MK's Roof Rack o' Doom BUILD THREAD

At The Helm · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2014 12:41 pm

As far as 0.023" wire, I was talking about the filler wire on the welding machine ussuming you're using a mig or flux core process. Smaller wire is better suited for thin gauge material.
Check this video and others from weldingtipsandtricks it explains a lot. http://youtu.be/w4RrDeUKcH4

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:02 pm

Oh!! I gotchya. My buddy's got a stick welder (he likes it cause its simple and theres less to break than on a MIG Welder). I figured I'd practice Stick first and see how my welds came out. If my welds suck with Stick I'll grab a MIG Welder and give Flux Core a shot cause I hear its easier to pick up for beginners.

Sent from my iPhone 5

Scar0 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:36 am

I learned on a stick welder, way back when... It is easier to learn IMO. The problem with flux core wire feed is you get a lot of splatter and smoke. Still haven't mastered the Mig welding yet. Only had the Mig setup for a little while and of course there seems to be no time to practice.
Your design looks real cool. Those angles may be more difficult then you think. LOL
Looking forward to seeing the outcome of your venture.

One word of caution. Watch for heat warp. When I was welding the small vertical bars to the horizontal bars, the horizontal bars warped/drooped. If this happens you can use a trick I learned from a very experienced welder. Use an oxy acetylene torch and put some heat on the top of the horizontal bar (opposite side) of the vertical piece welds. What this does is it heats up the metal (softens it), and as it cools, the metal contracts. This contraction will pull the droop/ warp back out.

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:18 am

Scar0 wrote:

One word of caution. Watch for heat warp. When I was welding the small vertical bars to the horizontal bars, the horizontal bars warped/drooped. If this happens you can use a trick I learned from a very experienced welder. Use an oxy acetylene torch and put some heat on the top of the horizontal bar (opposite side) of the vertical piece welds. What this does is it heats up the metal (softens it), and as it cools, the metal contracts. This contraction will pull the droop/ warp back out.

Thanks for the advice Scar. I was a bit worried about warping the steel since its only 1/16" thick. I'll definitely give that a shot if I run into any warping problems.

Also realized something in my recent Welding research.
As far as Stick vs. MIG goes, I used Miller's Weld Setting Calculator to figure out what gauge wire to use for steel that is 1/16". ATH recommended 0.023". The thing is, according to Miller's Calculator Flux Core doesn't go that low (thinnest steel for Flux Core is 3/36" according to Miller :dizzy:

) so according to Miller, I have to use either .030" MIG Solid Core with a shielding gas or Stick at 20-40 amps.

Probably gonna give Stick a shot first since I can borrow my buddy's machine. Scar, I'll definitely keep that warp trick in mind and see how the steel reacts on a few practice pieces.

Also, anyone can feel free to correct me or call me an idiot lol. I have no idea what I'm talking about half the time. :ROTFL:

I'll keep this thread updated with my progress. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, design ideas, recommendations, feedback, etc. please feel free to post it or PM me.

Scar0 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:38 am

Flux core wire is thicker because of the core. My Lincoln recommends .035 flux core, heat set to "B", feed rate 1.5. This is for 16 gauge steel (1/16").

JeepMonkey190 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 1:28 pm

Scar0 wrote:

Flux core wire is thicker because of the core. My Lincoln recommends .035 flux core, heat set to "B", feed rate 1.5. This is for 16 gauge steel (1/16").

Don't know if this helps but my Hobart recommends when using .035" with 16 gauge is 1 out of 4 for voltage and 10 out of 80 for speed

At The Helm · **Posted:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:00 pm

MK I have a small roll of 0.30" flux core that I'll never use. If you need it it hit me up I'll mail it to you.

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:17 pm

***UPDATE 1: 07/28/204****

So after scrapping my idea to make a movable sky-slider compliant roof basket, I decided to go with a "modular" style roof rack that has a removable basket floor to accommodate the sky slider. The new rack will look like this, the only difference is the mounts will not be connected as I had previously planned.

Roof-Rack-Design by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

Sold my old Yakima roof basket and bought the steel for my new build.

IMG_3123 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

I've got about 3/4 of the bottom portion cut and I'm about 3/4 of the way done on the mounts. I just need to finish grinding the rear set and drill the holes. Once that's done I'm gonna tack the bottom rails to the mounts so I can finish cutting the horizontal bars that cross in the front and rear of the rack. Pictures of the mounts are below:

The mounts are cut from 1/4" x 1.5" x 1.5" square tube steel into (2) 8" front mounts and (2) 10" rear mounts, since the KK's factory bolt placement is different in the front and the back. The mounts are cut at horizontal 45 degree angles to allow sufficient room for a ratchet to access to the 10mm factory bolts while still protecting them from things like rocks, tree branches, and general abuse. (Plus they look just plain cool

)

1st cut

IMG_3138 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

Top view of 1st cut

IMG_3131 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

Front Mounts (before grinding) *note: I made 4 of these in case I messed up*

IMG_3133 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

Mounts after grinding the 45 degree cut

IMG_3140 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

Front mounts after a few passes with a 220 grit disc

IMG_3141 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

To provide further protection, the mount's angled openings will be covered by a a rectangular rubber plug on both sides. Not only will it provide protection from the elements, it should hopefully take care of any annoying wind noise caused by preventing wind from traveling through the mounts on the highway.

Here are just some of the pieces that will be tacked together soon

IMG_3145 by MawlKrawler, on Flickr

:BANANA:

Stay tuned for another update soon :BANANA:

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:50 pm

***NEW UPDATE 9/2/2014***

Made some serious progress over the past weekend. I've got the lower frame all set, as well as the rear upper and vertical bars. I just have to finish cutting the front so I should have the frame all set to be welded to the mounts by next week. If you can see in the pix, I cut the rear so its at a 90 degree angle opposed to the front which has 2 45 degree angles cut. I plan on mounting a 32" LED bar in the center and 2 12" LED bars on the side.

Let me know what you guys think so far!

At The Helm · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:14 pm

Looks good so far! Gotta love the stick welder!

Scar0 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 03, 2014 4:53 am

Well done. What do you figure the total weight of it will be?

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:00 pm

so far its pretty light, weighs probably about 20 lbs. with the upper portion and the mounts, it will probably be closer to about 40 lbs if I had to guess. I'm trying to figure a way to work in a removable basket type bottom so I could use it as an actual basket in the fall/winter when I'm not using the sky slider. I'm tryin to keep the weight below 60 lbs, including the removable piece. I'm going to get the upper portion done tomorrow and hopefully tack the mounts on so maybe I can get some pix of her mounted if all goes well

Sent from my iPhone 5

nFodzy · **Joined:** Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:30 pm **Posts:** 389

Hey MK!

Just wondering if you've made any progress in the rack lately!? Dying to see it...

silverkk · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:27 pm **Posts:** 637

Same here

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:31 pm

Hey guys sorry I've been out of touch. School has been kinda nuts and finals are in 4 weeks. I've managed to finish tacking everything together but there's still a decent amount of work to finish. Stick welding takes forever...

Stuff to finish:
Tack a few more vertical bars
Weld Seems/Grind flush (currently tacked)
Weld mounts on (already cut)
Weld hi-lift/shovel/Axe mounts on (already assembled)
Drill light bar holes in mounts (already tacked)
Weld on inner basket support bars (more on this later)
Paint

Get steel for air deflector
Cut/bend air deflector
Paint

Get steel for removable basket bottom
Weld removable basket bottom
Paint

I took a quick pic after I finishes the tacks so this is what it will look like. I'll snag a few pics later this week after I get some more work done.

As always, any input is appreciated

silverkk · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:27 pm **Posts:** 637

Looks good

Cherokeeshrop91 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 19, 2013 11:51 pm **Posts:** 40

any progress so far? would love to see it complete.

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:50 pm

Making progress slowly but surely. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to do much work on it in the last few weeks. Still need to finish welding all the seams and grinding everything flush. I'm gonna end up needing to sandblast it now since it's been sitting outside and its been snowing. I managed to get a pic of it on top of the roof though. I can't wait to finally attach the light bars and bolt it on. 8-)

Gooberzilla2 · **Joined:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:56 pm **Posts:** 6

Having a sky slider, I'm very interested in this. I may be in touch with you to see how I can get one.

MK's Roof Rack o' Doom BUILD THREAD

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