The start of something not very practical

So, for a while now, I've been wanting to do this. About 40 years give or take a few. I can't remember when and where it began, but I can clearly remember my crude drawings, done in red ink on large white paper. And the vision was pretty much always the same: a tower fashioned into a fortress. Multiple floors, ladder to get up and down, tall and round, with a special floor up top. The get-away, the place where it could just be for me and nobody could reach me.




Well, now it is happening. I got a hold of a metal tank that's 8' in diameter, 28' long, 1/4" thick mild steel and weighs in at 9,000 lbs. I'm going to stand it on end and make my fort. Pretty simple plan.

First I had to drag the tank down to my shop within reach of my big welder, an old rescued 350 amp Hobart that runs a smooth DC bead. I used hooked Alice up to the tank and dragged it on down, no problem. I had tried with Dr. Brown, the Mack dump truck but, even with weight in the back, the tandem axle wheels just spun out in the dirt.

Now that I've got the tank down where I want it, I can begin the modifications: cutting a door, welding the ladder inside, cutting the hole in the top where the ladder will exit into the top look-out room (my room--the kids get their pick of the 3 floors below) and cutting the windows (9 of them, 3 per floor).

I got most of this done on Sunday afternoon and I was really enjoying the work.