Post your hints & tips......

[75]

Thought I would start this thread to provide a place for everyone to post helpful hints/tips/tricks they've come up with:

One I used today was, cardboard is cheaper than steel! Seriously, I'm talking about making patterns out of corrugated cardboard to see how things are going to fit together.

I was building a receiving hopper for a conveyor, and the bottom of the rear plate needed to match the contour of the conveyor belt. The easiest & fastest way was to trace the belt contour onto a piece of corrugated cardboard. I then trimmed it to size & shape & test-fitted. A couple of minor corrections were needed, once it fit properly I laid it on the 1/4" wear plate I was cutting parts from and traced around it. Cut, grind, and perfect fit first time. (Well, first time with the steel piece anyway!)

This is also helpful when working with projects such as my truck deck, where a number of plates meet at different angles - rear corners of the deck angled back tow-truck style.

Here's another one: If you have a number of identical steel pieces which need holes drilled (conveyor example again: small flat bars about 5" long with a 9/16" hole at one end which clamp flashing rubber on the hopper, typically at least half a dozen per hopper) stack them up, make sure they are aligned properly and tack weld them all together. Drill through the stack, then grind off the tacks, separate the parts and do a final touch-up with the grinder. Saves layout & setup time - only 1 piece needs to be marked & centre-punched, and only 1 setup in the drill press.

Looking forward to learning some new "tricks" from all of you!

[Deere John]

Cut cable with your welder. Without a cable cutter, hammer and edge or oxygen in your torch, you can burn a rod on a cable and do a pretty reasonable job. Turn the heat up and work from top to bottom to chase the slag out. Cover up good - it gets pretty dramatic!

[75]

Good idea John - along those lines, whenever we're installing bridging angle in open-web steel joist construction, we use the "stinger" to do the cutting. It's a lot easier than dragging a torch or grinder with chop wheel around up there. Bridging angle is typically 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 1/8, and even with regular welding heat a pretty presentable cut can be achieved.

Here's another quick hint: Round off those corners!

An example: a fab bench made from a piece of plate. Take the torch and round off each corner (I often use a 5" grinding disk as a template to draw the line) and give it a cleanup with the grinder. Now the corner of the table can't tear your pant leg (or YOUR leg!) if you bump into it. Looks more "finished" too.

This approach can be used on just about project, I did the same thing on the support legs for some hoppers I built this week. Anytime you see a corner you might get snagged on, round it off.

[Chuck Smith]

Rob, I too have used cardboard to make templates. What I have found to be better, is aluminum roof flashing. Nice and thin, you can cut it with scissors. A 25' roll of it is cheap.

For transferring patterns, I found a tool that you use when laying floor tiles. It's a "contour gauge" (I think) it's basically thin steel rods, sandwiched between two pieces of steel. You press it against the contour you want to trace, then just trace it onto your piece of stock.

Another tool that is great, is a spot weld cutter. You center it on the spot weld, and it's basically a mini hole saw, that cuts the steel around the spot weld. Then you just grind off what's left of the spot weld. Makes changing body panels MUCH easier. The cutters are reversable too. I have a pic of one here.
http://www.chuckschevytruckpages.com/images/stepDcutter2.jpg

Pictured, is also a step drill. It goes from 1/2" to 1", made for sheetmetal. It cuts a nice clean hole.

~Chuck

[75]

Thanks for the info Chuck - especially the contour gauge. I'm wondering what size range they are available in - typically, the conveyor belts I end up building hoppers for are around 30" - 36" wide.

And on the subject of tools, here are a couple of torch cutting tools you can make yourself: I have a small straightedge cutting guide made from 4" x 3/8" flat bar, about 10" long with a piece of angle (1" x 1" x 1/8" x 4" long) attached at one end. Basically it's a homemade square you can run the torch along - rather than lay out the entire cut on a piece of material, simply mark the location of the cut (allowing for the thickness of the torch tip) and set the cutting guide in place, clamping it down if necessary.

The other tool is a similar one, made from a thin slice of pipe and used to cut circles or round off corners. Cut a slice about 3/8" - 1/2" thick from heavy wall pipe, de-burr it and weld a small tab of 1/4" flat bar (about 4" long) to it - the tab is for clamping the guide down. Make up a few from different diameter pipe - 3", 4" and 6" diameter are a good selection.

Kind of hard to describe with words only - looks like I'd better take & then post some pics!

[75]

I mentioned using a flat bar straightedge for long torch cuts in another post, one thing you'll notice when cutting a long strip off of a plate is the strip curling away from the cut as a result of the heat.

This is fine if the strip is the scrap piece. Sometimes though, the narrow strip is what you want to save. And you'd prefer it to be straight! An example is the 4" wide strip of wear plate, 8 feet long, that I replaced in a crusher feeder recently.

I set up the cut in the usual fashion with the flat bar straightedge, but instead of making a continuous cut I went for about 6", left a 1" long uncut section, then continued on cutting about 18" and leaving 1" sections the length of the piece. I then let it cool down (since it was near quittin' time I left it until morning!) before cutting the 1" sections.

Granted, this situation doesn't come up all that often but it when it does, leaving small sections uncut and letting the piece cool is a handy way of controlling distortion.

Another application of this trick is bending plate. Another gravel pit example: cover plate for a crusher chute which was 6' by 4', and needed to have the first 20" on the 4' dimension bent to about a 15 degree angle. One way would have been to cut a 20" strip off, then re-attach it.

The easier way was to make a cut as described earlier, leaving short uncut sections. In this case, about 2" long every 18" or so. Then heat the short sections, bend to the required angle and weld the seam back up. This keeps the plate in 1 piece throughout the operation, making it easier to keep things lined up.

[75]

An automotive wiring handbook I have says that when electrical stuff starts acting "weird", look for bad grounds.

The same can be said for welding, since the current has to go from the machine, through the electrode/gun/etc, through the workpiece, and back through the ground clamp and to the machine. (A bit over-simplified, but you get the idea)

If the ground clamp doesn't make a good connection, you may not be able to strike an arc at all. Or, you may hear the ground clamp buzzing and sparking as you're welding. This will cause the welding heat to fluctuate up & down (the arcing at the ground clamp is amperage (heat) you should have at the weld itself)

Since I often work on "outdoor" projects, there is often rust/dirt/scale/limestone dust/etc on the workpiece. I've gotten in the habit of always grinding a spot clean for the ground clamp. Nothing more frustrating than getting set up to do a weld and having no ground/poor ground.

Another thing to keep in mind: When working on equipment with bearings or bushings, make sure you ground to the piece you are welding to. For example, when working on a loader bucket I ground right to the bucket. If I also have to weld on the loader's frame or lift arms, I move the clamp to the frame or lift arm. If I didn't, the current passing through them could damage the bushings attaching the bucket to the lift arms. Customers don't like that! :angry: Bearings on mowers would be another example, and yet another one is the electronic measuring & calibration equipment on the gravel pit's platform scale for trucks.

If it's difficult to put the ground clamp on a piece due to size/shape, I snap the ground clamp onto a small piece of flat bar and tack that to the workpiece. Once I'm finished, it's a simple matter to break the flat bar off & grind the tack smooth.

[Larrytow]

To Everyone: Rob is so right with all the tips he is giving; please pay attention to what he says! It _IS_ the details that sepperate the professionals from the ametuers. He has posted good ideas that I use regularly, and they work. I want to remind everybody to disconnect the batteries on any vehicle before welding on it. Sometimes you can get away with not doing it, but you never can tell for sure.And if you guess wrong it can cost big $$$$$!

BTW, just a coupple of weeks ago I fixed the frame on a 85 Toy PU. Rusted out right infront of the Rt side Rr spring hanger. Box frame, crap in it from 4wheeling,never dries out and just sits in there and rots the frame. Made a good fix, but lots of putsing and cutting and fitting of pieces. Had to drop the fuel tank to do it also. If anyone owns one , check it out.

Sorry I dont post more; will try to do better.

Regards, Larry

[75]

Thank you for the kind words Larry - and you're 100% right about disconnecting the battery(s). Especially with all the electronics & computers on modern vehicles.

Rust repair has to rank as my least-favourite part of the job. I know exactly what you mean about the box frame holding the crap in & causing rusting - and no matter what they say, those never turn out to be "little jobs". "Rust" is truly a 4-letter word, and even it's Spanish counterpart "oxido" bothers me!

Not much you can do about the design of a vehicle frame, but if you are using tube (fancy "technical" term: Hollow Structural Section, or HSS) for a project that will see outdoor service here's a few things you can do to help control the rusting-out process.

Use a fairly heavy wall thickness (.188 or even .250) rather than the lighter stuff. The problem with doing this is that you lose the advantage of lighter weight for equal strength that is a characteristic of HSS.

Cap the ends & seal up all the connections so crud doesn't get in. One of the aggregate companies I have worked for in the past likes using HSS for a lot of their projects & they insist on everything being capped & sealed. Seems to work well for them. It also gives the finished project a good clean appearance

Provide for drainage. The headache rack on my '75 is made from 2 x 3 x .125 HSS and the two uprights are open on the bottom. Water runs right out & doesn't get trapped.

The last option is don't use tube in the first place. The welding truck I drive at work right now has a deck that came with the truck when we bought it. It has 2 x 2 x .125 (or maybe even .100) crossers and the rust is really getting at them. When I build a new deck for it, I'll use angle for the crossers and tube only for the front & back rack, leaving them open at the bottom of course.

Now, if stainless weren't so darned expensive...............

[75]

Sometimes it's necessary to splice 2 (or more) pieces of material together. Especially in repair welding, when cutting out a damaged area & replacing it.

Keeping the splice straight can sometimes be tricky, and a big "dog-leg" in the finished product doesn't look too great.

Here's a couple things I do when making splices:

A piece of angle (straight, of course!) at least 12" long is a handy tool for joining things like pipe & square/rectangular tube. The size of the angle will depend on the size of the pieces you are joining, you want to be able to clamp the angle securely to the parts. By clamping both pieces tight to the angle, the connection will be kept straight. To add strength to the splice, you can also sleeve it with a piece of pipe/tube that slips inside the pieces you're joining. Don't forget to leave a gap of about 1/16" - 1/8" in the joint so you get decent penetration with the weld. Tack the connection at several places (at least 3) before you start welding to help prevent warpage.

Because angle has a fillet on the inside, it's not practical to use another piece of angle as an alignment tool. For splicing angle, I like to use two straight pieces of flat bar (at least 1/4" x 2", preferably a bit heavier) again at least a foot long. One for each leg of the angle works to keep things aligned while tacking - don't forget the gap! Flat bar is handy to align splices in beams & channels also. To strengthen these connections, you can "fish-plate" them with short pieces of flat bar welded across the joint. (Same idea as the "double frame" on big trucks - one layer inside the other)

Obviously, the above information is pretty generalized but the basic idea applies. For some jobs, even a 12" long piece of angle/flat bar may be too long - "make it work" to suit!

Vise-Grip chain clamps and C-clamps are handy for this sort of work - you can never have too many of them in your inventory!

[75]

Quite often I end up working on things that got "bent" - literally! Sometimes it's possible to straighten them out, other times it's easier & faster to cut away the old and build new.

In cases where pulling everything back into alignment seems feasible, here's something to keep in mind: While it may be possible to force the piece(s) back into place with heavy-duty pulling or pushing (chain come-along, porta-power jack, loader/forklift etc) and then weld it, doing so will result in a l-o-t of stress being locked into the welded connection and may lead to failure not too far down the road.

Heating the part(s) and allowing them to cool gradually so that they stay in place without a lot of force is one way to avoid this type of locked-in stress. Another is to cut partway through the piece being straightened, then re-weld after.

The same thing applies to building new stuff too - in the CWB study guide titled "Weld Quality & Examination Methods" one of the possible causes of weld failure is listed as:

"Misalignment - When the two pieces to be joined are not lined up accurately, the result can be a weld which is under internal stresses not anticipated in the design, or a stress concentration. Internal stresses can be created when two parts are forced into position and then tacked. The stresses remain in the weldment when it goes into service and, under the right set of conditions, can cause a failure. The sharp transition between misaligned parts causes a "stress concentration". In this area, stresses can build up to beyond design stresses and could cause a failure. The preferred remedy for incorrect fit-up is to break whatever tacks are holding the assembly from alignment (if any) and re-fit the parts."

Not saying it WILL cause a failure - just that it CAN.

[DYNA PLOW]

my first time on this new forum, i to am a welding and fix it junky.
ditto on the cardboard trick for patterns. i take the cardboard and lay it directly on the piece of steel to be cut and use my plasma cutter to trace around the cardboard. do not stay in one place to long
as the cardboard will start to burn!!
i do most of my fabbing on my offroad vehicle.
looking forward to talking with you gents and sharing ideas.
dan

[75]

Nice to see you over here Dan - now THAT'S an advantage of a plasma cutter! Today I had to cut a couple of flanges for an auger trough (basically, giant horseshoes) and since I had to use a torch it was make pattern/trace outline/cut freehand. Gotta talk the boss into a plasma cutter.................

Something else I had to do was splice 2 rolled sections end-to-end to make the 10' of trough. Generally, formed sections like the "U" shaped auger trough are close but not 100% identical. I used an L-shaped piece of scrap plate and a wedge as an alignment tool:

With the 2 pieces butted together, tack them in a couple of spots where they do line up. I had the sections upside down on the table, and got a couple of tacks near the bottom of the "U". At a few places along the splice, I tacked the L-shaped plate to the piece on the low side of the joint, then drove the wedge in to line the 2 halves up. Tack the pieces together, knock out the wedge & break off the plate, move on to the next spot.

It's actually a lot easier than it sounds - trying to describe things like this is often difficult without pictures! It's something you get the hang of pretty quickly.

You can also tack 2 scrap pieces of flat bar together to form the L-shaped piece, and use a chisel or tapered pin in place of the wedge. BTW, if you can get your hands on some scrap pieces of wear plate (I've heard it called "CHT", "QT", and "T400" plate) it's great for making wedges since it's harder than plain mild steel but not brittle.

[75]

While this isn't a "fabbing tip" per se, it applies to the finished product:

It's amazing what a difference a coat of paint or even primer makes in the appearance of your finished project. Around the little shop my friend & I have, we've built 2 grinder stands, torch cart, MIG welder cart, engine hoist, engine stands, rigging rack and numerous other things to use around the place. Even though painting isn't my favourite job, the improvement in appearance from raw metal to looking like "store bought" is well worth it.

At work, a lot of the things I fabricate/repair and weld on may not get finish painted, but I keep a can of red oxide primer in the truck & try to touch up wherever I've been working on a project. Customers seem to like that!

[75]

OK, this is a little difficult to describe without pictures but here goes:

2 of the projects I worked on last week involved building boxes out of plate that had been precut to size. To get a nice finished appearance as well as maintain strength, I fitted everything up so that the plates touched at their inside corners, leaving a "step" on the outside of the joint.

Example: if the letter L represents two plates joined at a 90 degree angle, locate the vertical leg of the "L" so that it's right hand bottom corner just catches the left hand top corner of the horizontal leg (I'm usually using 3/16" or thicker plate, so I let 1/16" of the vertical plate sit on the horizontal one) and let the rest stick out, forming the "step". To make it easier to assemble & tack-weld, I use small pieces of angle clamped or tacked to the vertical plate so I'm not trying to balance it on just 1/16" of material.

Work your way along and tack the plates together, checking with a square. I usually tack temporary braces in as well to keep the box from warping during the welding process.

After the tacking is done, I weld the inside first. For most applications, I stitch weld it, usually 2" every 12". If it's got to be watertight, I weld the inside solid.

Then move to the outside, and I weld it solid. That "step" formed by joining the plates at their inside corners allows you to run a weld down the joint that nicely fills in the "step" and rounds out the corner. Even without grinding the result is a smooth, clean-looking corner. A little bit of grinding/sanding will smooth the corner out even more without removing a lot of weld metal, since the bead has filled in the corner and formed the round edge.

As Larrytow mentioned in another post, move around & weld different areas of the box rather than start at one corner and go right around. (Same idea as tightening down cylinder head bolts or wheel lug nuts) This will keep distortion from the welding heat to a minimum.

Why go to all this trouble? It IS easier to join the plates without going corner-to-corner, but after welding there will be a bead sticking up above the surface along each joint. As well, to grind the weld down flush if a smooth appearance is desired will remove most of the weld and require a LOT of grinding.

Even though this was a pretty long-winded post, the actual process is very simple & easy to figure out once you try it.

[75]

Since I'm primarily involved in mobile welding, most of the time I don't have a shop to work in. Quite often repair work on a piece of equipment is carried out where it sits, and the weather doesn't always co-operate.

Among the many items of tools/equipment/rigging on my work truck is a plastic construction tarp (around 20' x 20' or thereabouts) and assorted bungee cords & rope. This allows me to rig up a "Circus Tent" where I'm working and stay out of the weather.

Besides the obvious application of keeping the rain off, I've also done this when it's snowing (plows NEVER seem to break when it's nice out, and are always needed RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!) and on hot sunny days when the temps are w-a-y up and the sun's beating down. Working in something like a dump truck box on a hot day is no fun at the best of times (I tend to call it being in an "Easy-Bake Oven") but some shade from the tarp can make a big difference.

[Gordon]

Great thread!
The simple ideas are alot of times the hardest to think of because you tend to out think yourself.

Here are a couple of things that I've done to make jobs go better.
It always seems that the sun is at my back causing glare into the helmet. To cure this problem I'll tape a bandanna to the top of the hood and let it drape over my head. This way the sun cant get in and put glare on the lens.

Another thing to get your head into a spot that you cant fit with a hood. Cut up an old leather and tape a lens into it then drape it over your head. Sounds crazy but it works. Saves from having to mirror weld at times. But other times there is no choice you just have to get out the mirror to see the weld.

To help keep heat from parts that you don't want getting hot there is always the wet rag. But at work we have a thermal paste that really works well to keep the heat from transferring to where you don't want it.

Gordon

[75]

Gordon - good idea for stopping the "sun on the lens" annoyance, will remember that one!

Also a good idea for making a hood for getting into tight spots. Those hoods are available ready-made, we have one at work (which I seem to be the only one who ever ends up using, so I've started carrying it in the truck with me :D ) which is nice but a lot of $$$ - around $200 Cdn :eek: .

Used it today as a matter of fact, had to do some arc-air gouging and then weld on a track link for an o-l-d and tired D-8 in one of the local pits. The leather hood was the only practical way to get my head in close enough to see what was going on. That full leather hood is also handy to keep the sparks off your head...............

[75]

The last few days at work, I have been building guards for plant machinery out of flat bar, angle & wire mesh - the same sort of stuff often seen on trailer gates. LOTS of wire mesh to cut! Also, today I had a small repair job on a pipe handrail that had gotten bent and needed a section cut out & replaced.

A torch WILL work for this kind of thing but is tedious. Especially with wire mesh, it becomes more of a "melting" than "cutting" operation.

What I have found works nicely is a 7" cutting disk. These are actually made to fit a circular saw ("SkilSaw") but the mounting hole is the same size as most 7" angle grinders. It's like having a hand-held chop saw, and makes easy work of zipping through a sheet of wire mesh or doing some field fitting on a pipe handrail.

It's important to use these things properly, and not exceed the rpm they are designed for: The disks we use at work are rated for around 8250 rpm, the 7" grinder I carry on my truck does about 8000 rpm. Plus, the 7" disk fits on the grinder with the guard in place - very important! :blob3:

Resist the urge to throw one on your 5" grinder: Those machines typically do 10,000 rpm and you have to take the guard off to fit the 7" disk. NOT a good idea although I have seen people do it.

Used properly, those 7" cutting disks are a handy tool. In fact, I leave a cutting disk on my 7" grinder all the time, only changing to a regular disk when I have some heavy grinding to do.

[Gordon]

75 at work we use a 4" angle grinder with what we call Zip wheels. They are made thin and for cutting only, not to be used for grinding. They work great for expanded metal. But whats better it's alot easier to handle the smaller grinder for long periods of time.

They also come in real handy if you only have a small amout of weld or steel to cut out. That way you only have to haul the small welder on the cart into the building. Instead of having to haul the pony tanks as well.

Thanks for all of your great ideas they really get me thinking.

I do have a question that I hope can be answered. It has to to with gouging rod. I've never used it, but I noticed the other day we have a box of it. What are the best times to use a gouging rod? How well does it work compared to cutting? What amps are required to run it?
Thanks in advance
Gordon

[75]

You're right about the small grinders and the "Zip-cut" disks - guess I forgot about 'em 'cause I like working on the heavy stuff! Yes, those small disks on the smaller grinders do a great job too.

On the subject of "gouging rod" - just wondering what the gouging rod you are referring to looks like. If it's a copper-coloured electrode with a black band at one end, it's the same stuff I have used for arc/air (proper term: Air-carbon arc gouging)

This works great when you have a l-o-t of weld to cut through (such as tooth shanks on excavator buckets) or you have to work close to things that the radiant heat from a torch would damage - example of that being lugs on a cone crusher I worked on last spring. Lots of weld, and a hydraulic line about an inch away.

It's also great for vee-ing out cracks when repair welding.

This process requires a special "gun" that holds the electrode and connects to your welding machine and a compressed air source. The process requires a fair amount of air (at least on the applications I'm used to) and a robust welding machine - "the more amps the better", within reason of course! With 1/4" diameter arc/air electrodes, I have good results using 300 - 400 amps.

That's the process I'm familiar with. There are also some rods available that look like a regular stick welding rod but are actually a "cutting" rod - although I've never used them.

Hope that helps a bit!

[Robert Doubrava]

If no one has already written about this, when using an angle grinder, be very cautious. It can kick back at you. This similar thing happened to me when I was using a dremel. I was trying to cut a piece of chain off, and the dremel jumped off of the chain link, and headed straight for my thumb!!yeeeeeeeoooooowwwww!!!!! Even though I was wearin' "Industrial Quality" leather gloves, it still cut me a little. That accident is similar to using an angle grinder. Be careful! Dont make my mistake!

[vipermanz]

the chain will also get amazingly hot:blob2:

[Robert Doubrava]

Naw. I thought it gets ice cold!!:D :D Really, I knew it would get hot. That's why I wore gloves!! Beware of the dremel!!!!!:eek: :eek:

[Robert Doubrava]

Just jokin' with ya, vipermanz. After it was cut, it was smokin'!:eek: Had to put water on it before I could pick it up with bare hands. Heck, that dremel was a turnin' 22,000 RPM's! Very hot stuff!!:blob2: :blob2: :blob2:

[vipermanz]

i run mine at around 25k with heavy duty wheels, works great for shaping up shears or blades:)

[Robert Doubrava]

Yep. The faster you run em' the better your cutting power.

[Robert Doubrava]

By the way, I'm gonna get a new Dremel for Christmas!! It's a Multipro with like 60 accessories.(I told my aunt that I needed a new one because mine broke) What did I expect, it's a cheep one. I'm gettin' a better one, though!:D

[1grnlwn]

I just built a baby weld table 2x4 1/4 thick. I used drop off scraps for legs 2"x4" tube 1/4 thick. You know how no matter how you cut something its never perfectly square.(well mine aren't) I took the high corner and placed it toward the inside of the table. Tacked that inside corner Heavy and then tack the next highest corner after squaring in that direction.This makes like a hinge so you can square in the other direction. This opens the gap but its almost impossible to lift an end thats tacked down without breaking the tack. Once square I tack the other two corners. I also used nylon trailer straps to hold adjustment while I was tacking. I hope this makes sense.

[75]

A quick way to check if your square (or rectangular) table/frame/etc is square is to measure corner-to-corner, for example from top left corner down to the bottom right one. Then check bottom left to top right. If it's square they'll read the same. If not, you'll get two different readings, adjust accordingly and check it again.

Once it's square, don't forget the braces to keep everything square during the welding operation.

Good idea with the straps 1grnlwn!

[75]

Early on in this thread, I mentioned a simple torch cutting guide you can make to help round off corners on plates, among other things.

Basically it's a thin slice of pipe with a flat bar handle attached, the flat bar is for clamping the guide in place. Make several using different sizes of pipe and keep them handy, here's one being used on a recent project of mine: ballast weight for my truck, I rounded the corners off to give it a more "finished" appearance.

[vipermanz]

wow, thats good thinkin' , that would probably work with sorts of stock, metal , wood, plastic, etc.

[75]

...................Best way to explain is with an example: Currently doing some modifications on a trailer, one of which involves new rubrails built from channel. Working by myself, it's somewhat (OK, very) awkward to hold the rubrail in place and tack it - they're about 70 + pounds each and 10 feet long.

Because the top of the rubrail is to be flush with the trailer deck, I clamped a piece of flat bar at each end of the rubrail, the flat bars sit on the trailer deck and set the height while I clamp, then tack, the rubrail in place. Gravity is working "for" me this way, as opposed to against me (if I were trying to hold them up myself)

If the rubrail were made from flat bar and it was not feasible to clamp something on it, then tack-welding the flat bars on temporarily would be an option. Another approach is clamping/tacking temporary supports on the trailer side.

In this case, it was easiest and fastest to clamp the flat bars to the rubrail itself. It depends on the situation, each application is different, but the idea of rigging up a simple, quick way to hold things in place is the same - since gravity wants to push the piece down anyway, might as well make it work to hold it in place at the same time. :)

[75]

On my K-35 project I bolted the air horns to the frame. (Yes, the frame - nowhere else the things would fit! :p ) 3 holes were needed, 2 drilled and tapped 1/4-20 and the other one a 7/8" dia clearance hole for the air line fitting. They had to be fairly accurate, plus I didn't really want to do the layout work twice........................

I traced the shape of the horn base onto the cardboard and cut it out, then laid out the holes. Take your time with this as the finished template is only as good as the layout work.

With the template in place, a centre punch was used to punch through the cardboard and into the steel. Because the punch only goes into the steel a short distance, the cardboard ends up with a small hole that is helpful in locating the punch the next time you use it. The pattern is good for quite a few uses before it "wears out".

On something like the side of my frame - vertical - taping the pattern in place helps keep it where you want it.

[1grnlwn]

I learned yesterday that you should be able to pull the wire from your mig gun with two fingers, with the drive rollers disengaged. This helps determine the correct amount of drag needed on the supply reel. It will also diagnose if there is a gun or hose problem. My problem was the contact tip was either worn out or insulated with stuff. Pluss the supply was too tight and the drive roller pressure was too much. (don't you just hate rookies)

[SCL]

I am so proud of myself. I just welded 2 sections of 3/4" electrical conduit to a thin tube gate in a horse trailer for latches. 1/8" rod and 60 amp. NO BURN THROUGH. Looks good too. Just tooting my own horn, sorry :rolleyes:

[CT18fireman]

One of the hardest things to do is weld without burn through on thin material. You have the right to feel good. A quality weld should look good and last.

[75]

Obviously, clamps are used most often to hold things in place. Sometimes they aren't the most practical, an example being the front shock mount repair I just did on my K-35 project.

Some careless maniac with the cutting torch ( :blush: ) gouged the brackets when hacking the old shocks off. Fixing the gouges was simple enough: weld a 1/2" hardened washer in place. How to hold the washer was the problem. Clamps were too awkward, and the holes had to line up.

Using a 1/2" bolt to hold the washer in place was the simple solution. Holes lined up, it kept the washer tight to the bracket and the bolt could be left in place until the welding was done.

Only thing to be careful of was not stray off course while welding and make the bolt a permanent addition! :eek:

[75]

For this particular job, the "bolt trick" worked best. Just one more idea to keep on file, it isn't the best approach to every job but for some it is.

[chip hayden]

SMAW=stick
GMAW=mig
GTAW=tig
FCAW=flux cored mig
dual shield=flux cored mig that is run with shielding gas

congressional rule of polarity--REP=reverse electrode positive[+], SEN=straight electrode negative[-]

most stick is welded electrode positive.
most mig is also electrode positive.
most tig is electode negative. aluminum is tig welded in AC.

Maximum amperage a coated electrode [stick] should run at is it's diameter in decimals i.e. 1/8 rod shouldn't be run higher than 125 amps, 1/4 rod 250 amps.

if you have a dc or ac/dc power supply don't waste your money on 6011,use 6010 instead. 6011 coating was designed for ac machines. 6010 fumes a lot less and has a more stable arc but don't use 6010 on ac it won't maintain an arc.

if you can't keep 7018 or any low hydrogen rod at 240 degrees F, don't use it or just throw it away. the coating absorbs water[moisture] disassociates in the arc and gets trapped as hydrogen in the weldment. this causes subsurface cracks that propagate to the surface. a scary thing on construction equipment.
chip AWSCWI

[75]

Although clamps are made in a wide range of sizes/types, it isn't really feasible to have a clamp for every possible situation.

Putting in the new floor in my K-35 project truck, it was necessary to clamp the new floor panel down. None of the clamps I had on hand would reach, but a short piece of scrap - square bar in this instance - solved that problem.

Obviously, not saying this will work for every situation but it's an idea to keep on hand "just in case".

[ProMo]

when the jb weld fails i call my freind hes getting a lot of govt work and making a killing

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Another few tips.

I make small circles with my mig gun when welding. Helps create a good bead.

And I use both a magnetic ground and a pair of vice-grips. They both have their places over the each other.

[1grnlwn]

I was welding a 30 piece of angle to a 2"square tube. one flat of angle was to be flush to one side of tube.

__
|_||_ Had it clamped on both ends tacked 3/4 welds on end and middle top and bottom. Tacked top on other end flipped over and angle was 1/16" proud drats. Ground weld as much as I could but was still stuck pretty good. Used chisel but it would not budge. So i took a c clamp and put as much pressure as I could in the flattening direction. Took mig and rewelded tac once the area was molten, POP the tack poped loose and the clamp aligned the piece and I finished tack. I was very proud of myself LOL

Mark

[TOOLS1]

I have removed broken and rounded bolts by welding a nut on them. I use a nut that is larger then the bolt. Then weld in the hole. I then remove the bolt while it is still hot.
TOOLS

[thfireman]

Lawngodfather said "I make small circles with my mig gun when welding. Helps create a good bead."


I have just started welding some to fix small problems with my lawn equipment and I don't know jack about welding. I tried what Lawngodfather suggested and I made the neatest weld I have made to date. I can make a decent looking weld by allowing the pool to build behind my wire but I really like the circular weld. Looks similar to a professional weld. I have no hope of ever being as neat as a pro, besides I only have a 120 volt wire welder but it does good for lite duty welds.

Thanks!:D

[thfireman]

Originally posted by TOOLS1
I have removed broken and rounded bolts by welding a nut on them. I use a nut that is larger then the bolt. Then weld in the hole. I then remove the bolt while it is still hot.
TOOLS

Great idea!! I have had a bolt with the head broke off in a walk behind for over a year. I tried vice grips and banging it....I even tried a few curse words. I gave up. Today I tried your suggestion and POW!! It came right out. Another lesson from the pros.

Thanks!:D