Heavy welding - 3" plate to 7" bar?

[wyn]

Do you have to mount the whole machine on an isolated concrete base, Al, or does the weight of all the steel absorb the beating ?

 

[astro_al]

Exactly Drains - the force goes straight down through the plate, not really through the welds exclusively. Got to get those ends cut good and square though!

Anyone know a good way to ensure the bandsaw is cutting dead on 90?

Ok, great, any excuse to leave the grinder where it is...

Here is my baseplate for what its worth. 3" x 40" x 50" Note the sharp corners and flat faces despite decades left unsheltered outdoors...

I was going to use the 4" square section on top for the ram, but now I'm thinking I need slightly more mass to take advantage of the anvil size. 2 foot of 5"x5" square bar would be about right.

Better make it an even 10 passes then, just to be sure...

Cheers, Al.

 

[astro_al]

Wyn - For this size of hammer (a tiddler in the grand scheme of things), I'll mount it on some plywood / rubber / conveyor belt / something-or-other, and just bolt it down to the concrete to stop it walking. The correct installation of larger hammers depends on the circumstances. People often build an isolated concrete block by digging down a few feet, chucking in some old springs and putting a trough of a few cubic metres of concrete on top, and bolting it to that. There are a million other ways, it depends who you ask, and to some extent what country they are from. If its just a little bigger than this, you can get away with thick concrete.

Drains - on your 'leg length' point - at what point when doing multiple passes do you 'stack' the beads next to each other, rather than covering the whole width of the leg in a single pass? (Hope that makes sense). I have done both in the past but, how do you know if you are waving sideways along the weld bead path too much (leg is too long for single bead width) and you should be doing adjacent beads, not just one with a lot of sideways movement??? Hope that makes sense!

Cheers, Al.

 

[Luke]

Anyone know a good way to ensure the bandsaw is cutting dead on 90?

An afternoon with a bit of box, a load of shims, and a bit of glass and a square, in my case

 

[astro_al]

'...Bit of glass...'? - you mean like a pint glass?

Al.

 

[Luke]

not quite! :P

A bit of flat glass, since I don't have a ground block, or any sheet thick enough to even pretend to be properly flat.

 

[snowcat]

Drains - on your 'leg length' point - at what point when doing multiple passes do you 'stack' the beads next to each other, rather than covering the whole width of the leg in a single pass? (Hope that makes sense). I have done both in the past but, how do you know if you are waving sideways along the weld bead path too much (leg is too long for single bead width) and you should be doing adjacent beads, not just one with a lot of sideways movement??? Hope that makes sense!

Cheers, Al.

Stringers add strength but a weave looks pretty, actually not as simple as that and it all comes down to experience, personally id build with stringers I always do, unless I want the work dead flat to avoid stress rises.... If your in spray and want to achieve this forward speed is important hang around and your lay too much wire into the pool of the weld and it will be horid.... 3 passes should really surfice.... as I said before avoid getting it too hot between your passes...... burring in lime is the best post cooling treatment IMHO, I accidentally work hardened some X1320 (I think) and the cure was to heat to cheery and put it on a 4hour cooling cycle, this was done with lime, and worked wonders.....

 

[Drains]

Al, as Snowy says, don't weave, lay stringers. Just go in a straight line as you weld - it's "proper"!

Snoey - why lime? Never heard of that.

 

[snowcat]

Al, as Snowy says, don't weave, lay stringers. Just go in a straight line as you weld - it's "proper"!

Snoey - why lime? Never heard of that.

don't know? was told it by some old school engineers these ones actualy.....there not the sort to chat on the finner points more to mumble from there rolley if you know what I mean so I quizzed no futher.... clever blokes mind.....

I guess it holds heat for about the right period of time a good insulator maybe?

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

don't know? was told it by some old school engineers these ones actualy.....there not the sort to chat on the finner points more to mumble from there rolley if you know what I mean so I quizzed no futher.... clever blokes mind.....

I guess it holds heat for about the right period of time a good insulator maybe?

I seem to think it also produces Carbon Dioxide when heated ..would that help the surface of the weld when cooling ????