Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Today I worked on the kickup portion in the rear. I had previously cut out little backing plates made of 1 1/4" x 1/8" flat stock, and today I mig welded them into place, to hold them until the final joints are completely welded. I learned a few things today:

1) In addition to all my other bodily functions starting to go away, my math skills are also not so hot. I labored over making 16 backing plates last week, and today I discovered I only needed 8. How I did that I will never know.

2) Self darkening welding helmets shut off after a few minutes. I flashed myself pretty good when I struck the 2nd arc and the mask didn't darken. Still seeing little yellow spots in front of my eyes. May have to use that potato in the eye trick someone suggested in another post, if it gets worse tonight.

3) The 1/4 inch holes I drilled to do my plug welding through were too small to get good penetration into the backer plates. This doesn't have to be a super strong weld, but they shouldn't just fall off like my first attempt did.

The pictures down below give some idea of the concept of the backers. They form a tongue and groove sort of affair, and when you slip them inside the other tube it allows you to leave a bigger gap to weld. This, coupled with the extra metal of the backer allow you to crank up the welder and get a deep, but flush weld joint.

None of this is new to most of you, but I thought it would be helpful to those just beginning to do this stuff.

My Kid is out of town for the weekend, but when he gets back we plan to clamp the rails to the jig and start final welding. Hope none of this is boring any of you, hopefully when the frame gets welded we will really begin to move along.

Thanks for looking,


Don