Anything welding

100% the miter joint. Measure and mark nicely and it can be cut and cleanup with with a cutting wheel and flap disc pretty quick.


If you were dealing with larger cuts and mass producing them I wouldn’t use an angle grinder, but for four corners on 1x2… I’d just cut straight and clean it up a little if even needed.

 

Ah just saw this. If you want the plastic then this^ haha if not I’d keep it all closed up.

 

Fabbing up the bi fold tail gate frame for the trailer. My joints will be seen so I mitered them.

Boxed in the tail lights as well.

 

I would miter joint. If you’re hesitant about making an accurate cut, I’d recommend marking the cut lines on all 4 sides of the material and cutting each line individually rather than trying to make one 45 degree cut through the whole piece. There’s less of a chance that you’ll wander off course that way and get a better fit. I use that technique whenever I cut anything larger than 2x2 even if my saw can handle the material.

 

Now that I have a few minutes, I'd explain why I like the butt weld vs the miter joint weld.

I do agree that one should be able to weld a mitered joint, but one needs to be aware that burn thru is much more likely.

You have only 2 plains being butt joined, with nothing else to absorb the heat. Burn thru is quite probable.

With a butt joint you have 3 plains being joined. You are welding a flat piece to a right angle piece wit 2 sides. This gives you wiggle room not to burn thru. I hope I made sense.

I rarely change my settings on the welder, so any chance I can get to save time, I'm going to go that route.

As for cutting a miter joint, I use a porta band 99% of the time. I mark 3 sides and follow those 3 marks. I consider myself very proficient with a band saw and am able to make very precise cuts. With that said, I really don't get hung up on perfect cuts. After squaring the joint with jig clamp, I'll fill in any gaps in the miter joint with welding media.

 

Silly, I never thought of doing a 45 cut this way. Good info.

 

Go with the easy ! Then with the correct clams you can keep mitered 45 degree cuts true as well as your 90 degree cuts

 

With all the fabricating you do, you oughtta go ahead and invest in some good welding squares.

Just kidding. I am just drooling over all that nice steel. I started to say drooling over all that tubing, but well, didn't sound right.

My steel supplier says prices are up about 40% from August. I want to get a couple sheets of 18 gauge to start making shit with the CNC table, but damn, seems I picked the wrong time to get into that as a hobby.

 

I just go back to my poor ass days. I drive around on trash day to look for dead wash machines. There is a lot of flat sheet steel on a wash machine. The plasma cutter doesn't care if there is paint on the steel.

Since I have a water table and don't recycle the water, I don't care if there is paint on the panels. All the smoke is blown into the water. Very little burnt paint smell is present. Disclaimer: If your shop is connected to the house, this may not apply. A little burnt paint goes a long way iof you know wha I mean.

 

Yeah, I am just in a junk drought. Up until last year, I had a friend who was the owner of a local metal salvage yard. He let me scrounge and buy at scrap value. He passed away.
New owner says too much liability to let people walk around the yard.

 

Bummer. Too much of that litigeous shit going these days.

 

Axle showed up. Only a small amount af shipping damage. It's not worth compaining about. I've repaired lots of these dust covers.

 

Now I know where my swiss army knifw went to.

 

on the trailer build. I am gathering scrap metal slowly for my dump trailer build soon. It’s cheaper to buy it that way and I might just need to buy one stick new

 

fabbing up some 11 gauge sheet steel into fenders. I messed up and ordered the wrong thickness. I usually use 16 gauge. I can bend that by hand. I had to use the chain falls for assistance.






The last pick is just checking to make sure they were fairly square.

I welded up all my relife cuts. I'll knock the welds down after I get them mounted to the trailer.

Waiting on my ball coupler at the moment. stuck for now.

 

I'm planning to do something very similar with our washer/dryer. On your current dining table, how are the legs mounted to the wood tabletop? Is there a piece of flatbar that spans between the leg uprights?

 

In general, flat stock is often used.

In my opinion, angle iron would be a better choice. You can use thinner wood for the top and not have to worry about the wood warping if using angle.

I can only assume the original pic showed flat steel is for cost. It's half the cost using flat. Pennies make dollars.

 

Cool thanks! I wouldn’t have thought of angle there. But makes great sense to do so!

 

Angle is also nice because it’s easy to quickly notch and bend. Just needs a quick weld where the corners meet since it didn’t have to be cut all the way.



My mother’s birthday house refresh in progress^

 

Like @koditten said, it's flat stock under there. Angle probably would've helped with this "reclaimed barn wood" if it were long enough and secured properly. You can see how much the table top warped after a few years...