Anything welding

How confident are you behind the gun? Like truly?

That'd determine what kind of practice I'd recommend, or anyone else.

 

Basically, they're saying that because he didn't know what he was doing, he permanently fucked up and ruined the frame by using the wrong rod(6011) and also poor choices in steel to weld on to it, and moreso made it unsafe to drive any miles on the street due to the near guarantee of stress cracking. It seems like they're being a tad catastrophic about it, but I don't know much about welding for structural ends and I'd put sliders in that category

 

Tacoma frame is only 1/8", and they're heat treated.

I think the whole "exposing heat to already treated steel" is the concern here.

With that said, tons of people with little to no welding experience weld on sliders and more to their vehicles with no issue.

When it comes to welding, the weld itself becomes the strongest part of an assembly and the areas around the weld are the weakest due to the heat exposure - this is pretty common stuff.

I think if you just learn to run the beads you need to do, and do so in a normal manner, that you won't have any issue.

Clean up the mating surfaces with a flap disc to expose bare metal. Bevel any surfaces to properly fill in weld deposits and fuse things together. Do some practice runs off the vehicle to get familiar with what you'll be doing, and really you'll have no issue.

 

Confident enough that I went for it all and made a pair of these for my rear JDFab Shock Towers. Ill have 1" square that will tie in both sides when done.




This is the side I started with.. pulling the bead, I adjusted the gun angle for the rest after seeing the undercut or whatever its called

 

You know how to run the gun, looks good from a handling perspective.

The bead is really cold though. You see how it sits like a caterpillar on top of the metal? Means no fusion.

That's mainly because the heat wasn't enough to burn through the 3/16" or whatever it is and it acted as a heatsink to the 1/8" on top.

Is that the hottest it can run?

 

Sweet, I appreciate it man.

 

The machine can go hotter. The settings for that were set at 18.5v and a wire speed of 266.. on the Tititanium 180HD machine. Im done with that thickness, and everything else will be 1/8 with an occasional 3/16 here and there.

 

One simple practice method is simply drawing straight lines across a piece of steel and practice running beads on it while you follow the line.

Do this not only flat, but uphill, out of position, etc.

This will not only start building up muscle memory, but also give you more confidence in running beads in positions you may not have experience with.

The line gives you something to focus on, and when you're done welding, can tell you if you're off or not.

While running the bead, it will tell you where your hands/arms go and you'll find if you're in a comfortable position or not. This goes with the whole muscle memory thing but also reinforces the one principle every welder follows - Always Be Comfortable!

Lastly, once you do enough of that you can assess the bead profile itself and dial in your settings where they need to be for each position. As well as seeing the effects of torch angling and travel speed.

 

Some welds from today's order.

 

It really is remarkable how much smoother the welds are as experience occurs.

They are more uniform than when you posted the earlier versions 2 years ago?

Unfortunately, they will go the other way as you age unless you do those welds regular.

My welds when I was in the mid 30s look great. My welds in my mid 50s are close, but I don't see them ever improving.

I'm not upset at all, 99% of the population could not tell the difference, but I know those regular peeps in this thread could see the difference.

 

Agree, his welds are only getting better and before you commented I was close to giving him shit for not owning a CNC table still!

He could make his own parts instead of sourcing them

 

I been refraining from commenting on the plasma table topic.

As I mentioned much earlier, I intend to cut down my table to 4.5 x 2.5.

I have too many other money making abilities to need a 5 x 5 table.

The extra 2.5' of space to will make my shop more effective.

I don't want to spend all my time cutting and sending parts. I have other interests.

I've gone 6 months since I cut anything on the table, but I've stayed away busy!

 

Well that's a good problem to have!

Some people, like you mentioned, do the CNC thing as a money maker. Good thing you can make money on other goodies.

I do the CNC thing cause it's fun as hell; retired life gives you extra time so why not enjoy hobbies?

What do you plan to fill the shop with if you chop down your table?

FedEx is finally getting my welding table legs to me after they shipped them all the way back to the east coast

 

Thanks man!

These are my first ever tig welds February 2021.



This is the first set of tig welded Blocks I ever made for my younger brother. April 2021.



I wish I welded more consistently but the experience has definitely helped the welds. Currently I'm pretty much only welding when I get orders, which isn't all that often.

I took on a project that I honestly might be in over my head on but we'll see how that goes lol.

 

Thanks!
But I'm too poor to buy a table and I don't have any more room in my garage lol

 

You and me both

Why do you think I tell @koditten he's crazy for cutting down his table

Even if he doesn't need it, it's nice to have!

 

Im just too poor, I have a spot taped out for a table so I dont put anything permanent there

 

I rocked that cheap folding, Harbor Freight table for a good minute

 

There it is, my humble setup at home not long ago

 

I was talkin about a plasma table. I got a nice bench from a local auto shop closing down for $50. Cheaper than the cheapest HF one