut my two 5-footers for the bottom and my fair 4-footers for the top, there's only going to be uh let's see here.

[00:13:08]Yeah, 2-ft worth of that left. So, coming right down to the wire, but it's enough to do it. I didn't order any of the steel for this and that's where like this brace that we just added completely wasn't planned on. I went and >> [clears throat] >> I quick did a little measuring yesterday and grabbed a pair of 10-ft sticks and we're using every bit of it up, as a matter of fact, because I ended up You can see, it went underneath and added a brace under there cuz it was too spongy just off the end of that 6-in channel iron and it was wanting to curl.

[00:13:42]Too bouncy. I mean, it the whole thing is pretty bouncy, if you want to call it that, start with.

[00:13:49]Kind of weird feeling. It wants to spring this direction. I think if you really wanted to get away from that, you'd have to add some corner bracing over, but it starts looking a little honky and then stuff like this, it's a definite significant part of it to make it look nice. I mean, people pay big money to have houses here.

[00:14:10]So, anyway, there's always a compromise, if you want to call it that, between looking nice and streamlined and being functional. In this instance, the springiness isn't hurting anything.

[00:14:21]And I suspect, I mean, like I say, it's that it wants to I don't know if you can see it, but yeah, you can see it'll bounce that direction, but that's going to get better the further we go cuz we'll be tied into two more sets of braces on down to the bottom.

[00:14:35]So, the more of this that gets tied together, the more rigid it'll get.

[00:14:40]Anyway, it's what we're up to. Well, >> Now we've got a few other chunks in here.

[00:14:47]Steel.

[00:14:49]We're working on welding it up.

[00:14:52]Getting the spacer put in.

[00:14:59]>> I think I'm going to need the 2-lb hammer. Where did it >> Buck it.

[00:15:03]>> I can't quite get this in here by force of warning.

[00:15:05]>> Buck it. This is where the operation is.

[00:15:10]Needs the 2-lb hammer.

[00:15:15]I think that's it.

[00:15:18]Get down here.

[00:15:29]>> Okay, got the two pound hammer.

[00:15:51]63 inches.

[00:15:53]All right, let's go cut ourselves a 63 inches.

[00:16:04]Sarah's fun climbing up these racks.

[00:16:09]Well, Wrangler's is chipping the flux and knocking the using wire brush on the last of our welds.

[00:16:18]There she is, guys.

[00:16:21]The contractor is going to put the HDPE slide runners on that. What they're doing is putting one piece flat this way, and then one up on the edge to create a uh guide down each side, so they'll be able to just throw this board down here and slide her down. But, about call it a wrap here.

[00:16:48]Fun little project.