Anything welding

Also, question for everyone. What are peoples thoughts about welding near the gas tank, gas lines, and brake lines? What precautions do you all take when around those areas?

In my preparation to apply Raptor Liner this weekend I found a smaller sized rusted through hole (see below). It is on the driver side, up near the cab (dbl cab). I will be cutting it out and have thoughts to weld in a 16ga steel patch. However, as you can see in the pics it is above the tank and close to what I believe are the brake lines to my rear wheels.





Rather than weld/tac in the patch, I have also had thoughts to rivet it in or some epoxy as the Raptor liner should fill in any gaps and once cured should be pretty solid.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

doing tacs should be fine you dont want to burn through the thin metal anyways. you could put a wet towel under there to cover the lines

 

And a second person for fire watch.

 

And fill the tank up. Remember, liquid gas isn't that flammable but the vapors are. I'd probably just hose the area off before I welded. You shouldn't be getting that much radiant heat from welding that thin of steel.

 

Speaking of flammables, when welding on a differential, like to install a diff cover , do you guys drain them?

 

Thanks. Those are all the thoughts I had as well, just being over paranoid I suppose.

I do have some spare plate laying around that I could also put in there as a barrier, and also saw another good suggestion of putting a fan under there blowing away from the weld area to disperse any vapors that may be leaking in the area. But realistically, if you ain't smelling it then there isn't enough vapor potential to catch firethere that would catch fire.


I think my plan of action will be:

1-fill tank up before I go home to complete the task
2-stuff a wet towel up in there, and potentially a piece of plate for extra insurance.
3-person on fire watch and extinguisher duty
4-tac up the patch in enough places to structurally hold
5-raptor line it and call it good

 

Like.. a weld-on replacement cover or a weld-on aesthetic cover? For a replacement you'd have to drain them anyway.

Although at work we don't even bother draining hydraulic lines before welding them. The fire goes out when the oxygen does.

 

From what I have read, gear oil has a higher flashpoint (somewhere above 400/500 degrees) and to technically be considered flammable the flashpoint is 100 degrees or lower...? That doesn't mean that the oil wouldn't burn, but it would take a lot more heat to get it to burn (not blowup).

Also, I would think that having a full diff of oil would disperse the heat better than if you were to drain it and welding with the residue oil left inside the diff and potentially outside on the diff when it was drained....

 

Sorry, not a diff cover but diff armor that will protect the diff cover.

 

I'd weld it full when it was near time to replace anyway and put amsoil severe gear in it, personally.

 

Copy that. Amsoil oil out of preference or does it have something to do with the outcome of the welding process?

 

Just preference.

 

I have, but looking to get the liner in the bed Saturday morning.

I looked over the rest of the bed and it's good to go. The truck has had a Shell and bed rug in it for it's whole life other than one time I took them off/out. I faintly recall the shovel ding that went up under that seam where the rust spot is.

So to answer your question, I thought about it but for just that one little spot I don't feel it's worth it.

Throughout the day I have thought of some other options that dont involve welding. I might be going that route seeing that I'm just going to bed line over it anyway.

I'll post what I end up doing when I figure it out haha

 

First aluminum weld ever! Super stoked to have the spool gun!

 

@velillen if you’re thinking about getting the spool gun, I think it’s definitely worth it. Aluminum definitely feels a bit different to weld and the settings are completely different from steel but it wasn’t hard. My first weld came out pretty darn decent in the picture above!

I say go for it!! Pretty inexpensive to be able to weld aluminum together!

 

Good to hear its working out well! I might add it down the road but so far I havent had a need to weld aluminum.

 

For sure! I bought it for 1 project but hopefully I’ll use it more in the future. Might start making bedracks out of aluminum

 

Your running it on the Hobart MVP 210 right? That does look like a he'll of a weld for the first. If you don't mind me asking what did that run you I see them at like tractor supply for roughly 500 but that seems steep for a spool gun to me.

 

Yessir! Thanks man. It was $200 for the spool gun. It’s the Hobart Spoolrunner 100. The Hobart Ironman 230 I think is the one that uses the $500 Hobart spool gun.

$200 spool gun
$40 for 3 1lbs spools of wire
$260 for a brand new filled tank of pure Argon

Here is the link for it

$279 Spool Gun, 100 A, 10 ft., 60 percent

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004...=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=spoolrunner+100

 

Awesome thanks Ya 200 is definitely worth it especially because thee amount of scrap aluminum I have access to is emence