100% chance of pouring rain all day. And yes, I’m smiling about the rain. I finally have a chance to catch up on some projects. First of which, I’m finally building a half piece for my stack ladders. I don’t even care to recount how many sketchy situations I’ve endured because of not having a half piece. Metallic Ladder Co. really let their customers down when they stopped making the 4’ mid section. But I will prevail!
I plan on updating this thread throughout the day, with pictures and blurbs on my progress (maybe even a little video, we’ll see). Hopefully this can become a reference for anyone else wishing to build their own half piece.
I’ll start off by listing the materials I’ve gathered:
•new 6’ base section. This will replace my current base.
•old 6’ base. This was bought used, and the previous owner cut a few inches off the bottom already when they installed the levelok levelers (I don’t know why…). It’s seen some miles, so I figured it will be better to mess up on this, than on a brand new piece.
•2 yokes. I had a donor “one third piece” that provided me with the yokes, but you can buy brand new yokes, too.
•a dozen short rivets, and a dozen long rivets (I’ve got some brass ones to replace, that the previous owner had improvised. The aluminum rivets designed for the ladder work much more smoothly. And it’s nice to have some spares on hand.) You’ll have to ask [MENTION=4]Alex[/MENTION] or someone at shopWCR for these, as they’re not listed in the store.
And tools:
•circular saw with metal cut-off blade
•snap buttons with install tool (this is in place of the rivet setting tool that sells for $45-$55, and which WCR doesn’t carry). Bring the rivets into the hardware store with you, and find the snaps/tool that fits the closest. You’ll likely need to modify it get it to work properly. I’ll be grinding about 3/16" off the nose so it will seat completely. The snap button kit was around $11. Totally worth a little effort
•drill with 1/4" bit. This will be to drill your rivet holes for the yokes. You can also use it to drill out old rivets. Lower RPM’s tend to work best for drilling aluminum, btw.
•optional: 5/16" or whatever size bit you need to install your levelers on your new base section. You can figure it out
•rubber mallet for making small adjustments to the geometry of pieces.
•speed square and spring clamp, to ensure straight cuts with the circular saw.
•Personal protective equipment. Don’t be stupid. Aluminum shards really hurt, especially in your eye.
•Also handy to have: some type of anvil or solid surface for setting the rivets. I’ll probably use a rock :rolleyes:
That’s all I can think of tonight. I’ll update the list as I work through this project.
Yessir! I think it was either you or [MENTION=441]BostonMike[/MENTION] that pointed out the similarity in geometry. It will require a little bit of “persuading” the other pieces to fit (i.e., permanently narrowing the tops a bit), and I’m a little torn as to whether I should do that to all of the sections for greater flexibility, or only the base. I’ll also be narrowing the bottom of the new half piece just a little. More details in the a.m.
can/should I trim the pegs flush with the yokes? The extra length of peg sticking out from the sides seems superfluous to me. Having them flush will save me 10 grams, at least ;). Not to mention, ladder slides will be a little smoother…
I think I might get carried away with that cut-off saw, if y’all don’t talk some sense into me
Ok, so it turns out this grommet tool was a little too big. So I reshaped it under the cut-off wheel. We’ll see how it goes. Definitely go one size smaller on the tool
