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Just started a welding class...what should I make?
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Author:  dgeist [ Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Just started a welding class...what should I make?
So, the local community arts center offers a sculpture class that teaches welding and basic metal fab techniques, so I signed up for an 8 week session. The first class was basic safety and learning about how to test, assemble, and use an oxy-acetylene rig for cutting and welding. THAT weld took a long time. This week's class starts electric arc techniques.

We're supposed to make a "self-portrait" for a class project, so I think mine will look a lot like a front hitch assembly with 2 receiver tubes that sit right where the stock tow hooks go and which can be used with normal 2" accessories or attach a front skid/winch assembly (with a plate that extends beneath the radiator area).

It may be a little ambitious as I've never welded before, but I figure if I can get the basic techniques down, finishing the "behind the bumper" parts based on a front hitch receiver design shouldn't be too hard to do before ECS this fall.

Wish me luck and let me know if y'all have any pointers for folks new to fabrication. I've already discovered the wonders of soapstone :)

Dan
Author:  KJWildman [ Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Go for it Dan!!! Let your imagination run "wild" . I did!!! :ROTFL:
Author:  steve03sport [ Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
i wish there was a welding class around here
Author:  STINGN [ Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
i am taking a welding class in the fall at my school...unlimited metal for tig, mig and arc...its a whole semester 2 times a week for 2 hours a day...thats about 30 classes total :D
Author:  DirtyKK [ Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
I wish I could weld :(
Author:  ATXKJ [ Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
My brother took a Community College welding course - really good
it included Instron pulls of the welds so that you could measure how strong they were
(and that a good weld never fails at the weld)

Personally I'd practice on non-critical stuff first - if you actually have to use a tow point - you're looking at a lot of force - I'd try that at the end of the course - not the beginning.
Author:  Coliniksi [ Wed Jun 23, 2010 11:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
make some KK parts :mrgreen:
Author:  riptricket [ Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
front bumper, rear bumper, roof rack
one offs...
Author:  dgeist [ Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
ATXKJ wrote:
My brother took a Community College welding course - really good
it included Instron pulls of the welds so that you could measure how strong they were
(and that a good weld never fails at the weld)

Personally I'd practice on non-critical stuff first - if you actually have to use a tow point - you're looking at a lot of force - I'd try that at the end of the course - not the beginning.


Agreed on all points. The course is actually for sculptors and taught by a professional artist in the area, but he's made 20-foot tall bronze hands, operates a forge in the back of a local bar, has been the lead welder for an iron foundry, etc, so I think he'll be able to show me the techniques that I'll need and tell me if the design/build is sound. We've now covered oxy torch brazing, cutting, and welding as well as basic stick arc welding. We learn GMAW (and the arc center has no TIG or Plasma, so that's as far as it'll go.). GMAW is saved for last so that students will actually learn the harder and slower techniques before getting to the easy, fast one.

The instructor said that if I'm using 1/4" square tube and angle (as has been considered for a recovery point frame) that I'm better off practicing good stick welding joints on other 1/4" scraps and that apparently the upper max of the MIG systems we have is 1/4", so it would be a slow, frustrating process to weld a bunch of thick stuff with it.

The plan is to spend about 6 weeks of the 8 week course practicing the techniques and doing test builds and measurements with scrap material then about 2 weeks for the finished product.

I'm no mechanical engineer and don't really know any CAD, but I want to draw out what I'm looking at so I can email it around and get comments. Does anyone know of a good drafting app that'll allow me to do simple shaded polygons and other shapes? I tried visio, but the stencils just aren't there (at least mine aren't).

Dan
Author:  ATXKJ [ Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
I've heard good things about Google sketchup - but I haven't used it
http://sketchup.google.com/
Author:  barley00 [ Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Would love to know how to weld. There's only so much one can do with wood and/or PVC...

How about a nice rooftop basket...?
Author:  dgeist [ Wed Jun 30, 2010 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Some initial drawings. The square sections are made of purchased hitch receiver tubes and the rest would be either 3/16 or 1/4 angle/plate sections. Attachment points are all factory holes with the exception of a third hole (similar to how most hitch receivers and the backbone are mounted).

Here's option one:
Image

And with some additional contact points on the front side of the crossmember:
Image

The exit for the square tubes will be the factory notches where the mopar tow-hooks normally peek out, thus no major alterations to the "factory" look.

I'll probably put a couple warn clevis hangars in there but the idea is eventually have a semi-removable assembly that mounts to the 2 receiver tubes (and possibly bolts to the frame elsewhere as well).

Thoughts?
Dan
Author:  RED_KJ_666 [ Fri Jul 02, 2010 10:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
I'm really surprised no one has pop in the link to the thread with the Front hitch Blue Prints for a single or Double Receiver set-up. I can't remember if its on here or KJ Country.
Author:  dgeist [ Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
RED_KJ_666 wrote:
I'm really surprised no one has pop in the link to the thread with the Front hitch Blue Prints for a single or Double Receiver set-up. I can't remember if its on here or KJ Country.


I have a bunch of photos from the folks that made the batch of front receivers a couple years back, but no real "blueprints" per-se. If someone does have something like that, it would make my fab MUCH easier :)

Dan
Author:  Weldnfab [ Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
http://i38.tinypic.com/ngukwj.jpg
found this....
Author:  dgeist [ Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Yep, I found that one for a starting point for length and so forth. My tubes will be at or nearly at the angle brackets since that lines up nearly perfectly with the stock knock-outs. I just have to trim them, fab it all up with wood or foam to make sure I like it that way, and practice a little with the 1400A MIG unit at the place I'm taking the class.

I might just end up tacking it all together and driving up to a buddy's (Mechanical Engineer with that builds and races autocross) to check them and fill in the beads... Experience builds confidence and right now, I'm a little low on either when it comes to something you can't test without breaking :)
Author:  Weldnfab [ Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
You are on the right path... pay attention and ask questions... Honestly, welding is not hard.... designing and fabrication is just a huge puzzle of shapes fit together properly... start small, get a good picture in your head of what the finnished part will look like, maybe a few scibbles to record your thoughts or work out angles... and make it happen...

oh yea..... GOOD LUCK!
Author:  jinstall [ Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Watching and waiting, need a front hitch bad for surf gear.
Author:  dgeist [ Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Fabbed up a quick and dirty half-scale mock-up in class the other day:
Image
Not too bad for having only scrap porch-awning parts to use. I mostly wanted to get the parts laid out and see if I liked the way it looks in 3D and also to figure out where and how the sequence of welds would go.

Here's one of the tubes I picked up at Northern Tool this morning:
Image
The dimensions and wall thickness are the same as 2x2 IDx1/4 HSS sections at the local metal supermarket (which runs about a buck-ten a pound in their drop room).

Off to trim the bumper so I can get good measurements for the angle between the angle section and the receiver tubes.

Dan
Author:  Cobalt-60 [ Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Just started a welding class...what should I make?
Looking good. Can't wait to see the final product! :)
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