TIG welding alloy frame

[Micktoon]

Hi All, this will be breif as I have typed it out about 4 times not due to problems posting, so once its working I will do a better job of post.
This is an alloy frame and gate I made for a friend out of about 3mm thick alloy box and tube, TIG welded with AC .





Fingers crossed it will allow 2 photos

Cheers Mick

[krv3000]

well dun Wat is it gowning to be used on and you must have a fetish for vises

[Micktoon]

Hi Bob, I will do more detail on the frame once I can post photos easy again , its a safety rail and gate to go on a jetty at a marina. The vices just seem to breed , I want to the same but keep getting ones that are a bit diffrent lol, I use them for holding parts to weld they are heavy enough to earth out on the metal bench and hold parts so you can push two vices with parts in each vice and weld the two bits together handy for weird shaped bits, well spotted If you need a vice there will be a spare one Bob.

[f350ca]

Nice looking welds Mick

[stevec]

(05-01-2013, 06:14 PM)Micktoon Wrote: Hi Bob, I will do more detail on the frame once I can post photos easy again , its a safety rail and gate to go on a jetty at a marina. The vices just seem to breed , I want to the same but keep getting ones that are a bit diffrent lol, I use them for holding parts to weld they are heavy enough to earth out on the metal bench and hold parts so you can push two vices with parts in each vice and weld the two bits together handy for weird shaped bits, well spotted If you need a vice there will be a spare one Bob.

Boy! that's a long way of saying you DO have a fetish for vices.

[DaveH]

Very nice

DaveH

[Micktoon]

Yet another project has kept me away from rebuilding my Harrison L5 lathe , this time it was to make a safety rail and gate in alloy to match an existing bit of rail that goes around some floating jetty type walkway in a marina. I am no expert at alloy welding but my friend was stuck for getting it done so I said I would give it a go.

This is the basic job laid out after being cut to size, the closest bit of frame is the old original part , no matching handrail could be found so the round tube had to be used to do the new section with, of course everything had be measured from the bottom of the old handrail so all had to be laid out to get thing to line up to look as matching as they could.



I had to dig the welding table out , which involved moving allsorts of stuff into my way for the next job lol. I clamped everything down square and welded one side , the frame was bigger than the table so was more hassle than it looks here.


It was welding ok, Could be better mind! The material is about 3mm (1/8th inch) thick I am using 3.2mm rods and about 130 amps AC .


This is the frame welded up after much hassle , swearing and moving almost all the stuff in the way several times as well as the welder tripping the breaker a good few times, I made round discs that were a tight fit into the handrail and welded around to blank them off. I now had to figure out how to hinge the gate part , not as easy as you would think with the handrail being wider than the uprights etc.


This is what I came up with for the hinges , it was Apollo 13 style , they had to made out of what was lying about so this was my best option, nice big chunky jobs , that even a fat bloke can lean on and not bend while shirking work


To make things easier to line up while welding I decided to add the bits of angle under the pin sides of the hinges


After much clamping and checking , hinges tacked up and tested to double check that nothing catching at either end of the gate.


This shot shows the general shambles I am working in , no room to get around with ease and welding at the wrong angles and stretching across etc buts thats just how it is when every project is nothing like the last lol. Also half the mess is what has been mover to make room for the welding table and the frame to then clamp to it.


The finished job , its still quite light to carry , the gate has had the top hinge welded at a height that it will foul the handrail so can not be lifted off , as metal things have a habit of walking these days


The welds look ok when you look at the overall thing , I know they could be better, I ended up starting with a 2.6mm tungsten, then wanted to go to 3.2mm but I had a faulty gas lense so had to go up to I think 5mm but could not crank the amps up more as tripping the house breaker so not idea really but did do the job.


This is the hinge set up welded, no way these babies are falling off thats for sure !


The gate swung open, I double checked that there was no crossed wires to which way it had to swing and what side it pivoted on before welding anything ........ its happened before lol


Right as usual I will end with saying , it really is the lathe now lol.

Cheers Mick.

[doubleboost]

Nice job Mick
You have some proper penitration on those welds
How many amps were you running at
John

[EdK]

Nice welding table Mick. How thick is the top?

Oh, and nicely made gate!

Ed

[Micktoon]

Hi All , just a couple of photos of the finished rail fitted in its final position , it seems to match in ok and all fitted first time so everyone is happy .





I still have two brackets to make that will bolt onto the rails that are used for storing some wood batons , more alloy welding , so I will try to get better photos of the process next time.

John the amps were about 150 on the hinge parts that were up to 10mm thick and it was about 130amps for the box to box joints that were about 3mm thick wall. I only had 2.4mm tungstens and should have went up to 3.2mm but my new 3.2mm collet body was a faulty one so had to jump to 4mm and it was a bit low amps for the 4mm I think ? The weder is a 220amp but the electrics and breakers trip after it reaches 150amps

Ed I made the welding table with scrap yard stuff years ago , but had to buy the top plate , its 10mm thick , I am thinking of drilling and tapping some holes into it to fix jig type things to but really need the lend of a magnetic drill to do the holes .....its on the 'to-do list' lol

Cheers Mick.