Anything welding

Sounds about right. Any thoughts on how to go about getting nice square bends? Previous experiments involving vise grips and cussing were not successful

thank you!

 

Do you have a 20T press? Could easily do it with the SWAG OR kit...

https://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-20-TON-Finger-Brake-Heavy-Duty-DIY-Builder-Kit_p_86.html

 

I do have a 20t press indeed! I’ll give this a look. Thanks!

 

I have one of these as well as the 20ton press brake from swag off road: They each have their uses for thin/thick steel. Another option would be to score the sheet at your bend line with a cut off wheel (basically cutting about half way through). That way the thinner material will naturally bend easier. You’d pretty much be left with an open corner joint. Then you can weld the edge after bending and blend with a flap wheel. I use this technique all the time for 1/8 up to 1/4”. Anything thinner and it gets to be delicate work but I can bend it in the brake easy enough.

 

For reference I made these bends with the swag press kit:





The HF brake would give sharper bends but would not be able to handle material as thick as those two (3/16 aluminum and 1/8 steel).

 

Oh nice, hadn’t heard of that one.

I did the score and bend dance for the taillight panel on the flat bed, it was ok but really got tedious on long bends and would be pretty iffy on thinner material like you said.

I’ll have to go sneak around the farm store and measure their truck toolboxes, not sure what thickness they use. Heavier than a garage toolbox probably.

 

Very nice. Thanks for all the advice!

 

Read nothing I ever looked for all my experience was on the job Like " Here build this"

It all comes down to how far into sheet metal work you want to get into.

Having a shear and a break make things much easier if you want to be real fancy a spot welder

I get a friend that owns a sheet metal shop to shear and bend the pieces I weld them together.

Years ago i built a frame out of 3/4" square tube and built the box around the frame. . It seems if i have boxes they tend to get loaded heavy

Sometimes it is much easier and cheaper to just find used boxes even if they need to be modified to fit your application .

I bought two 8 foot side boxes that I put on my welding table for $ 50.00 an Aluminum Truck Box for helping a friend out.

Beat of Luck!!

 

Yeah I've looked and most toolboxes are too big for what I need.

And i'd like to learn about this stuff anyway, another tool for the toolbox and all that.

 

About ready to cut and burn.

 

Barber chair repair in progress. Some stops for the foot rest were broken off. I filled the holes and I'm going to drill and tap and use cap head bolts as the stops.

 

Got some brackets tacked up. Now for some gussets then on to building the actual bumper.

 

So I passed my stick welding practical application test







Bare with me as I'm not a stick welder and only do MIG at work.

 

Pretty !!

I am waiting for the vertical up SMAW final!

It seems you have good hand eye Coordination which also helps in other activities which you may have or still do

 

Thank you, for the on-going support!

Meanwhile at my real job

 

Made a bumper for a buddy of mine. I’m a better thinker than welder than fabricator. I can sure fill gaps.

 

Stick welding on stainless steel



Once the remaining slag is brushed off

 

Pretty!!
After all they are all pretty much the same once you understand sure different amperage different filler

Awaiting the Vertical Up eagerly!!

 

My boss bought a bunch of new chain motors that we use to hoist truss and lighting rigs on movies and TV shows and what not. There’s a company that rents out these chain motors and sends them in a particular bin that is nice and compact and stackable. My boss said he wanted to me to make him 4. They’re kind of a pain in the ass. Lots of cuts and measuring to make sure it’s right and the motors will fit properly into their slots.

This is a “Showrig” motor bin (company that rents out motors)




And this is how far I am in about 8 hours. Hoping to get faster with the other 3 I have to build lol

 

I meant to take a pic after my slag peeled off!

But I wasn't happy with it and decided to run some beads on it while flat.



So the trick to doing stick, vertical uphill on stainless, is to weave left to right, pausing 2 quick seconds on each side.

My issue was, my side to side movement was a bit narrow.

Was told to ignore the slag puddle, which is absolutely 1000% true. The bead lays way different than the slag would imply. But still, I had a narrow bead that didn't quite connect both sides as much as one would like. The very top is indicator of that as you can see how the bead laid.