Angles change after welding :/

[Engineer]

You would need a pretty big press brake to bend 5mm sheet, but from the earlier pic it would be a very quick and easy job, and mean that more units could be easily made if needed.

 

[phil81uk]

I made some braces/gussets from 5mm X 30mm steel. Welded it up. The angle still tightened up a bit even with the braces (what power). But came up with a solution... fitted the skid plate, and then used two bottle jacks to lift the car by the skid plate. That soon corrected the angles! Got it perfect!

This project has been a real lesson in angle distortion :/

 

[hotrodder]

Got it perfect!

Cool!

This project has been a real lesson in angle distortion

Lifetime learning curve there i'm afraid and one that can be particually cruel with stainless

 

[derekm]

Cool!

Lifetime learning curve...

Definitely .. welding = distortion. The trick is making sure the final shape is what you wanted.

Imagine welding up 4mm holes every 50mm in 25 x 25 x 1.5mm square ERW tube in something you cannot allow to be distorted
(pop rivet holes in a kit car chassis)

if you do that straight off you end up with a Bad bad bad banana.

The solution is to pre tension tube away from the weld using clamps and a spacer, then weld.
Result a straight tube.
How did I find out: Experiment.

The life time learning means lots of experiments