Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi all, I am new to this forum and new to welding.

About 6 months ago I bought myself a TIG welding machine. Since I have been practicing welding both Steel and Aluminium and I (think) I am slowly getting the hang of it

I have a van, and would like to build 2x beds and bike rack in the back to use for camping holidays / road trips etc. I have created a design of what i want, but am now undecided if I should build the frame from Steel or Aluminium.

I guess the advantages of Aluminium is that it would be lighter and I can (clean) cut it (with angles) myself. The Disadvantages would be that the welds would (could) be weaker ?

The Advantages of steel would be that it is stronger and cheaper, and the disadvantages that it would be heavier...

Any advice / opinions from people with more experience than me (a beginner) would be greatly appreciated !

Thanks,
Jon.

I had a van and a tri-fold aluminum ATV ramp just laying around. Made it into a fold up bed frame that when traveling was up against side of van wall with a single bed mattress leaned against it. I will try and post a picture. I used cables to suspend at side next to wall and a couple fold out legs to support when out at end away from wall. Just sat above wheel well, gave nice storage underneath when camping.

Hey Jon
As long as the aluminum is welded correctly, it would be strong enough, why not post some pics of your aluminum welds so we can see how you're doing?

Thanks for the replies so far. @bruce - thanks, your bed looks great !!!!

@Richard, here is a pic of a weld I did the other week (I will take some more pics tonight):



Let me know how I can improve

Thanks again,
Jon.

ljonny18 wrote:Thanks for the replies so far. @bruce - thanks, your bed looks great !!!!

@Richard, here is a pic of a weld I did the other week (I will take some more pics tonight):

Let me know how I can improve

Thanks again,
Jon.

That looks perfectly adequate. The weak spots are at the ends, where you still see square corners of the original material. These are your weak points, and the hardest part to master. You must eliminate those edges... Engineers call them "stress risers", and they are where the weld will start to crack. To close the end where you started, I'd come back to it with filler at the ready, and a very short burst of very high power. To close the end where you terminated, you must trail off power to a surprisingly low amount (the heat has nowhere else to go), and use the addition of your filler to chill the puddle as you fill it.
This is all just a matter of practice, and you seem to be on the right path.

Steve S

Thanks a lot Steve - I will give this a go !!!!

Just fyi - this is the design I plan (would like) to build:

Hi, thanks for the great help along with photos. I am here in Australia and trying to make queen size bed frame as most of the bedding I have is queen size. In images what size is it?

I would be nervous as heck with the top frame. It looks like you only have one (1) supporting hoop. I would not think that would work. Better go with two (2) supporting hoops.

I recently made a rack for the top of my dune buggy. I also pondered over the use of steel versus aluminum. When I did the design, the steel version was to be made out 1/2" 14ga steel tube with expanded metal for the floor. The aluminum version was to be made out of 3/4" aluminum tube with a wall thickness of 1/16"and the floor was made out of expanded Aluminum (1/16"). The sides of the rack for the steel version was to be 5" tall and the Aluminum version was to be 6" tall. When I did the weight calcs, the steel version came out to be 44 pounds and the aluminum version was 11 pounds. Now the steel version would be slightly stronger than the aluminum version but I only intend to put about 100 pounds on the rack so Aluminum would work. As for cost, steel cost me about $0.87 per pound and aluminum cost me about $2.90 per pound. Either way the cost for me was about the same.

The size of the rack is roughly 30" by 40".

Aluminum can be made just as string if designed properly. Also you need to use the correct Aluminum alloy. I would not use 2000 or 3000 series aluminum. I my case I used 6063.

Weight for me was also a serious consideration.