Tires and Axles

Worked on the axles for the barn move yesterday a little bit. I started with the tires since all of them were flat and had come off the bead. I took the Spanish Windlass approach to reseating the bead. Most of them popped right back on. A couple needed the rim sanded a little to get them to quit leaking, a couple needed a little soap suds to get them to pop back on and one has a hole in it. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the little darlings didn't take a drill to it while it was in the Construction Lab. So I need to take that one up town and get it plugged and then I'll have eight tires that hold air.

I made the new spring perches from a piece of 1-1/2" tubing. Layed them out, drilled a hole for the spring center pin, cut the bottom off the tubing and the rounded hole with the plasma cutter and then cut them apart on the chop saw. I touched up the rounded hole with the 4" grinder to get them to lay down nice on the axle and they were done. It's hard for me to get nice freehand cuts with the plasma. It's just a little too fast for me. I used a straight edge when cutting the bottom of the tube off and it went slick as a whistle. I just tried to stay on the inside of the line when doing the round hole, figuring I'd grind the rough stuff.

Tacking the perches on the axles was easy enough. As you can see in the photo, I only had to move the perch over a few inches but it needed to be on the same center spacing as the trusses. The axles are undercoated which has to be removed before any welding can be done. Blast that off with the torch, drop the perch on the axle and tack it on with the MIG. So the two easy ones are done. I need to shorten the other two so they'll roll through the door openings. Not too tough but needs to get done soon. Might be able to roll the top of the barn clear of everything Wednesday. Only have to go 12 feet but the last few are going to be downhill. Need to keep it from crashing into the back of the tractor. Been thinking about that. Maybe tie it off to the truck. I'd rather it didn't get away from me.