bartonmd wrote:Good job!
A couple things I'll just throw out there...
1. Looks like you're using the corners of the box as the "drains", but I highly suggest against that. The corners are what gives it strength. I would weld the corners up completely, and have a hole in the bottom for a drain.
2. The weld with your initials in it has a lot of porosity in it. What flow rate was the gas set at? Looks like the gas was set low, or the shield cup to tip was clogged up with spatter.
Mike
bartonmd wrote:Take a piece of angle iron and cut it the length of the height of the box, then put it on the outside and weld inside and out, and all around it.
70A (110V) stick welder makes sense... Not nearly enough heat for any kind of good sized rods. Don't want to use rods thicker than 1/8" at the very most, and you're moving too fast. You have to go really slow with anything 110V. If you're getting porosity on a stick weld with material that's even somewhat sort of clean-ish, you need to move slower.
Mike
dvanbramer88 wrote:bartonmd wrote:Take a piece of angle iron and cut it the length of the height of the box, then put it on the outside and weld inside and out, and all around it.
70A (110V) stick welder makes sense... Not nearly enough heat for any kind of good sized rods. Don't want to use rods thicker than 1/8" at the very most, and you're moving too fast. You have to go really slow with anything 110V. If you're getting porosity on a stick weld with material that's even somewhat sort of clean-ish, you need to move slower.
Mike
Thanks for the advice. And yes, where i welded i ground the paint off with the grinder first, so it was very clean. I was also thinking the same thing, using scraps of angle to cover the corners. I've got plenty of it. Do you recommend a good amperage/rod combination? I have trouble holding an arc at lower temps, so i was working at 70 amp and working quickly. I was getting ideal penetration on the plate, but it would erode the edge of the angle a little bit.
(if you know what a back plate in a large control panel looks like, that's what the two sheets of steel I had were. I cut the rolled edge off to make my own angle. Which worked perfect because it was the same thickness as the plate. My dad torch cut the basic outline at work and i used a sawzall to trim it.)
dvanbramer88 wrote:Yes, it is 3/32. My mistake. The reason i said ideal penetration, On the back side of where i was welding, you could see the bead line.
bartonmd wrote:
ETA: The other thing about the porosity is, how old are those rods, and where were they stored??? Moisture in the air soaks into the coating on the rods (that turns into the slag), and after they get a certain % of moisture in them, it degrades how much inertion it can give around the weld, causing porosity. Make sure your rods are either:
1. new
2. Stored in the refrigerator
3. Stored in an air-tight electrode holder
Mike
As long as you don't drive anywhere near ....... rocks.dvanbramer88 wrote:...But i highly doubt that it will get sheared off by a rock. ...
The Roadie wrote:As long as you don't drive anywhere near ....... rocks.dvanbramer88 wrote:...But i highly doubt that it will get sheared off by a rock. ...
dvanbramer88 wrote:The Roadie wrote:As long as you don't drive anywhere near ....... rocks.
Great, that makes me feel a lot more confident about it....
bartonmd wrote:Eh... There's a reason I did a somewhat solid "pyramid" of stacked up plates... I was concerned about even a 7ga (.179") "box" failing if somebody was going 15mph down a mostly smooth road with rocks in the middle (think the fire trails at TECORE), and smacked the part sticking down on a rock. For normal, slow speed abraision, I'd think it'd be fine, especially given the thin nature of the plate isn't going to take the full weight of the front end, anyway. But then, Bill's plastic skid had a pretty deep and well defined dent in the door from the drain plug, so we know the oil pan will take some weight.
Mike
The Roadie wrote: Homemade is fine, but as long as you know it's there to make noise to get your attention when you hit a rock at slow speed, and not to come crashing down off a 12" ledge onto it. Just have realistic expectations. You should see the FRAME dents on DirtyBacon's and my trucks, and then you'd understand better the level of threat out there we're trying to survive.
We also scrape our bellies enough to see the benefit of rock washers or welded rings to protect the mounting bolt heads, which you might not need unless you go and commit a lot of scrapeage.
dvanbramer88 wrote:But a slow speed "rock crawl" abrasion situation, i also think it would be fine,