Just starting out with MIG and I have a question about welding up a rectangular frame out of 2" square tubing. I've seen guys on youtube tacking up the entire frame using jigs and whatnot, then welding the entire joint after all is tacked. I'm wondering if it is best to do the same... tack ever...

Hello All. I'm making a frame for an industrial robot to sit in and I have a 1/2" steel plate where this robot is mounted and the plate will sit on 0.065" A513 square tubing. My questions are: 1. Is it better to weld or bolt the plate to the tubing (warpage is not that critical as the robo...

Hey Mick.
It will be a pick and place robot for mounting electronics to PC boards. I haven't done anything with welding robots, (I'm a software engineer for semiconductor robotics) but I could see how things could get goofed up if you're not watching it run and something goes wrong.

Thanks again everyone for the advice. Plate has pretty clean edges now and I am in between coats right now with Rustoleum "rusty surface" primer. I looked for ZEP, but they didn't have it at the hardware store. Unfortunately the paint is the same color as the rust so i'll have to hit it wi...

Sheesh. Thanks. I need get get my mindset out of metal removal only and realize that I can add material now that I have a MIG. Thanks for waking my brain! So, I got it looking pretty good. Down to the level I need, pretty flat and square. Now I have to remove all the surface rust from the face (fron...

Hey, Thanks for uploading those videos to youtube. I did exactly that and I'm about half way through the job and it looks good already - almost down to a flat surface. It's a little more work than I anticipated, being that it is three feet long, but I'm almost there. I drew out a guide line on the t...

Hi Mike. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I spent a lot of time on youtube and google, but found nothing really specific to what I'm trying to do. I know these angle grinders can be dangerous... up to this point I've only used it to clean up welds & spatter. Was looking for someone else's opinion bef...

Hello everyone. I work in industrial robotics and have an old robot that was to be scrapped stored in my basement. I'm building a frame for it to sit in out of square tubing, and the robot itself will sit on a 1/2" steel plate. I bought a 3' x 3' plate from the local recycle center and it looks...