Anything welding

I'm totally with you on cutting the bedsides. I know I SHOULD add sides to the bumper but I'm wringing my hands over cutting a truck that is not yet a year old. Still haven't decided on that one yet....

For those that do a lot of wheeling and have rear bumpers with sides, do the sides get hit/scraped fairly often?

 

I held off on mine until I did damage, and then held off for a while longer. Kept telling myself as long as it's below the cutoff line I'm good. You'll hit it eventually if you do any real offroading.

Took me several years of wheeling to hit it.

But if you cut the besides you'll have to cut the exhaust where to put that chrome tip now?

 

I’ll go ahead and say it- I’m not that hardcore. I doubt I’ll ever need a HC bumper for it’s intended use, I just like the way they look. Since I’m building my own bumper I always had the thought of building it to be HC. I have no problem cutting the exhaust, but I did want to keep my mudflaps. Having previously been hit in the face by a pebble while riding my motorcycle, i know the value of mudflaps to those behind you. I do it for other motorists more than myself.

 

I've only hit mine a few times, but in the end they have been hit. If you are gong to do it, cut them while the bumper is only tacked together. My bedsides sucked in a fair amount when I cut them. I say just get it over with. Makes cutting the hole in the front fender for the snorkel that much easier...

 

Most of the time for me at least, I’ll hit the rear bumper going down a ledge. It’ll hit mostly the underside of the bumper and slide off as I continue forward

 

That's kind of what I'm expecting based on what I've done so far. Once I get a mid travel suspension I may be able to get into more trouble. Question: is it a big hassle to add the side bumpers later as opposed to doing it all at once?

 

Also curious, if you could please.

 

Will do. I’m doing the majority of the welding while it’s mounted to the truck to help with warping but I’ll probably take it off later today to blend and smooth out the welds. There really isn’t much to the back as of yet. The recovery points are pass through and welded to the mounting points and I’ll be adding internal gussets in a couple places to add some extra strength the main structure is all 3/16 plate and the mounting plates are 1/2”. I actually bought those premade but changed the profile to what I wanted the final bumper to look like.

 

SOOOO, I finally pulled the trigger on the HF band saw. Got it unpackaged and setup before I noticed a big dent in the motor, which upon further investigation had knocked the shaft and pulley out of alignment. Ugh! It seems clear it was dropped during shipping (paint wasn't scratched). So I promptly took it back to the store and returned it. I knew up front from the reviews the stand was pretty flimsy, but after seeing it first hand, I was still surprised how poorly constructed it was considering it's supporting a 150# load. Aside from that, overall I was a little underwhelmed with it, even for the price point it's at, thought it would be taller for one thing. I'm sure an undamaged unit would work fine, but the dent kind of spooked me, so I'm going to go ahead get one of the Evolution saws based on all the positive reviews on this thread. Leaning toward either the 7-1/4" or 10" compound sliding version.

 

If you have a Northern Tool near you check out the Klutch benchtop bandsaw. May or may not meet your needs, but I've been super happy with mine.

 

I dont think they have any stores in the northeast, unfortunately

 

Anyone make industrial furniture? I'm really thinking of building something similar with a reclaimed wood top.

 

Huh. Kinda funny that a place called Northern Tool wouldn't be in the NE.

Oh well. I've been super happy with it, and have liked that I can shave 1/16th off to true up an end without any deformation.

Edit - Probably just as well, seems they've jacked the price up to $330 from the $265 it was in November.

 

That's a shame. It would probably work well for as often as you use one. We dragged ours out about once every 3 or 4 months.
Zim

 

True, that's why I'm leaning toward a cold chop saw. Should be more than enough for my needs given the occasional use it will see. It's a big jump to get to the next level of bandsaws that are cabinet mounted, I'm just not willing to spend $1000+ on one.

 

Ok next question for everyone. Forgive my super crude drawing. I've got the base plate and uprights welded up (the red pieces below), and gussets cut out (the blue). When attaching the gussets, is there any reason to do anything different then fully weld both sides of each gusset at the base plate and at the upright? (the green lines)
I feel like I remember seeing some videos/photos of gussets like this having some stitch welds instead of fully down each side?

 

Yeah I was mostly curious about the recovery points. @Chux is welding some soft shackle lugs to his trailer and I wanted to give him some ideas.

 

I always just fully weld it

 

Depends on what you determine to be a big hassle and also how you design the bumper. The bolt on rear bumpers angle downward a little bit on the edge to match the body line whereas the HC are more flat.

 

Thanks. That's what I was planning on.