Hulett Unloader - Part 2

Last night I started on the girder portion of the gantry. The first thing I noticed right away is that you need to make sure the two pieces you glue together to form the inner and outer girders need to be kept straight. While the girders were drying I spent the time trimming the cross plates and “larry” car front and rear rails. When the girders were dry I began the assembly process. Again, you need to double check your work for alignment before the glue dries. I was pleasantly surprised how well everything was fitting together. Even the “larry” rails were lining up straight. After completing both assemblies I began gluing the legs to one of the girders, once in place I glued the other girder on. (Note: I placed the girder sections upside down on a firm flat surface while gluing on the legs. I wanted to make sure the alignment was going to be correct.) During the process of attaching the deck portions to the girders I made a mistake. Rather than tacking down the pieces with glue, I elected to start from the front gluing to the back (remember I use liquid cement). Some how I introduced a stress point which caused the assembly to have a slight rock to it when placed in the upright position. What a bummer! All the care I put into the alignment went down the drain. Needless to say it was difficult getting it corrected. When I go to build the next one I’ll "tack" it down and check the alignment before completely gluing it in place.