Anything welding

I'm aware yeswelder has been around, but have always read and heard more bad than good regarding their actual capability and performance.

I think it's cool that it can bring a host of tools at such a reasonable cost for anyone wanting to try them out. I just hope they deliver on all points. How often does someone come in complaining about a bad experience when really it was the cheap tool to blame?

As for MIG pulse being gimmicky, I've gotta argue that one. It's been used for years in the industry and it especially helps keep distortion down, as well as maintaining a proper level of heat on something like say, stainless steel. I used a pulse MIG welder for work and I freaking loved it. Only problem is, it costs well over $10k otherwise I'd own one myself.

But definitely far from a gimmick. Just wonder how well it'll work on a cheap welder.

 

Well I just snagged a WFB2 bender for $280, any of yall know the cheapest place for dies? Crazy how expensive they are lol

 

That's a hell of a deal. Dies are about $300-$350 on Amazon I believe. About the same price as anywhere else, but you might as well get free shipping on 50 lbs of steel.

 

Yeah I wasn’t going to buy one just yet but didn’t know when the sale ended so I said screw it lol yeah I figured the dies are so expensive because it’s just solid stock.

 

I figured out why my hood seemed loose.



Any recommendations on how to fix this?

... thinking I might have to cut out some of the lower sheet metal, to access the failed part inside the hood?

 

super common problem with these trucks. To the point that there should be a sticky thread or two warning about it by now imo or even a recall originally(only rears it's head after a decent amount of mileage so that won't happen but should've). The aero of the stock hood combined with the flimsy core support causes the hoods to float around a bit at speed and on chattery roads till somethin gives.
Easiest and better fix than fixing the hinge is to do hood pins to the core support out by where the headlights mount to the radiator core support. Then add some reinforcements to the core support there since it's a much easier area to get to than messing with the hinge and would need reinforcing to fix the root of the problem anyway. Good catch!! Coulda gotten worse fast

 

Didn't have much time to do any real cutting today, maybe an hour tops.

As part of my test cuts, I didn't want material going to waste so I decided to draw and cut out a clamp holder for my fixture.

On the left, I kept the item strictly at book settings.

On the right, I used the recent settings I created with a small adjustment to kerf width for 0.042".



Finding the average between all the measurements tells me my kerf should be at 0.045" which I'll adjust for tomorrow.

The real reason for the test today was to figure out how consistent (or inconsistent) smart voltage is on my CNC table.

Second, to see what my cut height is using the cut chart's nominal voltage.

Book says to run 129v for nominal voltage - in doing so I found that it produced a cut height of 0.075".

I opted to make a large adjustment, and run 119v for nominal voltage - this gave me a cut height of 0.035".

I then ran smart voltage three different times on the same small piece of steel - the first reading was 130.1v, the second was 129.8v, and the third at 129.2v.

As close as the cuts were from one another and being on the same plate, I would say this is as close as possible in creating the same environment for testing each and every cut.

When I ran smart voltage, and achieved a reading of 130.1v, the cut height resulted in 0.080". From here, I can deduce that roughly 1v in adjustment will change my cut height by 0.005".

Running a test at 126v proved that theory to be correct as I achieved a cut height of 0.06".

Cutting was cut short, but here's a result of the test cut outs.

I just so happen to have some solid round stock on hand which will act as my clamp holder. Once my M14 hardware arrives tomorrow, I will weld up the tabs and mount this to the face of my fixture table.



Here's the other one bolted up; ignore the M12 hardware as it's only temporary.

 

I was afraid of that... as if the snorkel wasn't pretentious enough. Hood pins on an obese worn-out pickup truck?

I kind of clamped it in place for a 1200-mile camping trip last weekend, having discovered the damage with about 10 minutes to spare before hitting the road -- I lopped off a piece of aluminum bar and tapped a hole in it, so I could sandwich the severed end back in place somewhat with a washer. Got me through the trip, but now the whole latch hook is just jiggling around loose.



Toyota definitely underengineered the front-end bodywork and core support on these trucks in terms of fatigue life, but to their credit, the hood latch design is doubly redundant -- at least for this failure mode.

Of course there's the manual catch mechanism to prevent inadvertent disaster when you forget to slam the hood properly, or accidentally pull the hood release while driving. Don't think I've ever managed the latter, but there's a first time for everything... and I've definitely hit the road with my hood popped a few times because I forgot to do whatever caused me to pop the hood in the first place.

But even if the hook loop completely severs from the hood while you're driving, as mine has since done... so long as the primary latch remains closed around the hook, then the hood's lower metalwork still retains the hook due to the specific shape of the cutout. As far as I can tell, this has been holding my hood shut for some time, rather than the manual latch.

I guess I'll order some overpriced hood pins and NOS stickers, then.

Still going to make it worse with a welder first, though. My right as a Free American.

 

Yesterday it was determined that 126v was my target nominal voltage for achieving 0.06" cut height.

I performed a few more tests having altered my kerf width as well and well, the result of my testing -



Before getting here, I had performed a test cut at 126v, 85ipm outside, and 45ipm inside with a kerf of 0.045".

Results were better than yesterday, but there was still a bit of bevel and dimensions were still about .003" off.

I noticed that my voltage monitoring was reading anywhere from 128-130 upon pierce, dropping to 126v, and fluctuating as it made its way around the radius at each outer corner.

Firecontrol has a built-in tolerance for nominal voltage set at 1.5v by default.

Decided to lower it to 0.5v, and to help with the fluctuating voltage around the radius, also slowed the entire program speed to 80ipm.

The results were significantly better -









I say this to the CNC groups I'm in often, and I'll say it here as well - DIAL IN YOUR SHIT.

Even with a higher end plasma cutter like a Hypertherm, you still need to take the time to make those small adjustments for the best possible cut quality.

Didn't take long to get there, so I had some time to weld this thing up.



Received the wrong nuts (wrong pitch) so here's the clamp holder held in place temporarily.





I'll have to order a few more M14 bolts for the other clamp holder.

M14 seems to be the perfect size, and they're far cheaper than those ball lock pins that only work for specific sizes.

 

The Dimple Dies showed earlier this week. I was trying out the 1/2" die mainly because I did not feel like cutting a bigger hole just yet..

this is in 1/8" cold rolled mild steel. ignoring the crappy drilled hole with a cheap drill bit.. it did a pretty good. But I need to break down and pick up an air over hydraulic jack for the press

 

@Kwikvette - with all the cutting and bending you’re doing how are you finding the flat patterns out of fusion? Pretty spot on with regard to bend radii, k-factor and all that?

Will be doing some dialing in on the Titan eventually. But am waiting for parts from Langmuir. Their QC ain’t great but they make up for it with the customer support. At least I’m hoping that’s true. Have yet to turn the thing on yet.

 

Fusion 360

You want to start your design in the sheet metal portion.

From here, you want to create a flange, and you can literally pull it for any distance and angle you wish.

Ensure you edit your rules so that the end result (flat pattern) precisely takes into account a hole or slot in relation to flange length and bend radius.

Once you're done creating your design, you'll have an option up top to create a flat pattern which will export a DXF of said item.

I normally open up that DXF and save it as a separate file for cutting afterward.

 

Bending porn:

https://youtu.be/5YbGvuHNn8w?si=J-QqRfHIBaP5LV-p

Are those cool little doodads to realtime monitor and correct bend angle?

 

The cool CNC shit I can't afford

At least in your case, Bend Control has a feature to help compensate for bend back

The first time you're running things for each gauge, the system will actually underbend it for you by as little as a degree

Sometimes going back for a second hit will knock it out for ya, otherwise I believe you enter the physical result and the program adjusts for what it's supposed to do or something along those lines

I posted a video of making some Tacoma parts; you'll see me going through and bending parts one by one

How'd I know when to stop? I counted the number of "clicks" after it achieved what looked like 90 degrees

Like a mechanic that doesn't use a torque wrench, you go by feel

 

Then again I'm just a hobbyist so idk what I'm talking about most of the time

 

No, I'd call that "skill."

I hope the Titan changes things in the fab industry. Between cheap and easy CAD, cheap CNC plasma tables, and now a cheap(er) CNC bender, it's going to really open up what people can do. This used to be the provenance of bigger companies with access to big lines of credit or lots of capital. But now, For instance, you could fully outfit a bumper fab business for under $20k! Now the 'whole package' is available for a $ amount individuals can afford. Know how to weld? Know a little CAD? 20k later your home shop is a factory and you're in business for yourself! I just think that's pretty exciting.

 

Cut about $40 in steel in 3/16" just doing test cut after test cut after test cut.

Yesterday's results were great, but I wanted to ensure I can reproduce said results on other cut outs.

Long story short, I have a constant beveling issue on one edge (and slightly on another).

One edge being beveled, would normally affect the edge across from it being on the same axis however it is perfectly square.

Another edge is a tiny bit beveled with the side across from it also square.

Having redone the bearings on the torch mount and adjusting the set screws multiple times does not change the beveling at all.

I have yet to pull my consumables but at 100 pierces it should be far from "bad".

About ready to strip the table down and put it all back together because none of my experienced troubleshooting is solving the issue

I had gone as far as ensuring the large gantry was square, measuring diagonally from corner to corner, as well as measuring lead screw length on each axis ensuring both sides were parallel with one another.

 

Pull the consumables. I would not assume that the life is the same between the two machines at least yet. Especially with all the test cuts easy steps first even if it seems too simple an impossible

 

You know I'm not new to this!

Already swapped them yesterday, and that's when I walked away but the consumable set had exactly 62 pierces.

Tests don't start unless it's a brand new consumable set. Came from a brand new consumable pack.

So by having swapped them yesterday I'm hoping they were somehow a fluke hence mentioning it. I'd be stoked actually even if I had to toss an expensive consumable set so early.

 

Well, troubleshooting saga continues tomorrow or the day after