Show us your welding projects

[jeepinerdeep]

A hand rail and some new shop tables I posted up in my shop thread this week.

 

[PugetDude]

Simple light-duty magnetic hold down clamp for my welding table.

Bought a 210# magnetic dial indicator base from Amazon Warehouse Deals for about $15, cut a 6" Jorgenson clamp and welded a 10mm bolt and a flanged nut to the clamp. (Thread is only 4mm deep)


I use it more like an an adjustable third hand than a clamp, but it works well for holding smaller stuff in place when welding.

 

[shortykorte]

@_Weldman_ I like your shop.

 

[Gutman]

Livestock shelters attempting to sell locally. Right now I got 10 bacon seeds in that particular one. Thought about pulling a PR move and parking my ATV on top to show strength of them. Might still do that, BTW the ATV weighs 1100 plus lbs.

Like the shelters
I would not have guessed an atv weighed that much. I'd have guessed south of 500 lbs.

 

[Firebrick43]

Like the shelters
I would not have guessed an atv weighed that much. I'd have guessed south of 500 lbs.

Some of the 1000 cc ATVs are heavy pigs and pushing 1000lbs.

A good number of midsize 4x4 ATV's are around 500-600 lbs

 

[colindoyle]

Got a couple projects I could share here.

I designed and built this flatbed body after I blew a recap drive tire on my F-650 and destroyed the dually box. It was designed with hot-dip galvanizing in mind, so drainage, venting, and warpage were major considerations. I dropped it off at the galvanizer and held my breath, and thankfully the bet paid off.

 

[colindoyle]

Lots of welding...

 

[LXCam]

Got a couple projects I could share here.

I designed and built this flatbed body after I blew a recap drive tire on my F-650 and destroyed the dually box. It was designed with hot-dip galvanizing in mind, so drainage, venting, and warpage were major considerations. I dropped it off at the galvanizer and held my breath, and thankfully the bet paid off.

Stellar job Colin!

 

[colindoyle]

Thanks! It's so much more functional now, and it doesn't elicit all the dumb questions when I stop at the gas station.

 

[colindoyle]

Another project: cart for my Square Wave 175. I got a Lincoln water cooler for $20 because it was leaking coolant out of the heat exchanger. Found a heater core from an old Buick that was a perfect fit, but the cooler wouldn't fit on my old TIG cart. Built this one to fit everything. Got a CK superflex torch lead and immediately became a way better TIG welder because I didn't have that awful rigid vinyl lead trying to rip the torch out of my hands.

 

[Wiz02]

Thanks! It's so much more functional now, and it doesn't elicit all the dumb questions when I stop at the gas station.

Awesome job. I'd love to hear about what it took to accomplish.

 

[LXCam]

Damn Colin, you got style bud. After all it does take a confident man to put rubber baby buggie bumper wheels on his welding cart

 

[colindoyle]

I stopped short of painting whitewalls on them. Don't tempt me!

 

[Firebrick43]

Another project: cart for my Square Wave 175. I got a Lincoln water cooler for $20 because it was leaking coolant out of the heat exchanger. Found a heater core from an old Buick that was a perfect fit, but the cooler wouldn't fit on my old TIG cart. Built this one to fit everything. Got a CK superflex torch lead and immediately became a way better TIG welder because I didn't have that awful rigid vinyl lead trying to rip the torch out of my hands.

You will fit in just fine around here

 

[colindoyle]

Awesome job. I'd love to hear about what it took to accomplish.

With regards to the galvanizing? Venting and drainage are pretty straightforward - you're suspending the part in a liquid and you want to eliminate any air pockets. With regards to the thermal aspect, the molten zinc is about 850°F and the expansion has to be taken seriously. I considered these to be a few major factors in minimizing warpage:

1. Use uniform material thickness, so everything heats up and cools at more or less the same rate.
2. Avoid the use of materials with asymmetrical profiles or possible stresses baked into them (diamondplate, for example.)
3. Luck.
4. Don't do anything to constrain the expansion of the parts - you get ripples and waves when a thin sheet heats up and expands, but is constrained on its edges by thicker material or more rigid forms. If you look at the skirts of the flatbed, you can see how the wheel tubs and toolboxes are lined with stainless bolts. The skirts were completely unsupported and allowed to expand freely during the dip. I built a wooden pallet to support the flatbed body with all its guts removed, as the skeletonized skirts were super flimsy. The tubs were slightly thicker than the skirts to take any impacts from road debris. The toolboxes were each made up of three parts - the inner tub, the outer frame, and the lid. During assembly, the flatbed skirt was sandwiched between the inner tub and outer frame of each toolbox. I chose to use an apitong deck because I thought a framework of crossmembers would fare better than a monolithic steel deck. (Plus it's annoying as hell to throw chains across a steel deck, and they get slippery.)

Here's the transport pallet and all the parts blown apart and loaded for transport to the galvanizer:


Here's a close-up shot of one of the formed crossmembers. I used those extruded U-nut things to avoid piercing the galvanized steel surface and giving corrosion an opportunity to begin. Plus, the crossmembers are fairly thin and I didn't trust there would be adequate thread engagement on the deck bolts. You can see that oval-shaped drain hole in the bottom of the part. I punched all the holes with my Strippit turret punch before forming the crossmembers in the press brake:



The same U-nuts were used on top of the wheel tubs, but the crossmembers were a little different dimensionally to fit under the deck:

 

[LXCam]

I stopped short of painting whitewalls on them. Don't tempt me!

You will fit in just fine around here

Yes he is

 

[Wiz02]

With regards to the galvanizing? Venting and drainage are pretty straightforward - you're suspending the part in a liquid and you want to eliminate any air pockets. With regards to the thermal aspect, the molten zinc is about 850°F and the expansion has to be taken seriously. I considered these to be a few major factors in minimizing warpage:

1. Use uniform material thickness, so everything heats up and cools at more or less the same rate.
2. Avoid the use of materials with asymmetrical profiles or possible stresses baked into them (diamondplate, for example.)
3. Luck.
4. Don't do anything to constrain the expansion of the parts - you get ripples and waves when a thin sheet heats up and expands, but is constrained on its edges by thicker material or more rigid forms. If you look at the skirts of the flatbed, you can see how the wheel tubs and toolboxes are lined with stainless bolts. The skirts were completely unsupported and allowed to expand freely during the dip. I built a wooden pallet to support the flatbed body with all its guts removed, as the skeletonized skirts were super flimsy. The tubs were slightly thicker than the skirts to take any impacts from road debris. The toolboxes were each made up of three parts - the inner tub, the outer frame, and the lid. During assembly, the flatbed skirt was sandwiched between the inner tub and outer frame of each toolbox. I chose to use an apitong deck because I thought a framework of crossmembers would fare better than a monolithic steel deck. (Plus it's annoying as hell to throw chains across a steel deck, and they get slippery.)

Here's the transport pallet and all the parts blown apart and loaded for transport to the galvanizer:


Here's a close-up shot of one of the formed crossmembers. I used those extruded U-nut things to avoid piercing the galvanized steel surface and giving corrosion an opportunity to begin. Plus, the crossmembers are fairly thin and I didn't trust there would be adequate thread engagement on the deck bolts. You can see that oval-shaped drain hole in the bottom of the part. I punched all the holes with my Strippit turret punch before forming the crossmembers in the press brake:



The same U-nuts were used on top of the wheel tubs, but the crossmembers were a little different dimensionally to fit under the deck:

Thanks for the detailed response, I will be reading it for quite a while.

 

[colindoyle]

More welding projects... more galvanized stuff...

I built a matched pair of ICC bumpers for our family business' delivery trucks. The original bumpers were rusty C-channel and they were tucked under the back of the body, exposing the stainless door surround to impacts every time we slammed a loading dock. One truck is a Freightliner M2, the other is a Kenworth T270, and they have refrigerated bodies from different manufacturers, so the mounting provisions differ from one to the other.

I used expanded mesh for the bottom steps for maximum traction, but grip tape on the top (I pictured someone wearing shorts and scraping a shin against mesh after losing their footing, figured the grip tape would be a safer option.) I put little riser blocks across the top of the bumper so dock plates wouldn't scrape off the grip tape, but forklifts are still ******* it up pretty good at our street-level dropoff locations. Each one has a 2" receiver so I can flat tow my VW as a dinghy in case I need to drop off a truck for service or whatever.


Pay no attention to that silver receiver hitch... I definitely didn't hot-dip galvanize the entire Tacoma frame.

 

[Old Man Roger]

The bed and the cart are sweet Colin. The cart wheels with white walls reminds me of the slick tire chopper bicycles from the 70’s. Without the whitewalls I will always consider your cart awesome, but unfinished..

 

[_Weldman_]

@_Weldman_ I like your shop.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Took a lot to build that not many will understand.

Like the shelters
I would not have guessed an atv weighed that much. I'd have guessed south of 500 lbs.

Some of the 1000 cc ATVs are heavy pigs and pushing 1000lbs.

A good number of midsize 4x4 ATV's are around 500-600 lbs

This isn't a average ATV and isn't a 4x4 ATV either. It's on a different level, it's a 6x6. As with my 5 ton in the picture, the two rear axles are always active and the front axle can be engaged or disengaged.

 

[ObnoxiousFumes]

Lots of welding...

Dang you've got some skills my dude!
Very jealous of that flatbed, I wanted to build one but didn't have the time so I bought one and the build quality is atrocious. Your bed looks amazing!

 

[colindoyle]

Yeah, I feel that. The average product available in the aftermarket is hot garbage, and the average upfitter tasked with installing it is even worse. Every time I spec a new box truck, I have this urge to build everything from the ground up.

 

[ObnoxiousFumes]

and the average upfitter installing it is even worse.

I did manage to avoid that nightmare, had to redo a bunch of the crappy Dodge wiring anyway so I did the install myself.
Really ***** when I know even I could have built a better bed though, and for less money too.

 

[danielbuck]

nice work on the beds! What sort of cost is it to galvanize all that?

 

[colindoyle]

Yeah. I sought out the best refrigerated body I could find for our Kenworth (Johnson Truck Bodies in Rice Lake, Wisconsin,) and even their upfitters managed to deliver the truck with one of the rear service brake lines pinched under a washer and hissing air. Come onnnnnnnnn guys, this is day one stuff.

 

[colindoyle]

nice work on the beds! What sort of cost is it to galvanize all that?

They bill by the pound, and it's just a flat fee until your parts surpass about 700 lbs, if memory serves. I have done a bunch of smaller jobs that don't exceed that weight threshold, and they've cost less than $350. If I recall correctly, all the F-650 flatbed parts cost about $1300. It's extremely good bang for the buck in terms of the corrosion protection you get, but it's not a process suitable for every application.

It's the labor that kills you, especially if you do something wild like galvanize an entire Tacoma frame and all its accoutrements:

 

[Firebrick43]

Thanks, I appreciate that. Took a lot to build that not many will understand.



This isn't a average ATV and isn't a 4x4 ATV either. It's on a different level, it's a 6x6. As with my 5 ton in the picture, the two rear axles are always active and the front axle can be engaged or disengaged.

I am sure it rides better than the 5 ton, My kidneys were always sorry when I did years ago. The 7 tons were a Cadillac in comparison.

 

[_Weldman_]

I am sure it rides better than the 5 ton, My kidneys were always sorry when I did years ago. The 7 tons were a Cadillac in comparison.

The 5 ton rides like a Cadillac for this road, and will have to do until I am able to get a 7 ton or larger. As if is, you don't have a 6x6 or 4x4 you aren't getting here to my home 9 months a year or more.

 

[colindoyle]

Fun one before I dump a bunch more photos in here.

 

[cycle61]

Love the video

 

[colindoyle]

I hate electric jacks so much.

 

[colindoyle]

Another fun one from a few years back. I helped a friend cut this New Beetle in half and then we fabricated a trade show display out of it, crated it up and shipped it LTL to Vegas, where it served as the centerpiece of his company's booth for the 2017 SEMA convention.

Even got to use the car to teach my girlfriend to drive a manual transmission before we tore into it. "Sure, baby... smoke the clutch all you want."

 

[danielbuck]

motor mount to add a 3 phase motor to my wood lathe. While I'm waiting on the paint to dry and the pulleys to arrive, I'll get started on wiring the VFD next.

 

[sqznby]

An actuator bracket, drop-down console for a large sport fishing boat.
Wish I could get finished shots, but we aren't doing the install.
1/2" plate, 1/4" pipe and 3/8" tab

 

[rvieceli]

@sqznby very nice. Is that 316 stainless?

Ron

 

[sqznby]

@sqznby very nice. Is that 316 stainless?

Ron

Thanks Ron, I appreciate it.
The plate is bare raw aluminum, and the pipe is polished anodized. I wish is was 316 haha. Love me some stainless work.

 

[NBraun]

Curious to see if you guys could help me come up with a solution to my issue. I think I may have something figured out, but I'm not a very good fabricator so figured I'd try to get some advice!


I'm building a PTO powered Harley Rake. The main frame is 3"X5" tubing. Unfortunately the gearbox I'm using has a bolt pattern than lines up almost perfectly with the edges of the tubing. It has blind tapped holes for mounting. What would you do to mount this thing?

https://imgur.com/aT9Z8e1

https://imgur.com/5FgNrH0

My plan was to just use a mounting plate, but since the frame interferes with the bolt holes, that won't work. My next thought was to drill through the tubing, but it's just so close to the edge, i'm not sure I want to do that either. I don't think I can drill through the actual gearbox to run studs, so I'm stuck trying to figure something else out.

Thoughts?

 

[PugetDude]

Heavy nut plate welded to the tube, different bolt pattern. Bolt your gearbox to your mounting plate, bolt the mounting plate to the welded nut plate. Nut plate is just a heavy plate with threaded holes; we used to use them to line up machinery components that needed to be broken down for shipment.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I like Scott's idea.

I had a similar situation recently; my solution was to make a standoff. In your case I'd weld a piece of round or square tubing to the tounge with a diameter smaller than your hole pattern. Weld your mounting plate to that. Not the best pic, but you can get an idea of what I'm describing.

 

[PugetDude]

Stud plate instead of a nut plate if depth is a concern. You can use a thinner plate- countersink the back side, use flathead bolts. Tack them in place on the back side before welding the stud plate to the tubing. Use the exposed threads as studs to attach your gearbox mounting plate.
BB&G's standoff is an easy option if you have the space.