Welding Tips and Tricks

Here is a Christmas present I'm making for my sister and her family. The letters are 1" round tubing and the horizontal and vertical pieces are 2" x 2" square tubing. Nothing special, but I think they will like it. My brother-in-law sells new steel so he will like something made from what he sells.

Thanks,

Jason

Very nice project. How did you bend the "S".

Nice job. I also noticed a nice job on the S bends

Thanks for the compliments. I was gonna try to bend the "S" out of a single piece, but I had a messed up piece from a previous project so I just made another 90 degree bend on my JD2 bender (using my new stand from my earlier posts) and then welded the 2 pieces together forming the "S". I should have tried to make it from one piece, but I only had enough tubing for the project and couldn't afford a screw up. I like to get all my steel from my brother-in-law but he lives 2 hours away so I wait until I have a big order before driving up there to get it. I ended up using a flap disk and then some emery cloth to clean up the weld in the middle of the "S" and it actually turned out pretty good. I had to extend the "L"s as well because the pieces I had remaining were about 3 inches short.

The worst part of this project was making all the little slugs for end caps. I'm sure there is a much better way of doing it, but I ended up using my JD2 notcher and cut them with a hole saw (without the centering bit) on a piece of square tubing. I used a 1" hole saw and the slugs were just under 1" giving me a bit of an inside corner to weld to the end of the tubing. Turned out good, but a bit tedious for my liking.

I considered using the emery cloth on the entire project and clear powdercoating it, but I think I'll end up painting to stand out a little more. I put it up in my field to see how it looked and and it sort of blends in, so I believe it needs a little color.

Thanks,

Jason

If they don't absolutely love that, I'd suggest coal for next year's stockings!

That's a lot of work, and it looks great even before paint.

looks good! And it's probably nothing that they ever expected to get,which makes it an even better gift.

Making the end caps is the most tedious part for me , too. A drill press and hole saws work good, but it takes time, a lot of cutting fluid and you have to flip the piece over or it gets jammed in the hole saw. And then you still have to fill in the pilot hole!! ARGGGGHHHHH! I started making the round end caps with a plasma cutter and it's a lot faster and easier. I'll make undersized templates from 1/4 or 3/8 inch MDF, clamp it on with wide vise grips and blast away. MDF templates will hold up to the heat fairly well too, maybe enough for 3 or 4 cutouts each before they get too charred to use.


Other Steve

I have to cap tubes like that often as well. Usually, the standard hole cutter sizes aren't the same and I end up cutting some on the band saw. I guess I should be glad I get to use aluminum.

Otto Nobedder wrote:If they don't absolutely love that, I'd suggest coal for next year's stockings!

That's a lot of work, and it looks great even before paint.

Thanks Steve. I just got the thing painted today and I'll take a final pic of it tomorrow. Your right, they better love it. Ha ha, just kidding. I have way more time in it than I thought I would. Typical, I guess. I was talking to my wife about making more because everyone that has seen it said they loved it. However, I'm not real sure if I could make enough money to justify fabricating them. I had a lot of hours in this thing.

Thanks,

Jason

delraydella wrote:looks good! And it's probably nothing that they ever expected to get,which makes it an even better gift.

Making the end caps is the most tedious part for me , too. A drill press and hole saws work good, but it takes time, a lot of cutting fluid and you have to flip the piece over or it gets jammed in the hole saw. And then you still have to fill in the pilot hole!! ARGGGGHHHHH! I started making the round end caps with a plasma cutter and it's a lot faster and easier. I'll make undersized templates from 1/4 or 3/8 inch MDF, clamp it on with wide vise grips and blast away. MDF templates will hold up to the heat fairly well too, maybe enough for 3 or 4 cutouts each before they get too charred to use.


Other Steve

Thanks Other Steve. I hadn't thought about using the plasma for the end caps. I may try that next time. I guess my method wasn't really that bad because I didn't have to fill a pilot hole. My main complaint is I haven't figured out a good mounting system for my notcher so I just mount it in the vise while I'm using it and it is kind of a pain in the butt. If I had a permanent place to mount it and then put a tray under it for the lubricant, I wouldn't hate using it so much for this type of project. I inevitably get lubricant all over my welding space and everything else including my tig pedal no matter how careful I seem to be (rarely careful).

Thanks,

Jason

TamJeff wrote:I have to cap tubes like that often as well. Usually, the standard hole cutter sizes aren't the same and I end up cutting some on the band saw. I guess I should be glad I get to use aluminum.

One of my next projects is to make a stand for my 4"X6" bandsaw and make a table to use it vertically. I use it now sometimes, but it is a bit dangerous to use it without the table. I would like to find a used single phase vertical metal bandsaw for less than $100,000,000, but apparently everyone else in the entire world wants one too, so I'll probably have to do without.

Thanks,

Jason

Hi everyone,
I have a idea for cutting round hole caps. A device called a rotorbroach cutter, similar to a hole saw, but designed to cut thicker materials, mainly for mechanised drill press/ mag based drills but you can get some to use in hand drills. Anyway, the idea is that the hole is centred in a pop mark, held by a non spinning spring loaded pin. After the hole is cut, this pin pushes the slug/ blank out. and hey presto, a round bit of metal, All sorts of sizes available so may find one to fit your job. However remember to measure the inside diameters . Also try visiting your local laser cutter shop and asking to purchase their drops from hole cutting,

Mick