Anything welding

Yup, plus the leg kit and a few of those 20” nut crushing extension squares…

 

The stool is gonna look cleeeeean pulled up to it!!

 

Just waiting for this bad boy to get picked up!



Gotta start on a 12' shelf one of these days that my SIL asked for

 

Some of us still have to work, we all can't be retired

 

Hey now

It's way boring compared to running a full blown manufacturing setup for a world famous salsa

I just finished putting in my 1 hour for the week

 

He’s got a point though… I’m tired boss

 

yea def mig. No crater so maybe a continuous bead but i doubt that looking at it now. No good

 

Thats awesome!

 

Made some progress on the TMW table today! Fit up was pretty easy, just had to knock down the dross around the edges and rib paths.




Adjusting for flat was a little more of a PITA. To be clear it started great, less than 5 thou in the “X” and “Y” direction, but had a bit of a twist in the diagonal, maybe ~12 thou.

After a lot of hammering and some strategic pry bar I got it down to about 7 thou. Very pleased with that for a DIY deal and just hope it holds through welding! Going to go very slow and deliberate tomorrow.

 

144 “large” tacks to fix the top to the ribs aaaaannnddd I ran out of gas… Knew I was getting close but hoped I could eeek out this table before I exchanged it. Exterior plug welds and legs are going to have to wait.

 

Got set up for some thick to thin practice tonight since the legs are 16g and mounting plates are 1/4 (and I am very much a novice…)

First bead I whiffed entirely and shorted it, LOL! Next three I think ran up in to the thin pretty decent. This technique takes A LOT of patience!

Does that look solid to y'all or would you try to build it up on the thin a little more? TMW recommends only welding 2 sides each to not put too much heat in to it so I want it to be rock solid.

 

Based on either result, it'll hold

Fat caterpillar like that suggests it's cold, but you're not doing a bend test and it'll be fine

Also having the thick plate sit on there while you weld means the table is acting like a heatsink, further pulling away any heat you put into the metal

Still for just starting out it's really good

 

I was scared to turn up the wfs so it was a very slow movement to get the puddle to reach the tube, which I guess is how you end up with fat caterpillars

I’ll turn it up and try some more. I’ve got 3 more of these test sets cut and plenty more material too.

Dumb question, what should I be welding on to fight heatsink?

 

You can either lift the material up, just like that pic of mine yesterday that you quoted with tubes on my welding table

Or place it over the opening like in your above picture

 

I like your weld. You have the technique down.

We just need to dial in the heat and wire speed.

Since you already know the 1/4" is going to be able to tolerate more heat, you can put more wire and heat to that and not worry about burn thru.

From what I can tell, you need more amps to encourage better penetration and less of the build up as you show above.

Id increase the amps and slow down your travel speed or wire speed to get a bit more "flatter" weld. The "caterpillar" look is just a waste of welding wire.

Granted, your welds look very nice, and you are definitely on the right path, but to a welder, they will be skeptical.

 

Thank you both for taking a look and taking the time to reply! If this thunderstorm passes I’ll turn it up and give it another go after dinner!

 

No welding, not until Saturday but cutting in preparation of.

A rough mock-up of the project, mostly for figuring out how to collect my steel as I buy 24' sections.



Some of us welders are illiterate, so the dimensions will be 144" W x 24" D x 32" H +/- 1" (adjustable feet).

Yeah, it's a lot of square tube!



Trusty bandsaw I got free some 3-4 years ago is still put to use, quite often actually.



All parts are perfect.



Mock up jig on the table.





For securing what should be a butcher block (or two) to the top, I cut some tabs I'll be welding onto the top of the assembly.





With two holes per tab, one will be used for a plug weld to the face of the tube.



With the adjustable feet being delayed for two days, I'll have to continue forward anyway with welding nuts to some square cutouts. Followed by welding those cutouts to the leg bottoms.





Since it's supposed to be really hot this weekend (already is today), I'll skip the beveling, welding, and cleanup by simply going with a larger foot.

This way I can just run a bead all the way around without cleanup.





So at least all the parts are cut and ready.



Need to take care of all this (sans the 6' sections) and knock out a set of stiffeners to clear the table up for Sunday.

I'll have to draw, cut, and weld up a whole grill this Sunday and/or Monday.

 

Looks tits per usual!

Can’t wait to see what you’re cookin’ up for the grill!

 

Small project but cut the subframe on our firebird to make some clearance. Need to finish this piece and weld it in then cut some plate to cover the back

 

BTW I just named my fantasy football team Fat Caterpillars, thank you all for the inspiration