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
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