Just started a welding class...what should I make?

dgeist · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:53 am

Well, I got the bumper trimmed (enough) to see that a few small problems:

1) the receiver tube, if butted right up against the L-bracket (which is as far inboard against the radiator assembly as possible) doesn't quite line up with the knock-out in the bumper. I'm thinking of a 1/4 to 1/2 solid spacer welded in between the angle and the tube to get things lined up properly. I do want to make it look as "factory" as possible, so trimming 1/2 inch of virgin bumper cover isn't a good option

2) The hitch pin is in kind of a tricky location. If you put the lip of the tube just in front of the bumper cover (my original thought), then the pin hits the underside lip of the cover in both left and right sides in a place that can't be trimmed easily without making the whole thing a floppy mess. If you put the lip of the tube just INSIDE the cover, then the pin lines up in the back, but you have a slight recess to deal with on whatever accessories you use. I held it up there by hand with my warn receiver shackle attached and it cleared, I'm just worried about larger/wider items that might hit the bumper considering it's pretty convex towards the center.

I suppose any accessory outside of a hitch will end up being custom anyway for this beast. Nothing a little steel tube and a couple hours of fab won't solve, I suppose. That's why man invented electric metal fabrication :wink:

Other design thoughts:
- on the removable "winch frame" that will come later, I'm planning on welding a high-grade nut to the inside of the male receiver inserts so that I can use a pair of 5/8 bolts to hold it in there tight (no hitch wiggle when there's a winch on there).

Dan

dgeist · **Posted:** Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:23 pm

It's not the recovery frame, but I finished the OTHER project in class: making a little butterfly for my son to go in his little garden:

Dan

dgeist · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:11 am

A couple photo additions for my project:

- The center section of my frame all fabbed up and ready to join to frame brackets.

- Closeup of one of the corners.

I'm pretty happy with the results so far considering I had only a small (not flat) table, some clamps, an angle grinder, a hammer and a speed square, and a 140A flux-core welder. The welds are a little lumpy and I did have to run a second pass over one of them with a large gap, but the instructor assured me that anything better would be mostly cosmetic and what I have looks sufficient to exceed the strength of the steel :wink:

Dan

saltydog · **Posted:** Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:26 pm

make me a fit kit so I can use an ARB roof rack on a KJ....like the Toyota FJ's have.

Just started a welding class...what should I make?

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