Show Us Your Welding Projects!

I don't think the steel mill in my home town (Evraz) rolls rail section that small. I do know that we used to get a bunch of Nippon Steel rail at my old job. If I had connections in our MOW dept, I would see if I could get some contacts for you but, I am in the operating craft and have few dealings with MOW. LB Foster has a sales office here in Kansas City as I said. If you end up dealing with them for spikes, etc. and need me to pick up, palletize and put it on a truck line for you, I will.
 
Thanks Ken, I appreciate your offer. I think I will talk to them and see what they say about price and quantity.

Glenn
 
Wow! Really nice work to all of you! After seeing all the beautiful welds I won't be showing any closeups.
Last years project was replacing a roller frame on the excavator. The poor thing spent the first 18 years of its life loading pine ash slurry and had accumulated a thin layer hardened ash material on the frame. Unfortunately this layer held moisture very well. It started to collapse which caused tracking issues and a variety of other problems. Not pretty welds and not all mine. My eyes couldn't take it after about 40 hours and I hired a welder to finish.
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Actually Plum Creek, closeups can be a big help to improving your welding.
After seeing all the beautiful welds I won't be showing any closeups.
The better welders' here can make suggestions on what you might be doing wrong, or changing technique for a better weld. You certainly wont be berated or ridiculed, (at least on this forum)

Cheers Phil
 
Thanks Phil.
I will dig through my photos and see what I have of my welds.
As I mentioned My eyes don't tolerate welding very well. The restrictive combination of #12 lenses, cheaters, hood seals, and 500 watt halogens, doesnt always work well. :)
 
Had a customer ask me to build a stair for him, no drawings of course, engineer's going to do an 'as built' drawing after I do the design in my head and work out the kinks for him during the build. Anyway, it turned out O.K. Customer wanted polished steel. Took just as long to polish as it did to build but still way cheaper than aluminum. In the end he says "Jon, you nailed it; just what I wanted." To which I responded "You changed your mind four times during the build, I hope it's right."
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After having been gone all summer and fall dealing with estate and family issues, I'm back home and playing catch up on my own chores. Treated myself to a Hobart 40i plasma cutter. What a revelation after 50yrs of using an OA torch. The machine weighs 33#, clean cuts 5/8", and is so quick and easy to use. I had considered the Hypertherm 65, but just couldn't justify the price for my immediate needs. The Hobart is cnc capable, and that is on my list of projects. My first use of the unit other than a few cuts on scrap, was a slice and dice project on my backhoe fenders. I put new rear tires on the machine a few yrs ago and ran into tire chain clearance issues And as we are staying in CO a little longer this year (new grandaughter due any time now), it was time for a fix. Straightened some angled sections, and angled some straight ones. Came out pretty well, and I can see the plasma will get a lot of use. Had a young friend come to visit who was interested in metal work, so I got her some mig time in. She did quite well with the welding, but after 10 minutes with the 9" grinder she decided that was a bit much for her. I told her not to feel bad, as it wasn't that easy for me anymore either. Nice to see young folks take an interest in this stuff. Mike

Some pics of the butchery.

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Ok I will play.

Here is a rotissorie I built several years ago. I featured it before over on Garage Journal, one of several other forums I frequent.

Features include: (1) arbor locks with spring loaded pins where the pin handle holds the pin in the retracted position for one man operation; (2) hydraulic jacks for raising but hitch pins in double shear to ensure arbors are concentric; (3) bushed center of gravity adjuster to raise or lower body to adjust for balance (use deep well socket and impact gun on coupling nut); (4) caster wheels with brakes at all corners - I used an oil pan drain bolt to lock wheel at 90 degrees; (5) push handles on both ends.

I studied many designs out there before building this. Most suffer from lack of keeping the arbors concentric which basically creates a bent crank and impedes rotation. I wanted to ensure concentric axis of rotation yet be able to tune the offset to get the car's CG on the axis of rotation which then balances the body. The nut and pneumatic impact make it quite easy. The hitch pins keep the axis of rotation in alignment without stress on the jacks

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A repeat customer came to me with a brand new Tundra 4x4. He wanted a very specific rocker panel protection. He doesn't do anything to aggressive off road but he does tow a trailer with a Polaris 4 seater razor. That said he insisted the protection be bolted, flush as possible and strong enough to support the rig if used as a jack point if needed.

After getting the rig up on the lift, I came up with a bolt on bracket design. I also decided to three per side and only where the frame had cross members ensuring zero flex on the frame. Speaking of frame, Toyota has really stepped up their game. The frame appeared to be powder coated and very robust.
The brackets all made from 1/4" material with welded capture nuts eliminating the need for a backup wrench.
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The holes where as close to the inside leg of the angle as possible.
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The nuts where tacked on hot.
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Stared on the actual "sliders" as these young bucks call it these days. Back in my day we called them nerf bars:cool:.
I used 2" sch. 40 and but back the ends to a 45º.

Used the iron worker notcher to noble away at the 1/4" end caps and finished them on the disc sander.
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Ran four cover welds using the frame brackets to rotate the pipe. My version of a positioner:p
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Then blended that "ugly weld". I learned a long time ago, guys that don't know anything about fabrication don't like or appreciate exposed welds.
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Used two HF floor jacks stands to support the pipe and mock up entire setup. Everything was tacked and designed on the fly as I went. A second set of bracket pieced where cut as I went for the drivers side. Only enough paint was removed to ensure a sound weld on the frame. The battery negative cable was also removed to prevent any BS later. This rig is way to computerized to not take 2 minutes to remove the - cable. The ground cable on the welder was also kept next to each bracket welded.

The set up really allowed me to fine tune the pipe into position. The inexpensive floor jack stands have a decent adjustable acme thread for fine adjusting.
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The main frame brackets where tacked and the rest od the 1/4" flat strap was cut notched and taperer cut using the iron worker.
The said flat strap formed a "T" for a flex free bracket. Overall length is 5".
Notice the little notch at the pinch weld.
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Once everything was verified, I welded the frame brackets vertical up and anything I could access in-place.
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After complete cool down, the entire enchilada was removed to weld areas that I could not access.
Skip welding was used to prevent any distortion.

Here is a shot of the frame mount with the slider removed.
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A close up of the welded 7/16" capture nuts.
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Re-bolted to ensure fit. Like I stated prior, the customer wanted a tucked in clean look.
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Rinse and repeat for the drivers side. Used smaller 90º magnets (HF) to hold the lower brackets in-place.
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Both bars where taken to get sand blasted and powder coated satin black. They should be done in 7-10 days.
The frame was then masked off and repainted for corrosion control. Not really needed in AZ but the right thing to do non the less.
Used Zero-Rust.
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All done!
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Thanks for looking.

Turn and Burn!

Paco
 
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A repeat customer came to me with a brand new Tundra 4x4. He wanted a very specific rocker panel protection. He doesn't do anything to aggressive off road but he does tow a trailer with a Polaris 4 seater razor. That said he insisted the protection be bolted, flush as possible and strong enough to support the rig if used as a jack point if needed.

After getting the rig up on the lift, I came up with a bolt on bracket design. I also decided to three per side and only where the frame had cross members ensuring zero flex on the frame. Speaking of frame, Toyota has really stepped up their game. The frame appeared to be powder coated and very robust.
The brackets all made from 1/4" material with welded capture nuts eliminating the need for a backup wrench.


Turn and Burn!

Paco
Really nice work Paco!
 
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