I wanted a swivel mount for a retracting airhose reel I got at HF on a
halfprice sale.

A $2 door hinge might have sufficed here. Nevermind that.

Pls refer to photo of this air hose swivel mount at
http://www.goldengate.net/~dforeman/air_hose_mount/

The "obvious" way to make such a thing is by bending the 1/4" x 1 HRS
parts, but I can't bend 1/4" steel with any precision even with heat.
That's not to say it can't be done, I'm just no good at it.

I made tabs and pre-drilled them 1/2" with holes located accurately by
drilling them in the mill. I then clamped the bits to be assembled
to a 1-1/2 x 1 x 8 copper bar I found as "drop" at the metalmonger.
I'd zinged a chamfer on one corner of said bar on the belt sander. I
use that copper bar a lot as an aid to welding.

I filled the open corner of the parts clamped to the copper bar with
weld. The welds only took a few seconds to make. I used MIG
but a buzzbox stick welder would have worked as well, albeit with
more smoke, slag and spatter.

The pin is .4975 dia. It was nominally 1/2" CRS rodstock from the
ironmonger, I chucked it up and laid a file and then some strip
emery paper on it till it was shiny and a bit less than .500 dia.
The head was made of 3/4" CRS with a hole zinged in with a 2-flute
1/2" mill in the tailstock chuck. Said head is then secured to the
pin with Loctite 680.

It took only two judicious hits with a brass hammer to make this job
work like a safe hinge, one hit on each piece after welding. I
inserted the pin, noted the extremes of misalignment with the hole on
the other end, licked my finger to test the wind and hit it. Bingo
first try both times.

Then I zinc plated the lot.

It feels like the hinge on the door of a safe. Yes, Jeff Wisnia, I'm
still and agan gilding turds and enjoying every minute of it.

My point here is to note that we hobby metalworkers may well use
different approaches than make any sense in a shop that must turn a
profit. Joy is in the fit and function, having fun is job 1.