Anything welding

Yeah, the slag has to go.

 

I was afraid of that. That’s gonna be a pita

 

Bumper is coming along though, just got started today. I miscalculated my cut on the bed and cut out about 2” too much so now I have this slight bumper gap. I’ll fill that in with some sheet metal and blend it best I can so it isn’t noticeable.

 

It doesn't have to be perfect. As long as you can get some of the grinding wheel in the cutout, you can span the rest with the weld. Corner welds are the easiest, as you already know.

 

So are you saying it’s more fitment issue rather than the slag contaminating the weld? Or both.

 

You should be able to bridge the areas where the slag is the worst. Don't weld to the slag at all.

You are using 60s or 70s wire. 60,000 lbs of shear strength/inch of weld. Do you think you can exceed that with the power available in a Toyota...web strap snatches included?

You are welding 4 sides. You have wiggle room.

 

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense

 

Too late per usual, but here are my thoughts on gas bottles:

If you are a newcomer to welding like me, but you are serous about learning how to weld... (And especially, if you aren't a craigslist ninja, or if you don't have a network of welder friends that can hook you up with cheap bottles...)

The 125 cylinder is a great size to buy. It's the biggest cylinder I can deadlift without risking serious injury, and the largest one I can fit into the trunk of my economy car. As a novice welder, running out of gas is the last thing I need on my mind. And the extra cost of the larger cylinder will repay itself within one or two refills.

I work at a place where we use lots of specialty gasses, and we pay out the nose for cylinder rental. Yet one of our biggest sources of downtime is because some idiot forgot to reorder a cylinder when it ran low.

For hobbyist welding, what you want is to own as large a cylinder as you can manage... and to use it without fear of running out of consumables. Just remember to shut the valve on your bottle between uses, or else it will all leak out through your shitty harbor freight welder!!!

If you are in SoCal, I can recommend Industrial Welding Supply in Ontario. No paperwork, just roll in, tell them what you want, pay them a fair price, and roll out with your own cylinder in your trunk.

 

Most times you can knock the slag off with your chipping hammer .

If you don`t have one a chisel will work .

Unless your needing to grind the area around the cut anyhow .

 

This is my first time using CAD. It’s pretty effective!

 

Leave a good gap under your taillight if you plan on using the bumper (impact). 1/2" minimum. 3/4" probably better.

 

There’s a little gap there as is, maybe 3/8”. Remember I’m bobbed so the chance of me coming down on that hard are slim to none. I do appreciate the tip though.

 

Oooookkk no one told me building a bumper is so much fun.

 

Obviously you did not view my bumper build thread

 

Thanks to everyone that recommended switching from 0.030” to 0.023” wire for 16ga tubing.

I can’t believe how changing the wire size totally changed the character of the welder. 16ga was fun and easy to get consistent welds on. It made 16ga feel like 1/8” with 0.030” wire. I went from burning though on every single weld with 0.030” to not burning through a single time tonite.

An bonus result was a lot less smoke and sparks which makes thing feel much more reasonable to use in my small 1 car garage.

I’ll defiantly pick up a 10 lb spool when I burn though these 2lbs.

Welded up the bottom shelf for my welding cart and was starting to get a feel for the gun by the end. Was a lot of fun to have the machine dialed in and focus on technique instead of fiddling with settings.





Has some welds by the end I was pretty happy with. Gonna turn the wire speed down a smidge next time.

 

that looks great man!!!

 

I dig it.

 

Thanks, going to get started on the other wing today.

 

Any thoughts on having a power table on a drill press? I think it would be nice to have a table that had power up/down.

 

I did some sweet cardboard design on some new overbuilt shock tabs. Should've just bought some, cutting these out of 1/4" with an angle grinder and getting them to match pretty well sucked.