My First Attempt at Welding! W/Pics (MadJack luvs da pics!)

[templou67]

I would concur with those suggesting that you use tack welds to keep everything square before final welding.
Case in point.
I am currently building a ramp door for a trailer out of 2x2x1/8 square tubing, "that size of tubing sound familar to anyone?" It is a 6'x8' door. I made sure my butt angles were straight and tack welded everything together. Measuring diagonally across the door I was about a 1/4 inch off even though I was tacking rather than laying down a bead.
Point is, you can be careful and still be off a little. No biggie, a long pipe clamp moved things back into square and I was able to weld my gussets into the corner and Viola! nice and square once again. It would have been very hard to do that had I went ahead and welded everything.

As far as the double shielding of flux core wire and gas, pick one and go with it. Personally I would always choose gas over flux. And a good anti spatter spray if you don't want to knock off spatter all day.

[Bandit]

I've got the main frame welded and all my concerns about spatter were for not as I had to grind all the welds anyway to get them flat.
The penetration was very good.
I now know that I should have butt welded as the stitching of the gaps was a little more tedious then laying a bead.
I've gound all the welds down with a grinding wheel, the I went over them with a sanding disk and they look real good.

Photo of an Untouched Weld

Cleaned Weld

My Main Frame


I will weld the Tongue and Braces on tomorrow and post some picks of it.

[Jim Marshall]

Bandit, that looks like a really neat job. You shouldn't have any problems with that.

[toypusher]

Bee-Ute-e-Full!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

[madjack]

..all I can say is keep it up son, I say, I say keep it up...........................................

[cracker39]

Bandit, your welds look a heckuva lot better than the few attempts I made while my son-in-law was here to weld mine this weekend. I did some welds on the floor gussets after he tacked them in place. They won't show, and aren't supoprting any weight, just holding the floor down. I really need practice. That was the first time I ever picked up a welder. I watched him work for a while then tried a few. It's a MIG with solid wire and gas. I plan on trying some more maybe next weekend when he's back over here. I have a few parts left to weld on.

[mikeschn]

Bandit,

That look nice. Pretty aggressive sanding down there... your teardrop floor should be sitting pretty flat on that though...

Add some bolt down gussets, and you'll be good to go!

Mike...

[Bandit]

The frame is complete! (No Axle) I will start another post as Day 2 welding and feature some more photo's there.
I did go to a Hobart 140 welder with .035 solid wire and 75% Argon 25% CO2. This made a big difference in the quality of the welds.
I didn't have to work as hard to get a good weld.