Anything welding

Dude, it's awesome that it comes with clamps/etc

But it's also $170 and it's only 9 gauge (just a hair thicker than 1/8")

I'm spending less than that and ending with a table 3 times thicker

 

Using this as a canvas made drawing this take like 1 minute



Just draw one side, then mirror it

Two lines in the form of a + over the circle, then creating the circle using the intersect as your center

 

I just am amazed how much F360 makes our job sometimes.

When I figured out mirroring, my designing time dropped from 3 beers to about a half a beer.

Of course, having all straight lines, and not having to use the spline line tool, this one would be cake!

 

Looks like they bought the Klutch patent. I have the Klutch and that's pretty much the exact same kit and everything for a bit less money.

Klutch Steel Welding Table with Tool Kit - 36in.L x 24in.W x 33 1/4in.H 840321702586 | eBay

 

@KRAMERICA

Yeah just an overlook. I moved the whole thing and it must have distorted. Happens sometimes due to stray nodes.

@Kwikvette I use the Mirroring feature all the time and as @koditten this and some others in F360 can dramatically shorten design time. I used it on all three of the planes on that AF sign because they had to be drawn due to poor conversion quality. Pretty much anything symmetrical, I'm going to mirror it.

I recently installed the "Fill Gaps" add-in. The divide and conquer method works too, but others have said this program works really well for finding open contours.

Fill Gaps in Sketch Add-In for Fusion 360 - YouTube

 

Finished a couple more of these signs. Very popular amongst family and friends.

 

Eating lunch and fixed the emblem. I never liked the way the C-5 Galaxy looked with its wings bobbed so I added the other engines and extended the m. Overall looks better.

 

Anybody know where @Bivouac has been? Usual poster here and hasn't been seen since Oct 9th. Hope he's okay.

 

@ivanjo3l

Didn't want to derail the Harbor Freight thread, but here she is in the making

Steel tube cut, clamped, and ready to get burned on



Fabrication squares are your friend in getting things at a 90 before burning them in





Both sets of legs knocked out



Have to knock off the inside welds so the cross bar sits flush



Now getting the entire assembly clamped up for welding



All burned in, now to put it on my table top which meant carrying that 92lb plate onto my HF welding table, then putting the leg assembly on top



Sciatica makes you get creative in flipping over a +160lb table by yourself



All done



The burns

 

What sucked was not getting everything fully square, but I blame that on the uneven ends when my buddy cut the square tube

It's alright, I went with adjustable feet to get the table to sit as level as possible versus casters

Casters with 34" long legs would've made the table way too tall, which is weird cause my other table sits at 33" tall and it hurts my back working on it yet I'm pretty short

New table sits at 35" tall yet feels much higher...

 

@koditten @Kwikvette

I welded up some more 304 and with your tips it went much better. Not pretty but I am looking to get at least exhaust shop quality welds(from what ive seen not very good).

First up some .125". I am pretty happy with these results. The weld is pretty tall but if I chamfered the edges it would've laid in better.




Then I went to some 0.050" which is the closest I could get to 16 ga. It definitely liked settings that where about +1.5-2.5 V from what it wants for mild steel. I think the .120 went better but this is still acceptable for me to have on my exhaust, obviously would need to not blow through.




Let me know what you think and I am all ears for any tips. I really appreciate it.

 

Yes, much improvement.

Question?:

Are you doing any type of weave or "Z" type of movement?

You can get some heat control by moving the bead back and fourth. The base metal absorbs heat better than than the edge of the base metal, thus you can resist burn thru.

As for your exhaust weld statement, you are pretty close. They don't need to be pretty, but they do need to be air tight.

I want to look closer at the welds you posted when I have a few extra minutes.

By all means, you are getting the hang of it, so keep practicing. We want to see the improvements that we know you will be making.

 

I'm not too familiar with flux on stainless so I can't really add much more other than, don't bother with such minor adjustments of +10 or -10 ipm for each bead.

Bold adjustments are where you can really tell if you need to go up or down, and the small differences in wirespeed as I mentioned is easily handled with hand-movement speed and technique.

You'll waste more time (and more wire) if you kept practicing beads with very small adjustments each time, especially if your welds aren't the most consistent for example -

20/180 shows too cold of a weld (based on the bottom one and the one right above it) but then the bead profile changed significantly based on the two right above it (most likely due to movement speed).

19/200 shows a slightly wider (and I bet flatter, should provide another angle instead of just a helicopter view) which means the higher heat is penetrating better.

Apply what you know on mild to stainless, and go from there just knowing that stainless doesn't soak heat as easily and isn't as forgiving. Aside from that, same shit different day.

 

I did do a C movement while moving down the weld, I think I need to go further into the base metals though. I didnt play around with that variable.

 

Prototype almost finished. Needs some tweaks and another set of mounts and it’ll be good enough.

 

Didn't know we were posting mall crawlers here

 

it’s a POS in person

 

Also will say that the harbor freight one might be thin but with some extra supports I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for a basic beginner table.

 

Wheel not high enough

 

Oh for sure

Hell, the table in the background is the cheaper HF table with a thicker plate I welded on top

But as you know, DIYers can get more done for less money