Building a barbecue

I've had the idea for a while now to take an old water heater tank and turn it into a barbecue for the farm.  We have never had a proper BBQ at the farm, instead using half a 55-gallon drum until it rusted out, with a rebar grid that had 10 cm between bars, not very handy to keep the meat out of the fire.

So, when the ministry scheduled a retreat for the last weekend in May, I offered that we could build a barbecue to be used at the retreat.  Since I was already teaching arc welding classes to the boys, it seemed like a natural project to fit into the classes.

I started the project myself, and then worked the boys into the project as time went along.

This is the water heater tank we started with.

I sliced it into three pieces using the oxy-actelyene cutting torch.

And welded two of the pieces together to form the pan for the BBQ.

Then added some legs and braces

And then got fancy with some air-injection pipes with control vavles

Up to this point, we'd used materials that were laying around the shop.  Then I had to buy some round bars to be able to make the upper grate for the meat and the lower grate to hold the fire off the bottom.

William Cruz welding the upper grate while Andres Castro observes.

Anderson Mora welding the lower grate.

Anderson (left), Andres (center), and William Cruz (right) showing off the results of their handiwork.

The BBQ was used very successfully both during the retreat and for many events since then.

I added later the following photo showing the BBQ in action at a luncheon held at a church in Bogotá for the benefit of the IMiC ministry:

The barbecue is working great!

School Project

William Gomez and Camilo Castro were assigned a project by their teacher at the public school to build a picture/pen holder from wood to be given to their mother for Mother's Day.  The project came with some specific dimensions and instructions which were duly noted by William and Camilo.  They came to me for help in completing the project.

They also had some discretion in the materials and methods used to build the picture/pen holder.  Camilo chose to build his from one larger solid piece of wood, and William chose to follow the teacher's suggestions for gluing together smaller blocks of wood.

The boys started by cutting out the smaller blocks for William's approach on the table saw.  They got to see the benefits of using a fingerboard and also clamping a block to the fence for making blocks all the same length.

Camilo Castro ripping a small board using a featherboard while William receives the other end.

William cutting the squared up board into blocks of equal length.

The boys got some help from Anderson Mora in sanding the pieces of their project:

Anderson Mora hand sanding the little blocks for William.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any more pictures of their work except the finished product from Camilo, as shown below:

Camilo's finished picture/pen holder.

Arc Welding Classes

After finishing the greenhouse project at the end of March, I began to hold consistent classes with the older boys teaching them how to weld with the electric arc welder.

We started with classroom type instruction covering the electrical circuit and its measurements, the welding equipment, and of course welding safety.  We spent two, one-hour classes on these introductory topics.

Then I began allowing the boys to try their hand at striking an arc and making a bead.  I introduced them to the various types of welding electrodes (welding rod) and we how to select the best rod for the job.  They learned how to adjust the welding machine to the situation and the type of rod being used.

William Gomez welding with two other boys observing.

 They had the usual problems that beginning welders face, rods that stick to the work, difficulty holding an arc, moving the rod too fast to make a nice bead, etc., etc.  But they learned how to correct their technique and avoid these problems, too.

Fabian Perdomo (left) and Anderson Mora (right) checking out their practice beads. 

Anderson cleaning the slag from his bead.

Once their practice plate was full of welding beads on both side, they had to grind them flat to be able to continue practicing.  So the boys would take turns welding and grinding their plates.

William Cruz grinding his practice plate flat.

Most of the boys loved the hands-on nature of the work and conquering their fears of a process that is fiery and that can be scary.

After only 5 weeks of instruction, many of the boys were anxious to try their newly developed skills on a project, which you will see in the next post.