Anything welding

All depends on the type of fabbing a person does. Our pipe guys have giant tables (not certiflat but same concept) and they love them. Have "blocks" they can add to go vertical so they can layout 30-40 foot long runs. used to just have giant slabs and they worked ok but often meant making custom fixtures alot of the time.

And for your extension...if you can add a water box under the slats. (like you see in CNC plasmas).

 

It’s just My normal Scratch start dry rig. I’m usually welding on a bobcat in the field but we are doing some pre fab In the shop. Using a Lincoln square wave tig 255 right now. It does have a foot pedal but I don’t use them.

 

You must do the water pan. So much less smoke!

 

I would like to add some sort of water tub under there. It'd be nice to have less clean up in the garage and also safer since sparks aren't flying everywhere.

 

I really could not imagine using my plasma in my attached garage. With the water pan, it's completely different.

 

My clamps start as these from HF: You just cut off the fixed end and prep it for welding. Here you can see the finished clamp.









I also made these for clamping round tube. Just a 1” piece of angle iron welded on and the head still rotates and pivots.




And a few of these “long reach” clamps for random jobs.



I probably have about $5 per clamp.
I originally saw this YouTube video that have me the idea:

https://youtu.be/NP2wWQG1vlI

 

That is cool. I will have to get the boss man to grab some clamps and we can borrow one of our friends mag base drills and I can drill some holes in our welding table. It's 1/2" thick. Thanks for sharing

 

The strong hands clamps are cool but paying that much for them makes it hard to buy a bunch at once. Honestly the clamps are great but I’ve rarely found myself welding something that only uses one or two clamps. I’m usually using several at a time and that’s what makes them useful especially for odds shapes or projects with a lot of angles that you don’t want moving on you as you weld. Making these cheap clamps I can keep a dozen of them around and use as many as I need.

 

Gangster

 

Ran a couple practice welds since it’s been a while since I’ve ran a bead and to keep myself humble... the first practice was on round tube (1.75x.125 hrew), second was on 1/8” square stock.





If I do this well on my axle I’d be happy.

 

Welding up some blocks for a customer

 

Got all setup for a welding day. Ran out of wire after 24”
I know upgrading to the larger spool size is now in my future

 

Buy two. Have one stored and soon as you have to use it you order a new one. Then you dont have to worry about running out again.

But going to the larger spools will help in itself! I just know if you are anything like me you rarely open the side so never see how much wire is actually left

 

I hate that. That’s why I use a 10lb spool and have a 1lb as a back up. Also a 1lb if backup flux core in case I run out of gas.

 

Got everything welded up. In hind sight, I may have done this a bit too fast... oh well, at this point it either works or it doesn’t. I don’t think I got it hot enough to warp the axle, the trusses were all tacked and nothing popped while welding so the tack welds held fine. One weld is a bit boogered but hopefully it holds.

Some areas didn’t get welded due to the proximity of the locker wires but that’s in the short side so I’m not overly worried about that one.






The axle is snug as a bug in a rug all wrapped up in a welding blanket where it will sit for the next day.

Tomorrow I’ll weld in the c-gussets before replacing the ball joints.

 

Yeah - I had a similar journey from shimming stuff on the concrete floor to now having a table. I just keep buying clamps every so often, though the $4 DIY route is awesome! Might have to try that.

Drilling the holes took about 4 hours with a borrowed mag drill, so no $ for me, just time. I do like the clamp system. I know a couple guys that tack to the table too. Fast and easy, for sure, I guess i'm just used to clamping everything!

 

Speaking of welding on floors, I came across this earlier. Thought I would share because it seems useful. Basically shows how to take an uneven floor out of the equation when you have to weld on an uneven floor.

https://youtu.be/-PQLbdILaSU

 

Finally had a chance to snap a couple pics of the mini bike I’ve been messing with. Been riding it around for the last week. The exhaust is a little haggard but I never had the intention of spending even a 1/4 of the amount of time I actually spent on it, I can’t wait to get the wrap on it. Now I gotta pull it apart, wrap up some welds on the frame, cap some tubes, change the throttle and get it powder coated.

 

Screw powder coating. Go for the raw metal, steam punkt look.

Wire wheel and clear coat. Done!