Welding Tips and Tricks

Been awhile for me here and there has been days in the last 6-7 months where I am actually tired of welding and weekends aren't long enough in that regard. In other words, when I have been getting home, I really haven't felt like talking about, or looking at any more welding.

Anyway, here is a strange project and I simply could not wait for the engineers to get creative because it makes these types of projects linger on in wait, as parts trickle in with every new idea. That, and in the last 20 years, nobody has actually complained with what I have come up with, and to the contrary, liked it better than I thought they would anyway. So this time I promised myself; no second guessing myself, and no changing anything once it was done.

We had to make a rig to adapt an outboard motor to an ATV and a retractable rig on the front for a sonar. We had 30 mins of consultation and the design was pretty much up in the air. I knew other major projects were fixing to swamp me so I jumped on this and hammered away at it until the hair pulling parts were done, at least.

This is all out, hand fab'd stuff and it looks it. It's not elegant, but it is highly functional.

Here's the vehicle in question, completed. I will show some of the individual parts further down.


Here's the outboard bracket for a 9.9hp. It is either going to get a plate on the back of doubled 3/4" marine ply, or plastic.


All bevelled fits.


Looks like a brush guard on the front but it's really for this plate.


Which is the main support for this telescopic adjustable sonar mount. So I made an adaptor to fit it rather precisely.


I will break it down further in following posts. Perhaps some people can use some of these ideas for their own projects.

Here's where people start to question my sanity but, at least they leave me alone.

Here's what the joint looks like completed. I didn't want it to leave bolt imprints all down the pipe over time so I made a little brake for the bolt to push against the pipe. Basically it's just a section of the pipe taken out and then put back in there floating. I also added a retainer to the bolt so that if they take the tube out, they wont lose this part. There's also a lanyard on the big fat knob that can't be seen in this photo.



Here's a better view of what it entails. I welded on a section of 1/2" stock to the adapter I made, to give me roughly 5/8" of threads, which, the more the better when using aluminum threads with SS bolt.



It gets better! The whole works has to swivel out of the way as they travel from one pond to the next over land. All the retaining parts are bush fixes too. It's a friction bearing made of slick plastic. In other words, a big fat, plastic washer. I did put a little tack atop the stud for the wingnut so they can't lose that either.



And a retainer to hold it upright as well.

And here's how I made the knob.

Don't laugh. It works! I welded this little bit first.



And then capped that with an aluminum cookie.

Excellent work, as usual, but also a great demonstration of the creative mind in motion.

I have that same die grinder...

Steve S

My son has been working with me for over a year now and he could not believe the fashion in which this all took place. He has turned out to be a darned good aluminum weldor in his own right in such a short time with what I consider to be 'intense' training. At any rate, I have his attention. I don't ever see him turning back from welding. He has gotten to see some pretty cool things come from thin air. The possibilities that must awaken in young minds. He wants to be this. He's even gotten some shoulders to him since. He's been dusting guys with 15-20 years experience and I mean handily.

YOU ROCK!!!!!
craig