the main event

So at last i get around to getting something actually welded on the car, although i had to start small, and fairly simple, just to see how it turned out. I cut out all this ages ago and made up some new repair pieces, it was a bit awkward to get to with the welding torch but it made for good practice.

this piece needs to go here...

tacked in place

but the last top corner i started burning through the metal, so...

a tip i found on the good old interweb, they actually said to use a block of copper but ididn't just happen to have any of those lying around, so i reckoned a heat sink from a computer processor is a good substitute. Its alloy so it wont weld to the steel and by design will be a good heatsink, hold it behind the edge and weld up the hole, works like a charm.

the view from behind, got to say that i'm chuffed to bits with the way it's turned out so far. It needs some tidying up with a flap disc in the angle grinder and then i should have a nice clean join.

the start of a weldathon?

so on to the next bit i'd cut some slits in the metal to enable me to for the curve that i needed, these now needed welding together, bring out the heatsink again.

all welded up

cleaned up with the flap disc

and it needs to go here, didn't get time to weld this bit on it'll have to wait to next time.

Weld-world

so managed to grab some hours down the dungeon and try out the new welder, a test piece to start off with, and then when i got the hang of it again, it was time to do something useful.

voila the welding cart gets it's newly strengthened shelf.

Ta Daaaa

Finally after months of waiting and tons of super conibear research things forever before you buy stuff umming and ahhhing, i have finally bought myself a new welder, got a good deal from one of our former neighbours too, so all is good.

Sooo here it is in all its dayglow orange glory. I wont bore you with the specs either you into your welding or your not.
Of course it needs accessories to make it go so i had to splash out on a gas cylinder too and then i need the gas that goes inside said cylinder.... good job i'm a saver.

problem with this type of inverter welder is that you really need a trolley to put it on and somewhere to keep the gas cylinder from falling over is a good idea too.
Voila, i picked this up for free, some peoples idea of thowing things away where we live is to put it somewhere near the waste room and hope it disappears, well this did, i shouldn't encourage them really.

just needed a nut, bolt, washers and a spacer, in this case bodged with a bit of tubing, to get rid of its wobble and i could start customising.

needed a platform for the welder so i got my angle grinder out (did i ever tell you how much i love powertools?) and cut up some sheet steel, marked it out and bent some edges in the steel bending machine.

there was way too much unneeded crap cluttering things up too so i stripped all that off and then did a mock up...



handles are too long , choppety chop.



and that was about as far as i got... next is putting it all together, propper like, and that will mean welding stuff. :-)