Rear Frame Rails

 

Pieces layed out for the rear frame rails. 

My piece of sheet wasn't big enough to get all four pieces out of it. I could only get 3-1/2. I cut the other piece out of a drop that I had from another job. I'll weld the pieces together and put an extra piece across the joint on the inside before I weld everything together to reinforce the joint.

It's supposed to be cold today - they're forecasting a high of 22 is all. I'll see if I can screw up my courage enough to go out to the shop and get these ground off and cut the tops and bottoms. I'm planning on welding in a couple of cross pieces inside the rails to give them a bit more strength where the cross member for the rear spring mount will go. 

The bifocal safety glasses worked well under my cutting shield. So I'm still real happy with the cataract surgery and for the most part have gotten comfortable with the new vision. I also had a brain storm while lining up my cuts with the plasma cutter. I use the straight-edge that you can see in the photos whenever possible. I have to move it off the cutting line about 5/8" to get the plasma torch lined up with the cut line. I'm going to make a hinged spacer bar that will  give me the proper offset and once I have the straight edge in place I can flip the spacer out of the way and begin cutting. If I bolt it on to the ends I could also make another spacer for the cutting torch. Pretty simple and efficient I would think.