Anything welding

Control arms and a rear track bar for my Jeep. My metalcloak drag link and tie rod is 3/8” thick chromoly. If I built my own control arms I would use 1/4” wall dom.

 

Cool. I sold mine in 2011. There are 2 within walking distance but I'm just not interested anymore. Cage work is....a lot of work. Even sliders would be a lot of work especially shipping. You're a great welder, and got the age thing working for ya. Lots of money out there for you too.
Zim

 

Sure, you’re 2 grand for that setup after you buy a stand, die, and pump. If I buy a bender I’d get the same jmr bender that EatSleepTacos has. I would need to bend the big stuff less than a dozen times. The guys at jmr say a few bends here and there is ok for their bender in the thick tubing.

 

Yeah that’s for sure, I’m not looking to sell products though. I just want to build cool shit for myself. I work with computers for a living, this is just a hobby of mine. Maybe make some bed bars or some real basic shit for sale just to make my money back on the bender.

 

3/8" chromoly rod or tube?
Zim

 

3/8 thick chromoly tube. Granted, it’s 1.375” OD so it’s not close to the 2” that I would want it for. But 3/8 thick is still no joke.

 

I've bought hundreds of feet of CM and it ain't cheap. Solid rod I've never even seen, would have to be >$20 ft. We get CM local from Bickel Race Cars.
Chassis Shop right now forCM 1.625 is .70 inch. $8.40 ft.
Zim

 

Yea, for my control arms I don’t care to use chromoly. Honestly, for a rear track bar I probably won’t even care to use that either. My front track bar is chromoly but the front takes more abuse than the rear.

 

Here is a usable link to some chassis things and raw materials. I've used these guys for years and are always close to current pricing.
https://secure.chassisshop.com/categories/15209/
Zim

 

Link bars are 1/4” thick. The rock crawler guys slug the whole bar with 1 1/2” solid aluminum bar because they still bend them. That’s the only place I see guys using benders on that thick of material. 1/4” is also the thickness I’ve seen the most bender carnage with.

 

just thought I would post this up for any noobs like myself with some of this stuff. At my local airgas shops, you can exchange an inert compressed gas for any inert compressed gas or c25 mix. i.e. find an old helium tank from a crazy clown lady and then take it to Airgas and exchange for a sweet C25 MIG mix setup. The CO2 is liquid as mentioned earlier and a different valve. Also forget used acetylene or oxygen tanks as flammable is whole different story.

sorry if redundant but took some exploring for me to learn. I ran out of gas, oddly on a weekend when nothing is open and couldn't finish my job. I am now on the hunt to store a backup cylinder in the garage.

 

This will be much better at transporting tube

 

I know this stuff varies widely, but am curious if there's anything I need to watch out for in the following...

Called the AirGas place in the smallish town about 20 miles away - they quoted me $189 for an 80cf cylinder with first fill free (C25). I asked and confirmed that was a purchase price, not lease/rental. $112 for a 40cf cylinder, same deal on the first fill free. 80cf refills $85, didn't get price on 40.

Does that sound legit?

There's also a small welding shop in the other direction that is only open M/W/F that I'll call tomorrow to compare.

... and just fiddling around after work yesterday I made a block out of three pieces of 1.5 x 1/8 angle iron I had as scrap.

Pretty ugly but it is the first actual "made" item for me. I expect welds to be prettier with practice and gas, this is flux core.

 

The initial purchase is a good deal. The refills, a little high. I paid $55 per fill for an 80 and the initial purchase was $210+$55 for gas. It's worth calling around.

 

Yes it's legit but 80cf is the max they'll sell and they don't really 'fill' it, rather swap the tanks with ones they have in stock(sometimes you get shitty beat up bottles ). Believe it or not it was an even better deal till like 6-8 months ago. The world has a helium shortage for the past year or so i think that jumped all the neutral gas prices some. Still check out the local shop first. Probably will have better service/hours and might be willing to sell a bigger bottle and refill the bottles on the spot for you

 

Buy the tank the 1st time from AG and get it swapped out at the mom and pop shop. I bet they don't care where it came from. See if that's an option.

 

Thanks. I'm definitely going to check the local independent shop - hours are less being that they're only open three days a week, but they're a bunch closer and thus easier get to at lunchtime. Kinda sucks working a day job sometimes. LOL

Good idea as well -- thanks.

 

Gas really does last a long time. Even with a small tank is be surprised if it needed filled once a year.

 

Got another one in the shop @EatSleepTacos for hangers, leafs and shock relocate.

 

That's kinda my expectation looking at the figures for CF/H and tank CF sizes. While I don't plan to do a bunch of production welding I also figure I might be surprised.

Have to laugh though - seems owning a welder is kinda like owning a pickup. Had a family member already ask about something he needs mended. LOL