The intention was to fabricate the fish plates and mounting brackets for the large U beam at home and then head out to site to tack weld them in place.

Amazingly, even this simple task was incomplete at the the end of the day.

I am really starting to discover that working with second hand steel is just not worth the extra labour involved.

I had scored some nice long lengths of 160 mm x 10mm plate off my original purchases.

However, there were still dags along the edges.

Even though I thought I had cleaned these up, they still threw out my alignment when using the cut off saw and I ended up with some cuts that were a few degrees off.

This then wasted further time as I ground them back to square.

I cut two 300 mm lengths to use as landing platforms for the U beam - ie to integrate a 146 mm wide beam on to a 75 mm wide column.

I also cut 4 pieces of 152 x 160 mm for two sets of fish plates.

These I welded together across the rough edge then drilled four x 12 mm holes on the drill press.

The plates were not exactly the same size but I managed to sort them in to two pairs that matched closely.

Using the new cuts as a reliable reference edge, I then proceeded to make two cuts on the sides at right angles shaving a few mm off each side with the cut off saw to reduce this dimension down to 146 mm (and cut off the temporary welding).

I am trying to do this very accurately and square as several of the edges of these fish plates will be visible as you enter in to the garage area.

What I did not count on was the incredible amount of time that it takes to make a 152mm cut through 20mm of mild steel.

Each cut is taking me about 3 hours - I need to proceed very slowly (to avoid overheating the steel and the cut off saw) and I need to take frequent breaks to protect my shoulder and hands.

Sunday, Monday

By Sunday night I was almost through the second cut on the first set of fish plates and I will need to work on the other one gradually during the week.

The cut is obviously taking so long because I am cutting across the face (for accuracy) rather than at right angles to this (where I run the danger of the cut deviating from the true line)

Tuesday

Finally finished the second cut and then managed to do nothing else all day due to pressure of work.

I can see, at this rate, that I still won't be ready to head out first thing next Saturday morning.

Wednesday

I finished the 3rd cut surprisingly quickly and made a start on the 4th cut - maybe there still is hope of being ready by Saturday morning.

Thursday

First thing in the morning I pushed on with the 4th cut and reached the point where the blade breaks through the bottom surface of the cut. By the end of the day I had completed the cut.

Friday