Shadow's Welding Projects (feel free to add your own)

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Shadowden
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Shadow's Welding Projects (feel free to add your own)

Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

I got interested in learning to weld several years ago, but never took any steps to actually do it. Earlier this year, I made an opportunity to spend time in our welding shop at work and learn from some very talented welders/fabricators. Once I felt like I knew the dangers and techniques involved, I invested in my welder. I picked the Miller Millermatic 211.

Many people make their first project their welding cart. Unfortunately, bringing the new equipment into the garage, I needed to clear up some space. Therefore, my first project was a pair of wheel storage racks modeled after the Auto Dolly version.

Set up For tack welds
[ATTACH]2765[/ATTACH]


Close up of welds. I worked around the tubing in quarters by going from tack weld to tack weld.
[ATTACH]2766[/ATTACH]

Holder before paint.
[ATTACH]2767[/ATTACH]

Painted.
[ATTACH]2768[/ATTACH]

In Use.
[ATTACH]2769[/ATTACH]
Attachments
mounted.jpg
painted.jpg
pre_paint.jpg
weld1.jpg
wheel storage set up.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Backer Board. The mounting board is two layers of hardwood ply sandwiched together. The mounting holes were recessed on the back so that the mounting plate would sit flush on the wall. It spans 4 wall studs.

front of the backer board with holes pre-drilled and prepped to anchor to the wall:
[ATTACH]2770[/ATTACH]
Attachments
Mounting Board.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

My welding cart has been an involved project. It is structured around a two drawer filing cabinet that I bought off of craigslist for 25.00.

I used 1.5" wide 1/8" steel plate and used the break at work to bend it into 90 degree channel. This was done to eliminate the excess space that webbing on traditional angle iron would have created when affixing it to the file cabinet. 14 gauge steel was used under the cabinet so that the cart would retain shape if/when I remove the cabinet for painting, or in the future if I decide to put a stick welder, tig welder, or plasma device (or something that does all 3) under there instead. The principle function of the cabinet is to hold my helmet, grind shield, gloves, specialized tools/clamps, and consumables.

Bottom view showing my stitch weld interval
[ATTACH]2771[/ATTACH]


Different angle
[ATTACH]2772[/ATTACH]


Cart with middle shelf attached and stitch welded
[ATTACH]2773[/ATTACH]

Stitch weld picture. This weld shows a lot of mounding. I am currently welding on a 110v setting. I attribute the excess weld metal to hitting it with too little "heat" and getting the weld too high on the angle iron side. It may be partially due to my slower travel speed as well. The weld is sufficient for its purpose though.
[ATTACH]2774[/ATTACH]
Attachments
furry catepillar weld.jpg
Cart top with bottle shelf.jpg
Cart bootom from side.jpg
Cart Bottom.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

One of the important aspects of a welding cart is being able to move the welder around easily, and transporting the shielding gas bottle with it safely and securely. Shielding gas is an inert gas and isn't flammable. However, if a bottle falls over and the valve breaks off the bottle will turn into a rocket destroying anything in its path.

I designed a method for securing the bottle(s) that is both rigid and capable of converting from a single bottle holder to a dual bottle holder. This is important if I ever decide to weld aluminum, stainless steel, or get a plasma cutter as those methods use different gases.

These are some sleeves welded in place for the bottle retaining brackets to slide into.
[ATTACH]2775[/ATTACH]

Extensions are used so that the bracket is adaptable for bottles of different diameter.
[ATTACH]2776[/ATTACH]

Here is a bracket in the single bottle configuration.
[ATTACH]2777[/ATTACH]

Here is the Bracket in a double bottle configuration.
[ATTACH]2778[/ATTACH]


Bottom bracket in single bottle configuration and wheels mocked up prior to welding.
[ATTACH]2779[/ATTACH]
Attachments
rear wheels pre weld.jpg
Bottle Bracket double.jpg
Bottle bracket single.jpg
Bottle Bracket Extensions.jpg
Bottle retainer sleeves.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Once the welding cart had some framework in place, it was time to get it rolling. I opted for 10" solid rubber wheels on the bottle side and 3" sealed bearing swivel casters on the welder side. I opted for these to get the easiest rolling cart I felt I needed. Smaller wheels would hang up on more than the bigger wheels. Solid rubber can't be punctured or otherwise go flat. Sealed bearings aren't as likely to get contaminated with grinder dust or slag.

The stainless steel wheel axles welded in place. I cut the axle from stainless all thread. The all thread poked through the hole about 1/4" and I welded it in place on the one side.
[ATTACH]2780[/ATTACH]

Once that was finsished, I capped off the vertical wheel mounts with some thin sheet steel. I used an autobody technique of alernating tack/spot wlds to keep weld heat under control.
[ATTACH]2781[/ATTACH]

I then added 1/8' gussets to keep the vertical posts from flexing inward under load. you can also see some gussets I used to help the bottom angle from deflecting where the cabinet ends and the bottle tray begins.
[ATTACH]2782[/ATTACH]

Building the caster mounts was the first I used my abrasive cut off/chop saw on an angle. Worked well.
[ATTACH]2783[/ATTACH]
Attachments
Wheel Casters.jpg
Wheel gussets.jpg
Wheel post cover.jpg
axle stud welded.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

A couple views of the welding court in its rolling state. At this point, I still need to add the actual shelf the welder will rest on, some plate steel to hang angle grinders from, some tabs to wrap cords, and finally the push handle. I also plan to add a 110v outlet strip to power hand tools and a 220V outloet with a long extension chord so that the welder cord is never stretched. The 220 extension chord will likely be 50 ft. I'll make it out of 4 strand 2/0 wire or thereabouts. I plan to use 4 strand in case I can figure out away to tie it to a 110 v outlet when 220 isn't available (like now).

Rolling cart quartering view (no top shelf)
[ATTACH]2784[/ATTACH]

Rolling cart rear view showing a secondary advantage of bottle rack as cable wrap.
[ATTACH]2785[/ATTACH]

The push handle not yet in place. Thanks to DWDUC's suggestion, I'm going to use a set of mountain bike handlebars as my push handle. They happen to be out of service carbon fiber bars. Will tie in my love for mountain bikes nicely. You can also see I have the top shelf installed. The middle shelf is for storing the welding torch cleanly tucked away. The top shelf is removable facilitating cleaning of the torch storage area. The power strips will be housed on the sides between the upper shelf and top of filing cabinet. In the future, I may add the ability to have the top shelf tilt slightly skyward, but for now, the height of the welder makes adjusting the settings easy while working.
[ATTACH]2786[/ATTACH]

I mounted the push handle roughly last night. There are still some tweaks to be done. I decided to make the handle removable. Therefore, I welded some 1" square tubing to some 1/8" sheet. The sheet is fastened to the cart using 1/4" bolts (nuts tack welded to the cart frame). Tweaks to finish are: weld second nut to back of cart for mounting, close up front of 1" tubing with plate, tap second hole in bottom of Handlebar riser to eliminate spinning (it doesn't spin now, but I haven't tried real hard either).
[ATTACH]2788[/ATTACH]
Attachments
push handle mount.jpg
push handle.jpg
Rolling Cart rear.jpg
Rolling Cart quartering view.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Shadowden wrote:More pictures/info on welding cart.


I disassembled the various pars of the cart that I could. Originally, the file cabinet was to be removable, but apparently I got some of the welds hot enough to get the cabinet stuck in there. I didn't really want to destroy it trying to get it out since there would rarely be a need to do so. Because of that, It simplified the paint scheme. Originally, it was going to be a black frame with silver file cabinet, then Sharpie marker some murals on the silver in black. Now the whole thing is going to be black and I'm going to hand draw some murals in white, silver, and gold sharpie marker. I've got an artistic mind, but lack the skill to transfer it generally. I'm hoping the final product comes out nicely though. At a minimum, I think it will be unique. I think I might reserve some space on the cabinet to have visitors to the garage sign it and sketch on it in the hopes that over time it becomes a journal of time spent with friends. We'll see how that goes as I don't want people to feel obligated to do so.

Disassembled and 3/4 painted in its base color. The top will be getting a coat or three of black plastidip.
[ATTACH]2823[/ATTACH]
Attachments
First coat of paint.jpg

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

I think 6 posts should cover the welding cart.

Learjet45
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Postby Learjet45 » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Any particular reason for going mig vs tig? Here at school, all our welding (including the entire car's steel tube frame) is tig welded. I don't really know why (I've asked but forgotten). I haven't ever done much welding, but I can at least weld two pieces of 4130 tubing together, lol.
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[color="Blue"]2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i PZEV - Current Ride, 100% stock[/color]
[color="Gray"]2005 Mazda 6i Pebble Ash Metallic - Dead[/color]

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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Simplest reason is that mig welding is easier to learn and cheaper to get into. TIG is more universal, but is expensive and tougher to learn. TIG however is more finicky and requires a much more thorough prep procedure and requires a little more heat and puddle control.

Having said that, for most hobbiest, MIG covers the range of what they want or need to do.

The actual difference between MIG and TIG is the rod/wire used. MIG is an acronym for metal inert gas. The procedure can be done using aluminum, stainless or mild steel rod/wire. TIG is an acronym for Tungsten Inert Gas. The rod used in the TIG process is tungsten based or pure tungsten. At least that is my understanding. They both use an inert gas for shielding. Alternately, Stick welding, formerly known as arc welding, uses flux shielded rod. It is used pretty often in structural welds and pipeline welding (I consider it structural). It is capable of great penetration, but is subject to contamination by its flux if the welder (person) doesn't have good rod/puddle technique. Those contaminants create weak points. That is the case in all methods, but using gas for shielding eliminates one potential source of contaminants. That is why the certified welders have their test welds x rayed. They show contaminants and pockets. Pretty cool stuff to me.

I wanted to add that I have found the various aspects leading up to the welding to be equally interesting, difficult, and fun. Like most things, good prep and good design lead to a better finished product. So getting good with grinders, wire wheels, breaks, shears, benders, drill presses etc. is all part of the skill set I am working to develop.

Also, being able to weld tubing together is a pretty big deal. Especially since you are working with round tubing most likely and in a structural sense since I assume it is part of the cars frame work. I'd be curious about how the pieces were joined generally. A lot of butt welding or was there a lot of piercing and notching?

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GR-8
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Postby GR-8 » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:14

Nice! I have too many projects on my hand at the moment but welding is something I definitely want to learn. It'll help when putting together that Custom TK, that I still have to find time to build.
Image

ImageImage

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speedjunkie
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Postby speedjunkie » Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:14

That's a cool cart! Wanna do one for mine? LOL I picked up the Millermatic 140 Autoset over a year. I have yet to use it lol, but Zico used it on my car a few months ago lol.
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Shadowden
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Postby Shadowden » Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:14

speedjunkie wrote:That's a cool cart! Wanna do one for mine? LOL I picked up the Millermatic 140 Autoset over a year. I have yet to use it lol, but Zico used it on my car a few months ago lol.


Once I get mine finished we can figure something out. By that time, I'm sure I'll have figured out better ways to do it since this is version 1.0.

Learjet45
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Postby Learjet45 » Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:14

We work almost exclusively with round tubing. We do use a square tube for upper front suspension mounting. The front bulkhead is also made from square tubing. But the vast majority of the tubing is round. And it is in fact entirely structural making up the entirety of the cars frame. In the past we've actually used a hybrid frame design with carbon fiber sandwich panels but we transitioned to the fully steel frame this year to save money (and time, it'll be much faster to manufacture the frame now).
As for joining the tubes, well you lost me when you mentioned butt welding and piercing and notching. What I can say is that we actually have the tubes sent out to be profiled by machine. We get the front and rear roll hoop bars bent by a separate compan . The roll hoops, front bulkhead, and jig engine (just an old, bare, trashed F4i block) get jigged in place on our chassis table. Then all the profiled tubes get fit together as a giant jigsaw puzzle essentially (but thankfully each tube is labeled and we have a diagram to match everything up to). From there, all the joints get tacked to start (once jigging and tacking starts, the entire chassis has to be tacked before we can remove the frame from the table) and then we fully weld all the joints.

Edit: here's our new chassis design for this year.
Image
Additionally here's last year's entire car
Image
It's really noticeable how much steel in the old car was replaced with the carbon fiber panels compared to the new car (while there are some minor changes, the new chassis design is largely based off the old design, but adapted to be a fully steel frame and comply with any rule changes)
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[color="Blue"]2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i PZEV - Current Ride, 100% stock[/color]
[color="Gray"]2005 Mazda 6i Pebble Ash Metallic - Dead[/color]

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Postby SecondGenPAt » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:14

Nice work Shadow!
Welding is so much fun when you really get into it and is an invaluable skill once a decent amount of compentency is developed.
I absolutely love tig welding steel, it's almost silent and for me, it's stangely calming and tranquil.
Do you have any plans to add a spool gun for aluminum work in the future?
Hakuna Matata


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