Anything welding

Got some more practice in today. Working on form, consistency and dialing my machine in. Started with some t-joints on 1/8"...



Been dealing with 1/8" quite a bit lately and felt pretty good about it. Moved on to practicing some verticals and some tube joints. Still have a lot of work to do on the tubing...




After the 1/8", I moved to 1/4" verticals (top, down) and felt pretty good. Slowly getting more comfortable, just need to put in some more time behind the mask before I feel like I can get it all dialed in...

 

Tremendous

 

Got working on some gussets:

 

Tremendous

 

That was me, based on advice from @Squeaky Penguin

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I did all the fitting with the UCA and tacked it with the bushings still in, then pulled the bushings off and kept the sleeves and the tiny fender washer on the outsides, ran my first couple of beads, alternating locations to keep the heat down, and then eventually pulled the bolt/sleeve/spacers out for finish welding.

 

I recently found out the Dirt King tower gussets actually come with fender washers for that reason and state exactly that in their instructions.

 

N00B question time.
did you weld your gueests on the "outer edge" of the tube because that's the strongest for tube, or just because it was easier? ( as opposed to the middle of the tube )
I know you weld gussets on square tube on the edge to make them stronger, so that applies to round tube as well?

 

I did that so the gussets would be a little farther from the body so I could wrap around and weld the corners and a little on the backside. I also didn't want water pooling in some of the gussets (depending on their position) and wanted all of them matching. I don't think this way is easier, it's just what I thought worked and looked the best, the way the cage is positioned on the cab.

 

More gussets.....

 

That’s how I do them. I use the sleeves with bushing uppers and the misalignments with heims. Since I’ve been doing installs I’ve seen a handful of guys go from heims to bushings or the other way. So ideally I’d like the gussets to be close to fitting both.

 

How you guys can get such nice welds in such a tight space blows my mind.I felt like I had barely any room to work in there at all.

 

Nothing but pros there.
POS DIY amateur here. Nothing but saving $Ks though.

 

I like the term "skilled amatures".

 

Its not the first set I’ve done. Each set gets better. Just be glad you only have to do it once.

 

I agree with the glad i only have to do this once. The Marlin HDLCA gussets sucked ass on jack stands. Not doing that on anyone's truck.
I don't recommend them over TC cam gussets unless your a good welder. I struggled as an rookie.

 

Got the main structure of the bed done and tacked together, ran out of gas as soon as I started fully welding it. Just need to make a compartment between the tires for storage and figure out fuel cell mounts and gussets. Overall really happy with how it turned out considering this was my first time ever bending Tube or really any tube work for that matter. No guidance or help just taught myself through YouTube really. Next up is the rest of the exocage into the front shock mounts.

 

That kit requires a bunch of welding at different positions, overhead, etc....

I installed one set and it took me the whole damn day.

 

Being in the right position being comfortable and being able to see .

Then maybe being real lucky.

 

I'm progressing on the slowest slider build in history....


now just need a buddy to help me out holding everything else in position and toss a few more tack's on the actual slider.