Moving to the MAD MAX locale!

[LukeTheJoker]

OK, as some may know by now, my wife and I decided to undertake a move to take advantage of a situation that offered us free rent for a year, that involved a move interstate, an 11 hour drive in two cars and a trailer.

What I didn't say was where we were moving to...

We moved to the area of Broken Hill in outback New South Wales. Broken Hill is a mining area, and has been since it's founding in 1883, with extensive reserves of silver, lead and zinc. Most of the mining is finished now, with the mines just a small part of what there once were, but there is still a shockwave through town every 7pm and 7am as they bring down a new shelf of ore.

Broken Hill is the birthplace of BHP, the worlds largest mining company, in fact BHP stands for Broken Hill Proprietary limited.

The name Broken Hill came from the first surveyors that went through in 1844, as the there is a gap in the Barrier range that looked like it was just broken off. The hill that was called Broken Hill is now completely mined away...

Anyway, what is probably of more interest to most members of this site is that Mad Max 2: The road warrior was filmed in Broken Hill and the surrounding areas and towns, that alone should give you an idea of what the scenery is like!

I will update this thread as we live here longer with scenery pics as we settle in and start tripping about. Hopefully I can even get my MasterSport/CyclePro out and about...

 

[LukeTheJoker]

On to the move itself...

We sold, gave away, donated most of our stuff, but were still left with quite a bit to move, I even sold my little Datsun Rally car project.
We were planning to just do multiple trips with the family car and trailer, with that in mind we picked up a trailer cage and canopy off Facebook marketplace and modified the trailer to fit, it needed extending just under a foot:

We had already fitted up our Camry with a front bar and lights the last time we ventured up to Broken Hill, due to the huge number of Kangaroos, Emus and Goats running wild in the area:

Well that was our plan anyway... Then someone posted a great deal on a Toyota Hilux, once again on Facebook. I was there and test driving it within 30 minutes of the ad going up, and 10 more people called while we were there... Safe to say, we ended up with a Hilux!

Of course it needed a front bar and lights too... Back to Facebook and $50 later this happened:

Scored a cheap pair of Bushranger lights, the last of the halogen ones that they were clearing out, not as good as the Hella Rallye 4000 pair on the family car but $300 less!

That was the cars ready to go, now it came time for packing!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

On to the trip itself:

Left at just past 4am, hoping to arrive well before dusk to avoid wildlife encounters, stopped for breakfast with already 300km (180 miles) under the tires:

Stopped for a random pic as we crossed the 143 degree meridian line:

Kept pushing on all day, sometimes down to just 80km/h (50mph) if there was a headwind or uphill, stopped on occasion for a nap:

Or take a picture or two as the scenery changed:

Ended up having to pull up just 50km (30 miles) from our destination due to glare from the sun, had another nap while we waited it out:

You can see the scenery here, we are well into the middle of nowhere...

Looks familiar:

Ended up rolling in at 7:30pm, had to do the last little stretch at just 60km/h (35mph) with all lights on just to dodge the wildlife.

Big day, but successful trip with no issues, not even a flat tire.
Thankful to have two reliable cars in good condition so we didn't have to worry about overheating or other issues!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

The second day after we arrived, we had a massive dust storm to officially welcome us, this pic is after it settled down enough that I was willing to venture outside:

One thing that I knew I would have to improve at the new house was the shed/workshop:

No idea who Bugsy is, or where/what he needed freeing from...

Plans were to re-skin the walls and make is suitable for a workshop.
With that in mind I went back to Facebook, joined the local buy/swap and sell groups and asked if anyone had cheap secondhand roofing iron.

In the end I was given half a truck load for free and the guy even helped me load it!

The time had come to strip the old sheets:

Made a new friend while doing it:

Seeing as I ended up with excess sheets, figured it would make sense to improve the workshop a bit more by extending it... UP!

The roof was a little low, when I was wearing a welding helmet I would hit the rafters, so it only made sense to raise it to match the peak height of the front section. About 510mm. (20")

So a few more days later, hired a pair of Acroprops, got out the angle grinder and welder and went to work, cut three sides of the back legs and completely cut the other legs once they were supported, then it was just a matter of jack, reset, jack, reset, jack, reset over and over until the front was the right height:

Then welded in some extended poles with a locator pin that the poles could hinge on at the top and moved to the other end to repeat the process, I also added some safety straps at this point in case we got a big gust of wind:

That looks much better!

 

[RustyGold]

Excellent, Luke! You'll be back in biz in no time .

 

[rrtbike]

Very cool to follow along. Glad you had a trouble free trip. Good luck with everything. I hope it all works out good for you. The little flatbed truck is cool and super handy!

 

[MazdaFlyer]

Your typical builds should be right at home there, that’s in a good way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Excellent, Luke! You'll be back in biz in no time .

Very cool to follow along. Glad you had a trouble free trip. Good luck with everything. I hope it all works out good for you. The little flatbed truck is cool and super handy!

Your typical builds should be right at home there, that’s in a good way.

Thanks Guys, I wasn't sure how interesting this thread would be, but I'm glad you are enjoying it!
@rrtbike The little Hilux is coming in very handy, perfect for the work I need to do here!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Looks like you're back in the saddle again! Good to hear the move went smoothly.

I have great hopes that you will build a Mad Max inspired bicycle at some point. No one is better qualified to do it right than you are!

 

[kingfish254]

WELCOME HOME LUKE!!!

 

[Klunkruiser]

Looks like El Paso. Sand storms and all.

 

[Chad T]

Nice Luke! Sweet little truck you got there. Now I see why Mad Max had all those lights and brush guards.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looks like you're back in the saddle again! Good to hear the move went smoothly.

I have great hopes that you will build a Mad Max inspired bicycle at some point. No one is better qualified to do it right than you are!

Thanks TRM! I might do that yet!

WELCOME HOME LUKE!!!

View attachment 105566

Looks like El Paso. Sand storms and all.

Well both desert areas I guess?

Nice Luke! Sweet little truck you got there. Now I see why Mad Max had all those lights and brush guards.

Yep, the place dictates the vehicles!


Time to update this thread!

Bought a full sheet of 1/4" (6mm) plate for the bench top:

Started framing the bench directly to the wall for added support:

Then sheeted off that side wall:

More framing on the end wall and more sheets, plus bracing on the benchtop:

Cut the plate into 3 equal pieces 1200x800mm (48x32") for the bench top:

Shelving frame to brace the corner join to the garage:

Decent lighting:

Finished the bench framing:

Welded down the bench top:

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Then on to the main door.
Started with a frame, then divided it up for 4 recessed panels made from old tin roofing tiles:

Only welded in two of them so I could still easily get in and out, then pulled the door down to add the other panels:

That was as far as I got before running out of gas! Only 2 days over the weekend before we had to travel for a dentist appointment, so I just left it there.

One other tool I picked up in our travels was a homemade lathe, it is not perfect and needs modifications, but the price was OK and it gives me a starting point.

First thing it needed was a tail center, decided to jump straight to a drill chuck center to make it more versatile, started by just machining a blank to fit int the tail stock bore, then installing the blank into the bore and put a pilot drill in the chuck:

Followed by the correct size drill for a drill chuck mount, finish that and slide in the chuck mount and we end up here:

Nice and centered!

Still need to weld the drill chuck mounting shaft into the round blank, but that can wait till after fixing the next issue...

You see I bought some bigger tools as this new lathe can fit cutting tools up to 25mm (1") instead of the 6mm (1/4") max I had before, so I bought some WWLN_1616K08 tools, here they are with the biggest one I used to have in the middle:

After trying them in the machine though, I hit an issue, the cross slide is far too close to the lathe centerline! So more modifications are needed to fix it, I just need to pick up some gas...

More updates to come!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Forgot to add these pics from our drive back home on Friday, 45C heat (113F) and a massive duststorm, we were down to 60kph (37mph) on the highway in places because we just could not see...

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Big update time!

Got the main door done! Only after it was hung, I realised that it made the shed itself look small, so here is a pic with me standing next to it for scale, just for reference I am not a small guy!

Then came across a roller door at the right price and this happened:

All that is left now is the trim above the doors and the rear windows.

It was at this point I was contacted by a close friend to make some trike drive adapters along the lines of these from Atomic Zombie plans:

Out came the lathe, TIG welder, drill and taps and these happened:

Just sent them off this morning.

I was really hoping to have the workshop/shed all done before the big build-off, I have a plan that I want to build and a well set up shed is essential. Even ordered some parts for testing out ideas.
But then something else happened this last weekend...

 

[LukeTheJoker]

As I mentioned earlier we are staying at my folks place, looking after it and fixing it up a bit before they move down at the end of the year, this is giving us the awesome opportunity to save for a house deposit, not something that is easy to do on disability pensions I can assure you.

We are not ready to buy yet, but we are keeping an eye on what houses are around and what prices they are selling for, even been to a few auctions to get a feel for how things work. We have a small deposit, but still only about half of what we would need, and it actually seems that prices are going back up a little, which is not great for us at the very low end of the market.

We pretty much got to the point of just stop thinking about it for a few months and check back in to see where we stand.

Doesn't stop the property websites from showing on my phones homepage though...

Occasionally I get bored enough to look...

You know, you hear those stories about the guy that went to an auction and no one else turned up and they then end up with a house for the value of the land it sits on?

You always think, "That would never happen to me, it only happens for the investor with mega bucks!"?

Well...

Not always!

What about if I sweetened the deal and said it was a 100+ year old 2 bedroom stone cottage,

On a massive block of land, (this is just the backyard)

with a big shed?

Still in shock here I can tell you...

The place needs a lot of work though, which you would expect, but nothing we can't handle slowly over the coming months. We still have about 6 months before my parents move down, pretty sure we can have it pretty nice by then without spending too much money, just a decent amount of work.

LukeTheJoker bikes just got a permanent home!

 

[Chad T]

Wow! Congrats on the new place Luke.

 

[Rat Rod]

Very cool Luke.

Looking forward to seeing photographic updates of the overhaul!

 

[rrtbike]

That is some very good news!

We all need that!