Welding Tips and Tricks

Looking for everyone's opinion on a task we have at the shop currently.

Customer wants a tank made that is roughly 24" x 11" x 14" tall (14 height is the only critical dimension I was told)

Just curious if you guys think it's easier to weld two folded U's together or if you would fabricate it all out of flat plates that get fully welded out.

Pros and cons you see with both methods etc?

I can see both working just curious what you guys think is easier/faster etc or stronger?

As long as the U bends are accurate, then it’s far less welding required. Things that make a difference: material, thickness, purpose of tank?

I’ve done a half dozen aluminum fuel tanks recently. Half I did were bent U’s, the other was 6 plates. The advantage of the plates was I could weld from inside and out except on one end.

The disadvantage in both scenarios (had a shop clip and bend) was inaccurate measurements. Major PITA to fix. Cost me tons of time.

Make sure to butt the edges half their thickness so you can get a full, deep, strong weld. You want an open fillet weld for best results.

cj737 wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 5:08 pm As long as the U bends are accurate, then it’s far less welding required. Things that make a difference: material, thickness, purpose of tank?

I’ve done a half dozen aluminum fuel tanks recently. Half I did were bent U’s, the other was 6 plates. The advantage of the plates was I could weld from inside and out except on one end.

The disadvantage in both scenarios (had a shop clip and bend) was inaccurate measurements. Major PITA to fix. Cost me tons of time.

Make sure to butt the edges half their thickness so you can get a full, deep, strong weld. You want an open fillet weld for best results.

For job specs on this one it's a coolant surge tank made from 3/16 material, going to see 9psi with the cap I'm putting on the neck. Couple NPT ports in and out, a rad neck and two NPT ports on the side for a level gauge. Then last but least a couple angles welded to it for mounting to the Genny enclosure.

That's what my thoughts were, figured it's easier/ quicker with 2 U's (faster especially since another shop does the bends in their CNC press brake) so I can keep working on other jobs while 30%~ of the job is done for me.


I was planning on having things line up corner to corner so I weld a full open corner on the 3/16 sheets so I can get full pen without too much hassle.

We'll see how things get formed up though as often I've learned the hard way my brain works much differently than most other fabricators and what seems straightforward to me is outlandish to others.