My house has a patio area that partially covered by roof and partially covered by open beams. My wife and I like it a lot, except that we recently got concerned about our two-year-old playing there during the day -- we didn't like him out in the direct sunlight that much. So I tacked up some shade fabric to the underside of the beams. It wasn't pretty, but it filtered the sun.
There's no such thing as snow load, here. And the area above the patio is pretty well protected from the wind. So I decided to try curving some lengths of steel to make a new structure to support some lighter-colored sun shade that would sit up higher than the beams and hopefully have less of a claustrophobic effect.
Making the ribs was pretty simple. I used my Millermatic 211 to weld the legs and base pieces to steel I bent with a roll bender.
Here the pieces are, ready for paint.
Here they are held in place with clamps. You can see christmas lights (pushed aside, in some places) we use to light the deck at night.
The trick was that I needed to weld perpendicular end pieces to the frame (and one in the center) to add some strength to the very light structure. Pulling the welder and the tank up on the roof was out of the question, and my lead wouldn't reach that high. So I figured I would just tote the 75-pound welder up and run flux core wire.
Still, the thing weighs 75 pounds.
Except this morning I remembered that I bought a Harbor Freight stick welder a couple of years back. It's 110v, 80 amps, and welds DC. I have 5/64 6013 rods for it that I've never used.
I've never stick welded at all.
But the thing only weighs 8 pounds. And it was over 90 degrees today.
So I decided to teach myself stick.
These welds aren't what I would consider structural. If they all failed simultaneously, the shade fabric would still stay in place, and it would also hold up the piece that broke loose. So I'm comfortable with the amateur stick welds I did this afternoon:
But here's a small vote for occasional use of a machine that cost me about $80 on sale. Its low weight and small size don't give it any real advantage in the shop. But climbing up and down a ladder, it's a lot nicer to haul 8 pounds than 75. Plus, the thing is smaller than a welding helmet. It made my work a lot easier today.
I'm going to do the other side in a few days -- hopefully the temps will drop. I'll post some pictures when it's done.
There's no such thing as snow load, here. And the area above the patio is pretty well protected from the wind. So I decided to try curving some lengths of steel to make a new structure to support some lighter-colored sun shade that would sit up higher than the beams and hopefully have less of a claustrophobic effect.
Making the ribs was pretty simple. I used my Millermatic 211 to weld the legs and base pieces to steel I bent with a roll bender.
Here the pieces are, ready for paint.
Here they are held in place with clamps. You can see christmas lights (pushed aside, in some places) we use to light the deck at night.
The trick was that I needed to weld perpendicular end pieces to the frame (and one in the center) to add some strength to the very light structure. Pulling the welder and the tank up on the roof was out of the question, and my lead wouldn't reach that high. So I figured I would just tote the 75-pound welder up and run flux core wire.
Still, the thing weighs 75 pounds.
Except this morning I remembered that I bought a Harbor Freight stick welder a couple of years back. It's 110v, 80 amps, and welds DC. I have 5/64 6013 rods for it that I've never used.
I've never stick welded at all.
But the thing only weighs 8 pounds. And it was over 90 degrees today.
So I decided to teach myself stick.
These welds aren't what I would consider structural. If they all failed simultaneously, the shade fabric would still stay in place, and it would also hold up the piece that broke loose. So I'm comfortable with the amateur stick welds I did this afternoon:
But here's a small vote for occasional use of a machine that cost me about $80 on sale. Its low weight and small size don't give it any real advantage in the shop. But climbing up and down a ladder, it's a lot nicer to haul 8 pounds than 75. Plus, the thing is smaller than a welding helmet. It made my work a lot easier today.
I'm going to do the other side in a few days -- hopefully the temps will drop. I'll post some pictures when it's done.
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