Anything welding

Which one of y’all is this

 

Here’s a quick little thing I just cut out on my little Langmuir table for my boss @malburg114

Dirty metal, old tip, and haven’t cleaned anything up yet. But very little dross and still get nice clean cuts

 

Well at least his name is appropriate... those welds are rough

 

Looks great.

Brings me to the newbie question I've been pondering...

How do y'all decide which size and gauge to use for different projects like these? 1.5" vs 2" vs square vs rectangular vs 16ga vs 11ga vs whatever?

Is it more a matter of experience and what's on hand? I've seen some pretty mindboggling engineering formulas for bend strength and such, didn't know if there was a simpler rule of tumb or something?

 

I watched the youtube video I posted earlier, converted his measurements and took a guess at what I thought would suit my use case the best. Then took into account all the extra center bracing I was going to have and and downsized them to what I was comfortable with.

Sometimes it comes down to what's available.

 

I can't be the only one who clicked on the +3 can I? LOL

 

Thanks.

 

Take my opinion with a grain of salt - I'm a mechanical engineer so I do break out the math from time to time but alot of it comes from time and experience. The more stuff you build and see work or fail the better feel you get for what thickness is enough. Most people start out WAY overbuilding things - like boat anchor welding carts out of 3/16" wall tube and things get lighter and more refined as they gain experience.

As @Sandman614 mentioned looking at other peoples' designs and how they worked out is a great starting place to get a rough idea of where to start.

 

Completely agree. I'm using 1/16 wall which I was originally on the fence about thinking I might should go with 1/8 wall. After welding this together though it's plenty strong enough

 

Both experience and what you have. Common Sense !!

Just what the project is also plays in. Light stand with old brake drum for the base .no big deal

Supports to set under the 3 ton jack stands for more height

If it is for you or a paying customer a paying job should come with prints with all the specs .

 

I am hungry for a cnc plasma, but i just don't think there's gonna be room in my shop. Have any of you seen the guy (video here) who made his own with a sharpie marker to draw all his bend lines before cutting? Seems like a great idea - tho i think a scribe line would be even nicer.

 

I liked the comments.

"This vid is for someone who has $30k laying around".

Otherwise, pretty good vid on what you can do with CNC.

 

Well shit.
https://www.thefabricator.com/thefa...rials/steel-prices-defy-predictions-of-a-peak

 

Yeah, I caught that article a couple months back. I'm not sure it's click bait or not.

 

Using a sharpie marker and think about cnc cutters reminds me of a project I did a couple years ago in class. We built lego robots and programmed photo sensors to follow a black line. The robot had to complete a lap around a track. Makes me wonder, can the same thing be done for a low budget cnc machine? I’m sure the “splash” of light may throw off the sensor but maybe there’s some sort of adaptation for this? If a circle is drawn with a sharpie and the sensor put on a machine that can move along all axis of a plane, and if the sensor isn’t thrown off by the light of a plasma cutter, makes me wonder if this can be a simplified cnc machine?

 

interesting. I like.

 

Look up the shaper origin

https://youtu.be/HBzPs0CRyfU

 

I’ll shoot you a pm

I don’t really want to use it to make a business out of just side stuff and things for Facebook market place and help do projects around the house. My dads works well and he’s always cutting me stuff but now that he’s moved out of state I think I need my own. Next issue I run into is I’m out of space in the garage so I’ll have to do some rearranging or something lol