popping my arc cherry!!!

[idratherbesurfing]

im going to have a play with a veeeery old arc welder tomorrow. I plan to eventually (at some point tomorrow!) weld a piece of half inch thick hardox plate between the chassis rails of my 4x4, in order to mount a winch onto it.... so as you can imagine it needs to be very strong - it needs to be able to hold 3-4tons

the welder was bought by my dad and uncle years and years ago from woolworths (!) and as I can see it has three settings. its got 'off', then the dial turns 3 'clicks'. which i am presuming is low/med/high

the welding rods are 2.5mm ones. im going to practise joining some of the plate first. Ive been having a good read through the tutorials and I think I need to have the welder on 'high', so the weld gets good penetration? and apparently if the weld still looks 'weld shaped' instead of 'flat', then it probably isnt good enough

im also quite afraid of blowing holes in my chassis from having the welder up too high or something

Ive got some 4mm plate mild steel that I'm going to practise on aswell

Im really worried!!!!

 

[chrisg3103]

wow, a wollies arc welder! get some pics up
4mm will be tricky to blow though, can be done but should be able to see it going before it does. so long as you have some spare bits to destroy get going and see how it goes man

 

[chevyman_de]

Why welding the winch mount to the frame? Weld a winch mount with some appropriate brackets and bolt the hole thing in place. Much easier as you can avoid any vertical or overhead welding and you can trial and error forever without putting the vehicle frame at stake.

 

[Rubber Duck]

im also quite afraid of blowing holes in my chassis from having the welder up too high or something

Ive got some 4mm plate mild steel that I'm going to practise on aswell

Im really worried!!!!

Get hold of some scrap metal and practice, practice, practice. Have fun!

 

[Weldingartisan]

Not the best project to start on. If you intend to fit the plate between the chassis rails you would need a good overhead fillet weld as well as a downhand butt/fillet on top. Not the easiest of welds for a beginner - especially as the chassis will only be 2-3mm thick. W/A

 

[idratherbesurfing]

have spent a happy morning playing with the stone age arc welder... and my god just HOW EASY is arc compared to mig!

have been practising getting nice flat welds on some old bits of chassis/box steel and its going quite well

 

[scarecrow]

Why welding the winch mount to the frame? Weld a winch mount with some appropriate brackets and bolt the hole thing in place. Much easier as you can avoid any vertical or overhead welding and you can trial and error forever without putting the vehicle frame at stake.

That would be the way to go as you're not going to learn how to ark Weld in different positions with a couple of practice sessions

I'm not sure but I think you need special Rods for welding hardox 7018 or 16 I think and preheat if you ask snowcat or tino they will know
not sure what a wollies arc welder

have a reed through this thread http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5455

 

[Robotstar5]

Another vote for a seperate mounting to bolt in rather than weld on - what happens when you want to move it to another LR?

 

[snowcat]

quite right scarecrow, 7018s and preheat, or S/S on a cold weld, I really would not use hardox for that kind of app, its not got the correct machnicals.... hardox is a med/high carbon material depending on the grade material, treated incorrectly it is prone to cracking.....

a piece of LCMS would be far more suitable, heed the advice and use a mechanical fixing rather than welding.......

 

[idratherbesurfing]

hmmmm... have come to read this rather late as it is welded in place now!!!

well.. if it flies off at the first threat of proper work, I will have a rethink!

 

[chevyman_de]

... if it flies off at the first threat of proper work, I will have a rethink!

It's a bad idea to get a chunk of metal with the weight of ten sledgehammers airborn without control. You'd better rethink now!

 

[idratherbesurfing]

i'll test it out later one the front piece is on to hold the fairlead Im gonna winch the truck up up my field to wind the cable on

we'll see how it goes :lol:

 

[Robotstar5]

if it flies off at the first threat of proper work, I will have a rethink!

i'll test it out later one the front piece is on to hold the fairlead Im gonna winch the truck up up my field to wind the cable on

Please re-consider the above statements.

A quick calculation for a 2 tonne (average LR) vehicle on it's wheels winched up a 15° grassy slope will need 785kg line pull, what will happen under maximum load? also using a snatch block will double the load on the mountings.

A failure of YOUR welding under load could have FATAL consequences.

My apologies if the above is a bit "heavy" but I have been trained to use winch equipped LR's for over 20 years, if you want any pointers / contacts please PM me.

Regards, Stuart.

 

[rtbcomp]

.... also using a snatch block will double the load on the mountings.

.......

1) For a given vehicle, slope, terrain and winching speed &c and if the return cable from the snatch block fastens at the winch the load on the mounting will be the same, the tension in the rope will be halved.

2) If the return is fastened to the bumper away from the winch mounting the load will be shared between the bumper and the winch mounting, so the load on the winch mounting will be halved.

3) If the return from the snatch block is fixed to a ground anchor again the load on the winch will be reduced.

In 2 & 3 the amount the load on the winch is reduced will depend on the angle of the ropes at the snatch block.

 

[weldingscotty803]

get some decent drill bits and bolt it on too. if you look in my albums you will see a job i did for a friends defender. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/album.php?albumid=863&pictureid=1804
20mm plate, 30mm round m/steel bar
4 x 12.5mm holes for fixing to front and rear bumper. it will be fully welded as well. my friend calculated that they could have almost 4 tonnes of force so i made sure they were strong enough

just be careful as big lumps of steel hurt when they hit you.
i had a coupon of 10mm m/s plate fall on my head only 150x50mm but i had to have 2 stitches. it only fell 2 foot.