Dr_Clyde's Shop Projects

[dr_clyde]

Today I had a need arise to build a small rolling welding table.

One of my customers is having me do some site work for a week or two. I have discovered having a small rolling table on long term jobsites is really handy.

I usually use the top of the lid on my Knaack box, but its not a great welding surface die to the paint, and if you need to open it up you have to take everything off the top, making organization a pain.

Recently I came into possession of a bunch of aluminum. The local college was cleaning out the sculpture studio and they had a bunch of aluminum tubes and plates leftover from past projects. Some friends of mine were helping and called me up. "Hey, we've got a bunch of material you may want that's getting scrapped. If you want to buy any come have a look. Scrap price."

I busted hump downtown and took a look. Ended up making a deal for all of the new tubing plus a few drops and plates. Not a ton of stuff, but enough to make it worth my while.

I decided to make a table quick from some of this material.

Cut the parts on the cold saw.

Laid it all out on the top. Top is 3/4" tooling plate approx 36" x 48". I think they used this as a work surface, it was pretty scratched up. I rounded the corners and ran a router around the edges to take the sharp corner off.

The big table makes these frames really easy to do.

If you do a slight bevel on the **** welds, they lay in pretty flush so you don't have to grind as much when you are putting a part over the joint.

The finished frame.

Drilled and tapped some 1/2-13 holes to mount the top to the base.

Mounted the table base to the top, attached some casters and voila! Small welding table.

I'm going to look for some wheel locks or something, it'll annoy the **** out of me if I can't stop it rolling away. Its done for now though.

 

[lis2323]

I love the aluminum table! Here's a pic of the floor locks I put on one of my weld tables. I modded them to be adjustable for level also.




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[yaidunno]

Get after it! What size tool post do you have on that dual drive? I can't remember.

Its a BXA, which is a bit in the small side for a 15" swing. Really wish i had CXA, bit it gets me by.

 

[dr_clyde]

Interesting little job I did yesterday.

Customer needed one wall cut off from a 5' length of 3" x 6" x 3/16" rectangular tube.

I thought about it for a while and decided the vertical bandsaw would be the best way with the tooling I had. I probably could have milled off the corners if it needed to be dead nuts, but it didn't. Customer was ok with a saw cut.

Set up a few fences on the DoAll and cut it off. Took about 20 minutes to push it through. Blade was a 1/2" wide 10-14 variable pitch bi-metal from Bahco.

I was only cutting off 3/16" or so. To keep the cut straight I had to use 2 fences. The waste coming off had a large amount of stored stress, so it wanted to push against the left fence like a spring and push the blade into the side wall. I used 2 fences to keep it on track.

Using the mill table as an outfeed table.

Kept it running suprisingly straight along the tube wall.

Lots of stress in tubing. Folks don't realize how much spring is in these big tubes. If you ever have to do precision machining on a big weldment or tube frame, do yourself a favor and get a thermal stress relief. Its pretty cheap, and will save you headaches in the long run.

Jobs like these are why I keep a vertical bandsaw in the shop. They are very useful tools.

Thanks for looking.

 

[tarbellb]

Nice. Can you elaborate more on what and how a thermal stress relief works/does? Im totally in the dark about it (never been properly taught many welding fundamentals)

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I think that AL table is sweet !

 

[dr_clyde]

Nice. Can you elaborate more on what and how a thermal stress relief works/does? Im totally in the dark about it (never been properly taught many welding fundamentals)

This is a direct quote from the American Welding Society. I could try to phrase it differently, but they do a great job putting it in layman's terms.

"As metal becomes hotter, it becomes weaker. Once a certain temperature is reached, there is a reduction in yield strength from the rated property of the steel. The residual stress decreases to that of the lower yield strength, and it is thereby relieved. The effect sometimes visibly manifests itself in the straightening of a distorted material."

In my case, it basically means if there was no residual stress in the tube, it would not curl or warp after removing part of the structure. You would need to restrain it during the stress relief so it stays straight.

In some cases, this matters a great deal. If you have a large, expensive weldment that is getting a lot of metal removed or machined off, a full thermal anneal can keep the work from moving out of tolerance.

 

[dr_clyde]

Its a BXA, which is a bit in the small side for a 15" swing. Really wish i had CXA, bit it gets me by.

I'll keep my eyes peeled. If I find a good deal on one I'll keep you in mind.

 

[dr_clyde]

I love the aluminum table! Here's a pic of the floor locks I put on one of my weld tables. I modded them to be adjustable for level also.




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I think that AL table is sweet !

Thanks guys.

 

[tarbellb]

This is a direct quote from the American Welding Society. I could try to phrase it differently, but they do a great job putting it in layman's terms.

"As metal becomes hotter, it becomes weaker. Once a certain temperature is reached, .....

Thanks. That makes sense, I just dont know how it would be performed. Can you give a example of doing a thermal stress relief on that piece you were working on?

 

[dr_clyde]

Thanks. That makes sense, I just dont know how it would be performed. Can you give a example of doing a thermal stress relief on that piece you were working on?

Most things you would send to a heat treat facility. It requires a temperature controlled oven to do properly. Small things you can do in the shop if you have a small furnace. You can't really do this with a torch, as it requires even heat and a slow, controlled cooling rate.

 

[dr_clyde]

Made a bracket to mount my Maxstar 161 to the cylinder hand truck. I've seen some variant of this in a few shops where they need to move the welder a lot. Makes it real easy to keep everything together and only have 1 cart to keep track of.

OSHA says all cylinders must be restrained while in use or in storage, so having it chained into the hand truck fulfills that requirement. These welders are small enough that all I had to do was mount it to the hand truck.




Bent up a small stainless tray to fit the foot print of the welder. I then mounted some stainless hex pipe hangers to the rails of the cart and welded some braces to them. The tray sits on the horizontal tube and takes most of the weight, and the braces keep it from moving.



I bent up a hook from some stainless flat bar and welded it to a hex hanger to make a place for the leads.



I've got it outfitted to do mostly sanitary tubing and other small repairs in breweries and some of my other factory customers. Dual flowmeter and extra hose for back purging the tubing, and a nice 25' CK superflex torch lead with a #9 air cooled torch on it. I can run about 100 amps pretty reliably on 120V input.

I also upgraded the gound clamp lead to be 25' long as well. Most of the time I need to weld both ends of a 20' length of pipe, so I'll set one end up supplying the purge and I need enough lead to get to the other end of the pipe. Sometimes I need to get up on top of some vessel or into a hard to get spot, so the long leads really come in handy.

 

[Strouty]

OSHA rules are made to keep dumb people from hurting themselves and to make money for the guberment.

Looks like a nice solution, I want to put a reel on the back of my O/A cart, that way the hose is always ready to go.

 

[bggrnchvy]

Made a bracket to mount my Maxstar 161 to the cylinder hand truck. I've seen some variant of this in a few shops where they need to move the welder a lot. Makes it real easy to keep everything together and only have 1 cart to keep track of.

We've done the same thing. Purpose built hand truck with a Maxstar 150 to do all the small parking lot trailer or sanitary repairs. A cord reel with chopped and reversed plugs and a couple of tubes for different filler make it really fast.

Unfortunately the Maxstar quit taking remote input a few months ago so no more fingertip control or footpedal which is annoying.

 

[dacuda]

There was more interest than I expected on the aluminum tanks. Seeing as how this is the "Fabrication and Techniques" forum, I figured I'd do a ride-along on my next tank so folks could see how I did it, and maybe glean something.

So this is what I start with. A pile of bent and machined parts.

First thing I do is make sure everything is deburred and there is not any dross from the laser on the edges. Nicholson makes a super nice file cut for aluminum. I just run this on the edges of the sheet quick to take off any burrs.

I then start fitting up and tacking the side panels to the top structure.

I shoot for an outside corner joint, and if it doesn't immediately match up, a trick I use is to take a thin piece of sheet metal and use it as a little lever to slip the edges into alignment.

Once I get it where I want it, I hold it with my torch hand, and make a tack.

If I have the opposite problem, the gap is too wide, I make a quick tack across the gap, and tap it into alignment.

I work my way around the tank, tacking every 6 inches or so.

Once I am all tacked up, I weld the seams. I do 6 inches or so at a time, skipping around the tank to evenly distribute the heat.

Once the tank itself is welded out, I attach the mounting tabs, hose bungs and filler neck. I plan to make a fixture to locate the tabs, I just haven't gotten around to it. It doesn't take that long with a tape measure and combo square.

I hold it in place with a bar clamp to get it tacked up.

This is the trickiest part. The tacks have to be fast. If I linger too long, the sheet heats up too much and pushes away from the bracket. I focus the heat on the bracket until I get a small puddle, then I quick wash it down onto the sheet.

I tack all the brackets, bungs and the filler neck first before I weld them. It gets too hot to try and measure and fuss with a bracket to tack it when you've just welded the bracket 6 inches away.

The filler neck has to be at a slight angle, mostly for looks but to make it easier to add gas. The angle itself isn't critical, just needs to be there. I use my 3rd hand tool to hold the filler neck wedged at an angle to get some tacks on it.

I then weld out the brackets first.

Then the bungs. I use a TIG finger from Jody at Welding Tips and Tricks at this point. Very hot. I also use a kevlar hot glove to rest my hand on in some places.

The last thing I do is weld the filler neck in. Its enough thicker than the sheet that I give it a few seconds of pre-heat with a plumbing torch.

Done and ready to be delivered to the customer.

Thanks for looking.

question on why you weld out around the clips,wouldn't apass down each side be enough? just curious.great work btw.

 

[dr_clyde]

question on why you weld out around the clips,wouldn't apass down each side be enough? just curious.great work btw.

Thanks. It's what the customer wants. Probably mostly for looks.

 

[matt_i]

That's a really slick setup on the single bottle cart welder!

I can see how useful that would be for any jobs out of the shop.

 

[ez-duzit]

Beautiful job on the tanks.

 

[JTH]

Thanks for this pic by pic how you do it. I’m too old to get in any ballpark close your skill set, I don’t have enough time left to practice. Been welding for decades but all stick, gas or wire feed. I’ve had a inverter tig for about a year and just started on aluminum. It’s almost a zen activity to make all the dimes stack up. It’s a great thing you’re working for yourself now. You are a real craftsman. JT

 

[zmotorsports]

Amazing work as always.

Love the aluminum table and I had to do a similar cut on a length of 2"x5"x.188" channel a few months back and fashioned a fence in a similar manner.

 

[Jlarson]

Love your thread. I miss getting to do lots of stainless work, learned it a long a time ago from my dad, now I only get a small amount of it in my shop and its mostly pipe work for chemical and water.

I usually use the top of the lid on my Knaack box, but its not a great welding surface die to the paint, and if you need to open it up you have to take everything off the top, making organization a pain.

Did that for a while, one of the best things we ever did was get some of those Knaack rolling workstations and put 1/4" Al tops on them and vises, we trailered them to site jobs.

 

[dr_clyde]

Been a long time since I had something worthy of posting in this thread. Work has been very busy, and I haven't really had time to make or photograph any cool projects.

Anyway, I have come across a few small jobs that require me to bend a bunch of small stainless rods to a reasonably accurate radius. Normally I bend rod on the press brake for stuff like handles, but that method requires some special dies and a fair amount of fussing with clearances, springback and general setup.

Anyone who has read Tom Lipton's blog Nothing Too Strong Ever Broke, or has watched his youtube channel has seen his nifty home-made bender. I decided I would make a version of his bender for myself. He has kindly provided lots of pictures and drawings for anyone wanting to attempt the project.

Here is a link for anyone interested. http://oxtool.blogspot.com/2012/08/rod-bender.html

Mine is not as nicely machined as Tom's, but I made it with whatever I had laying around the shop in an afternoon. I have a few more upgrades I need to make. I need to replace some of the screws with shoulder bolts, and make a slightly nicer fence. This one works, but its pretty crude. Still, I had it done when I needed it, now I can make some improvements as time allows.

Full Bender

Handle Removed. I made the handle slide off so it can be stored easily.

Die Removed. Depending on what radius you need or want, you just turn a quick die that slips over the dowel pin, and the matching follower roller. I plan to make an adjustable follower bearing when time allows.

Bushing. Just a plain Oilite bushing I had in stock.

Side Pivot View. The bottom is threaded to attach the cap that holds the pivot arm on.

 

[dr_clyde]

Bending a 2" ID hook.

Perfect hooks.

 

[ez-duzit]

dc--nice job. Thanks for the link.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice job on the rod bender and thanks for sharing. I've seen Tom Lipton's and had it marked to copy but I think I like yours even a bit more. This has been on my "to do" list for a few years but haven't had the time to build it to the degree that you have or that I've wanted so I have merely improvised when needed. Seeing yours has given me the bug to move it to the top of the list now.

Great job.

 

[dr_clyde]

dc--nice job. Thanks for the link.

Nice job on the rod bender and thanks for sharing. I've seen Tom Lipton's and had it marked to copy but I think I like yours even a bit more. This has been on my "to do" list for a few years but haven't had the time to build it to the degree that you have or that I've wanted so I have merely improvised when needed. Seeing yours has given me the bug to move it to the top of the list now.

Great job.

Thanks guys.

Mike, with a shop like yours, this shouldn't take more than an afternoon. Tom's version has a bit more machining that lends itself to a CNC mill, mine has a few modifications that make it so you don't have to make the pivot arm out of one piece and rather as a weldment. I didn't feel like spending that much time on the mill with a boring head.

I also just arbitrarily made up some of the sizes based on what I had in stock for materials. I didn't even turn the OD of the big bosses, they are just stock finish. I only had to turn the press fit and slip fits for the bushing, and the eccentric boss and receiver for the handle. Oh and I guess the dies too. Ok there was a bit of lathe work on this one.

You could be smarter than me and size the die pivot locations to fit standard ball bearings or easily bought round things so you don't have to machine tooling. The center pin on mine is a 5/8" Ø dowel pin, so that limits my minimum radius.

In theory mine can handle up to 1/2" stock. I haven't tried it yet though.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks guys.

Mike, with a shop like yours, this shouldn't take more than an afternoon. Tom's version has a bit more machining that lends itself to a CNC mill, mine has a few modifications that make it so you don't have to make the pivot arm out of one piece and rather as a weldment. I didn't feel like spending that much time on the mill with a boring head.

I also just arbitrarily made up some of the sizes based on what I had in stock for materials. I didn't even turn the OD of the big bosses, they are just stock finish. I only had to turn the press fit and slip fits for the bushing, and the eccentric boss and receiver for the handle. Oh and I guess the dies too. Ok there was a bit of lathe work on this one.

You could be smarter than me and size the die pivot locations to fit standard ball bearings or easily bought round things so you don't have to machine tooling. The center pin on mine is a 5/8" Ø dowel pin, so that limits my minimum radius.

In theory mine can handle up to 1/2" stock. I haven't tried it yet though.

Thank you for that extra bit of information. I'm definitely going to copy it as soon as I get caught up.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Looks awesome!

 

[NASTYZEN]

Fancy shmancy! Looks good Doc.

 

[matt_i]

Nice job on the bender, looks well-made and its meeting the need quite well. I like that you can change it up for different radii and stock just by machining a new set of round slugs. Depending on the need (generally if it will be around people), I've learned to take the stock to the belt-sander and spin it around to put a ball-point on the hook, pre-bend.

 

[akpolaris]

Beautiful tanks. Why no baffles?

question on why you weld out around the clips,wouldn't apass down each side be enough? just curious.great work btw.

 

[dr_clyde]

Beautiful tanks. Why no baffles?

These tanks are a customer's design and prints. They don't spec a baffle, as I suspect they're not needed. They go in a relatively slow and stable environment. If they don't need a baffle, they save money by not adding one.

 

[txvwnut]

That bender looks a lot nicer than the store bought one I have.

 

[pcmeiners]

Really nice tool, look like you will get a lot of use out of it.

 

[dr_clyde]

I had to do some mobile work the other day that required a generator. I don't own a nice welder/generator as of yet, so I borrowed one from a good friend. In lieu of rent, I made him this toolbox for the welder.

Material is 12ga SS with a #4 brushed finish.

It is mostly intended just to keep the leads and maybe a canister of rod. Perhaps an extension cord. But I did size it so it can hold a suitcase feeder and a small argon cylinder.

I found these cool latches on McMaster-Carr. They are slightly spring loaded, and can fit on a corner.

I used the new bender for the handles, works great.

 

[ez-duzit]

Excellent work.

Do you have a finger bender for those corners?

 

[dr_clyde]

Excellent work.

Do you have a finger bender for those corners?

I do have a box and pan brake, but this was bent on an Accurpress CNC press brake at a friend's shop down the street.

 

[lis2323]

Beautiful ss box! Nicely designed and proportioned [emoji481]


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[Strouty]

You want to borrow my welder?

That box is awesome. I like the bender too!

 

[MP&C]

Nice job on the storage box!