Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi all,

I'm new here, been lurking for awhile and thought I'd jump in. Every fall/winter I do some sort of a fun project as my business slows down. This year I decided to build a headache rack for my truck. I am by no means a welder, just a guy with a little MIG welder and a plasma cutter who enjoys sticking things together from time to time. So far I have most of the parts cut and fitted. Over the weekend I'll finish making parts and get 'er welded up. Suggestions welcome!


Regards,

Gary

Nice print man. Did you do that yourself? What program did you use?

Yup, drew it up myself using MS Visio.

Gary

I was woundering, How much cost do you have in materials alone?

Thank You,

I like it!!!! Want to see once finished......

PowerMetalTexas wrote:I was woundering, How much cost do you have in materials alone?

Thank You,

All the steel, lights and wiring cost me about $250. Sandblast and powder coat will be about $150.

This is a shot of it before I took it to the powder coater on Tuesday. I'll post another pic when I get it back.

Gary

Complete and installed, along with a toolbox.

Nice job! How'd you mount it? Bolted to bed rails?

I used 4 j-bolts to mount the toolbox and rack to the bed rail at the same time. For the lights I changed out the 7-pin plug I had mounted in the bed for my goosneck trailer for a 7-pin/4-pin combo then plugged the headache rack wiring into the 4-pin plug.

Thats a nice looking rack! About how long did it take you to do that? Also what tools were needed? I was just wondering what the thickness measured in inches 14 gauge equals to. I just purchased a miller diversion 165 used twice for 800 bucks and would like to build something like this. My welder can penetrate 3/16 MAX.