Welding Tips and Tricks

Pic doesn't really show it but every dime has an iridescence like boa constrictor scales and every color from gold to salmon. 16ga. 304 SS, 347 .035 filler, 3/32" 2% lanthanated , 1pps, 50/50 on/off time, #8 gas lens, 16cfh. First 2"..no filler, pedal pulse= flat burned in bead.

I think the 347 shows better color than the 316. I'll try Inconel and see what that does.

I started welding it today and well one of the pieces is 1/16" off so I can't do an autogenous weld on one end. I had to bridge the two sides and add some filler where it was off but that put a lot of heat in and lost the color for 2". Btw I am welding in the flat. It does not look great for what I wanted but if I have to wire brush it then that will be the new look.

You can always wire-brush it (a clean brass brush will take the color off without scratching the surface), then bring the color back by welding back over it, no filler, with just enough heat to form a shallow puddle. Using pulse if you have it, or a step-pause motion will keep the stack-of-dimes look. Use the chill block again to avoid adding distortion.

On the other hand, It'll look good brushed, too.

Steve S

First fit up. The welds just look brown from a far so they will be brushed and then I hope to get a nice reflective finish after this.... Pretty ugly for people who don't like welding.

Try a little powdered Barkeepers Friend. It will take the color out back to a natural stainless look and will also take out the HAZ colors without scratching. Don't use a scrubby, just a rag or paper towel. Works great.

I was so wrapped up in reading your thread, I never stopped to think about what you were making exactly. I am dubious that choosing stainless was a good idea for your case. Stainless has pretty bad thermal properties in terms of dispersing its heat. So all the heat generated internally by your components, will stay confined within this case, and the case will get hot and trap the heat.

These are very bad situations for a computer. Perhaps you have considered this already and have a water-cooled solution planned, or other type of auxiliary cooling, but internal fans will not solve this issue. Just putting that out there-

cj737 wrote:I was so wrapped up in reading your thread, I never stopped to think about what you were making exactly. I am dubious that choosing stainless was a good idea for your case. Stainless has pretty bad thermal properties in terms of dispersing its heat. So all the heat generated internally by your components, will stay confined within this case, and the case will get hot and trap the heat.

These are very bad situations for a computer. Perhaps you have considered this already and have a water-cooled solution planned, or other type of auxiliary cooling, but internal fans will not solve this issue. Just putting that out there-

That's what I am testing now. The front of the case has a 1" gap between the chassis and the stainless where there is a 200mm fan with a duct that takes in air. The top and bottom of the front stainless are open. The 1" black cap ontop is actually hollow and has vents And the rear of the case is open with exhaust fans. I don't have liquid cooling because the case was already operating 10- 15 degrees c below the standard temp for my 8core amd cpu. Also my gtx 1070 is helped by a pivoting 140mm fan for exhaust mid case. I have a monitor on it for now. I will run it for a day and compare temps.

Well at least your welds are looking lovely I hope it works out for you. If not, switch to aluminum; its a better material for what you're after.

Something else you do possibly do is to drill/punch holes in the side panels to increase the venting especially since you have a motorized fan in there. And free air space around, below and above that case to provide cool air flow is pretty important.

Best of luck, its looking really cool!

just browsed through all the replies and everything seems covered, so sorry if I repeat anything... most of all the work I do on the job is stainless, and corner welds are pretty simple... 16 gauge is pretty thick stuff so it should be a breeze to do. The key in my job is to get lots and lots of tacks... and then just fusion weld it, no need for filler. Just set it a little hot and move quick, never hang around, just enough to fuse it... If it was thin stuff like 20 gauge I would say stick an piece of aluminum behind it for a dam, but 16 won't need it...

cj737 wrote:Well at least your welds are looking lovely I hope it works out for you. If not, switch to aluminum; its a better material for what you're after.

Something else you do possibly do is to drill/punch holes in the side panels to increase the venting especially since you have a motorized fan in there. And free air space around, below and above that case to provide cool air flow is pretty important.

Best of luck, its looking really cool!

Thanks

I would love to have done this with aluminum but every encounter I have with aluminum has been rough. I have a 6x5 sheet of aluminum diamond plate I could have used but It was passed my skill level. I need to get more time to learn how to properly prep aluminum and fine tune my machine and I need to play around a bit but all my scrap is mostly mild steel and stainless.

Airflow test and fitting are finished all that's left is to clean up and set up some kind of latch instead of screwing into the case.

Have you ever tried "rivet nuts"? They work exceptionally well on sheet material. You can get them in small metric or SAE sizes and then choose a fastener head type (like stainless button head torx) that suits your fancy.

cj737 wrote:Have you ever tried "rivet nuts"? They work exceptionally well on sheet material. You can get them in small metric or SAE sizes and then choose a fastener head type (like stainless button head torx) that suits your fancy.

Yea they are awesome. I actually have one of the tools at home that I used for the cycling industry. The problem is where the door hits the case it's completely flush and if I place it there it will stick up a bit.

408cheytac wrote:

cj737 wrote:Have you ever tried "rivet nuts"? They work exceptionally well on sheet material. You can get them in small metric or SAE sizes and then choose a fastener head type (like stainless button head torx) that suits your fancy.

Yea they are awesome. I actually have one of the tools at home that I used for the cycling industry. The problem is where the door hits the case it's completely flush and if I place it there it will stick up a bit.

Any chance of recessing a tab to mount the nut to?

408cheytac wrote:The problem is where the door hits the case it's completely flush and if I place it there it will stick up a bit.

You know there are a "flared" version of them? They are easy to recess.

You just need to drill and counter-sink a hole and just press down a screw. If you can't use a press or the bench vise just put a nut behind and tighten. 16 gauge SS might need some heat though.

Tools for the riv-nut can easily be made too. The threads in the long nut has been drilled out. Just hold the stem steady and tighten the small nut and its done deal.

AndersK wrote:

408cheytac wrote:The problem is where the door hits the case it's completely flush and if I place it there it will stick up a bit.

You know there are a "flared" version of them? They are easy to recess.

You just need to drill and counter-sink a hole and just press down a screw. If you can't use a press or the bench vise just put a nut behind and tighten. 16 gauge SS might need some heat though.

Tools for the riv-nut can easily be made too. The threads in the long nut has been drilled out. Just hold the stem steady and tighten the small nut and its done deal.

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I didn't think of that. I was a thinking of maybe a rivet looking piece like the ones where the bottom of the rivet head is a square. Right now I have it set up with just standard case screws. The one drawback of the case is that it's a bitch to take off.

Also here are some updated pictures.

Looks most cool.....