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The Birth Of The Gracie Bell


dubthewonderscot

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Well Chris Rice (climber511) and I had decided to do a little horse tradin and do a swap on some equipment. He was making me a GHR pad for a rack mounted GHR I'm trying to make. Chris wanted a baby inch db, around 150 pounds or so. I looked into steel prices and thats what created the Inch DB thread that I now hate. I got a bad quote from a steal man and wasn't able do the 10 or 12 Inch DB's that I had anticipated, so I was firmly prepared to go meet Chris in Seneca Rocks, go rock climbing with him, and then pay him cash for the pad he made for me. Boring transaction that would be.

Well, Friday before I left, I was going over to my buddy's machine shop to work on some projects, and we ran to a yet unamed location to secure some steel to work on said projects and sitting right there by the office was a whole mess of what i thought at the time were civil war era canon balls. But no, they were ball bearings, and yes they were for sale.

I grabed a couple in my steel purchase, and ran back to the shop, plans for projects were thrown on hold and we dug out a 2.5 inch solid round bar stock from the scrap bin, and threw in on the lathe. I turned it down to 2.375 or 2 and 3/8's. I then used the lathe to cup out the ends so that the handle would mate up with the ball bearings when I welded them together.

Welded them all together, did a quench, and then tested the strength of the weld on a hoist for about 30 minutes and did a few test jerks with the hoist.

Cleaned it up that night at the house with an angle grinder, and gave Chris a little suprise Saturday night when we rolled in to the camp site.

Here are the pics of the birth of the Gracie Bell as Chris has named her.

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?autocom...m&album=333

She's 146 pounds, using two 70 pound ball bearings, and a 6 pound handle that is 5 inches long and 2.375 inches in diameter. I can't lift her. I showed her to a buddy of mine who's got some crazy strong hands, he picked it up to waist height and said "call me when you get something bigger".

I will, there 100 pound ball bearings at this location. More to come!!

Edited by dubthewonderscot
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Nice!

Ok you going to be making some more and selling these? I would definitly be interested.

This is actually really similar to something I was thinking about doing. I've got 2 round kettlebells that are 41-42 kilos each. I was thinking about cutting the KB handles off and welding the two together with an Inch sized handle.

I actually might still go ahead with doing that. Dub would you be willing to make me a handle like the one you put on the Gracie Bell?

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Dude, I'm a kid in a candy store. They have mills, lathes, CnC mills that you program like a computer, a water jet that can cut through 5 inches of steel, drill presses, welders, sanders, all manner or steel scrap. If I needed a certain size bolt, i can just make it there. It's incredible. I get to go there whenever my buddy and have time. The shop is closed on Fridays and his boss is cool with me coming in there with him to work on projects.

I'm making myself a rack mounted

-land mine

-GHR

-Dip Station

Making a prowler, a bunch of loading pins, I already made a chain attachment thing out of a pair a of collars for chain loading.

my list of goodies to make is a yard long.

and soon a whole pile more of Gracie bells, and another monster bell that has yet to be named. The Dub bell? or would that be too confusing?

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I'm way jealous. Been looking for ball bearings / cannon balls, etc of that size for a couple years with no success. All I've found is hollow spheres.

- Aaron

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A pair of those 70#ers would be just about the right size to hang from the trailer hitch on my truck :devil

- Aaron

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I hope your joking. Those nimrods with the balls hanging like that have to be compensating for something if you know what i mean. That stuff makes me shake my head everytime.

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I hope your joking. Those nimrods with the balls hanging like that have to be compensating for something if you know what i mean. That stuff makes me shake my head everytime.

Yep I was heavily joking. Makes me want to either kick em in the satchel or put a pair of briefs on their trailer hitch when they are not looking. Maybe both in reverse order. :D

- Aaron

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Yep - the Gracie Bell is a beautiful thing to behold! I'm trying to decide how to finish it so it doesn't rust like everything else left in my unheated except when I'm out there garage gym. I'm thinking of burying it in salt but it would take a lot of salt. Or maybe paint the bells and just salt season the handle - not sure yet. Hopefully I can get Gracie to sign it for me someday when she learns to write :D .

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Nice!

Ok you going to be making some more and selling these? I would definitly be interested.

This is actually really similar to something I was thinking about doing. I've got 2 round kettlebells that are 41-42 kilos each. I was thinking about cutting the KB handles off and welding the two together with an Inch sized handle.

I actually might still go ahead with doing that. Dub would you be willing to make me a handle like the one you put on the Gracie Bell?

cast iron is hard to keep welded it breaks near or on the weld easy you might waist the kbs

Edited by DAN PRAYDIS
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Just hearing bout the equipment in the garage makes me think of all manner of grip equipment i could make.

Chris i was gonna ask you were the gracie name came from now i know were nice.

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Just hearing bout the equipment in the garage makes me think of all manner of grip equipment i could make.

Chris i was gonna ask you were the gracie name came from now i know were nice.

Gary

Gracie is Weldon's 20 month old daughter and she is a total doll baby - when I was trying to think of a name for the bell - it was the only thing that seemed right.

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My dad is a pretty experienced welder. I'll double check with him but I'm pretty sure he told me before he could weld cast iron just fine with the right welding rods and being careful with. Plus he could always reweld it for me if it broke.

Nice!

Ok you going to be making some more and selling these? I would definitly be interested.

This is actually really similar to something I was thinking about doing. I've got 2 round kettlebells that are 41-42 kilos each. I was thinking about cutting the KB handles off and welding the two together with an Inch sized handle.

I actually might still go ahead with doing that. Dub would you be willing to make me a handle like the one you put on the Gracie Bell?

cast iron is hard to keep welded it breaks near or on the weld easy you might waist the kbs

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My dad is a pretty experienced welder. I'll double check with him but I'm pretty sure he told me before he could weld cast iron just fine with the right welding rods and being careful with. Plus he could always reweld it for me if it broke.
Nice!

Ok you going to be making some more and selling these? I would definitly be interested.

This is actually really similar to something I was thinking about doing. I've got 2 round kettlebells that are 41-42 kilos each. I was thinking about cutting the KB handles off and welding the two together with an Inch sized handle.

I actually might still go ahead with doing that. Dub would you be willing to make me a handle like the one you put on the Gracie Bell?

cast iron is hard to keep welded it breaks near or on the weld easy you might waist the kbs

Cast can be a right sod and will pull and crack in the HAZ, mild steel spheres should be easy enough to source and cheaper than KBs, why bugger up a good pair of KBs on something that's going to dislike being thrown about.

If you're going to insist on giving it a try, I'd suggest you drill a close to interference fit hole a good way into the KBs, at least halfway, fitting the handle into both and then weld around the join. Use a good pre-heat and a high Ni content rod, also making sure to let it cool slowly and evenly.

A quote about cast iron welding I liked:

"When faced with a cast iron repair, order a new part first. Then have a go at the repair. If it works, cancel the order on the new part. If, as is likely, you don't succeed, you've saved some time on a replacement.' Probably still applies these days as the consumables and processes haven't changed one bit.

"

Best of luck! ;)

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My dad is a pretty experienced welder. I'll double check with him but I'm pretty sure he told me before he could weld cast iron just fine with the right welding rods and being careful with. Plus he could always reweld it for me if it broke.
Nice!

Ok you going to be making some more and selling these? I would definitly be interested.

This is actually really similar to something I was thinking about doing. I've got 2 round kettlebells that are 41-42 kilos each. I was thinking about cutting the KB handles off and welding the two together with an Inch sized handle.

I actually might still go ahead with doing that. Dub would you be willing to make me a handle like the one you put on the Gracie Bell?

cast iron is hard to keep welded it breaks near or on the weld easy you might waist the kbs

In order to weld 2 cast iron balls and a handle making a globe/inch type dumbell

The handle as well as the balls is better if its cast the balls and handle then need to be heated so that the whole assembly is glowing red then it is welded then kept at this temperature to stop the weld from going brittle i can go into the real technical explanation and specs if you want :D

Its not just a matter of getting the 2 balls and a handle of cast or steel then welding them all together useing cast rods and an arc welder useing this method the welds will break from repeated drops trust.

Getting the globes/balls pre lathed/cupped will make the welds stronger but they will still be the weak link.

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for the record, my globes are steel.

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for the record, my globes are steel.

Can see that from the pics. ;)

It's Incindium's KBs that'll be cast.

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Dude, I'm a kid in a candy store. They have mills, lathes, CnC mills that you program like a computer, a water jet that can cut through 5 inches of steel, drill presses, welders, sanders, all manner or steel scrap. If I needed a certain size bolt, i can just make it there. It's incredible. I get to go there whenever my buddy and have time. The shop is closed on Fridays and his boss is cool with me coming in there with him to work on projects.

I'm making myself a rack mounted

-land mine

-GHR

-Dip Station

Making a prowler, a bunch of loading pins, I already made a chain attachment thing out of a pair a of collars for chain loading.

my list of goodies to make is a yard long.

and soon a whole pile more of Gracie bells, and another monster bell that has yet to be named. The Dub bell? or would that be too confusing?

this is a win win situation for you and anyone who needs a inch trainer you should go buy all the steel balls you can afford you can either make the bells and sell them or you could sell the balls separate shipping would be cheaper by puting on ball each in a priority box for $ 9.80 each box and let who ever buys them make there own dumbbell :D if you do let me know what two balls would run me shipped total :)

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