Welding Tips and Tricks

Ok,
And that's the progress as of right now.
Funny how fast time flies!!

Feel free to ask any questions.
I took several thousand pictures, and these are just the "trailer".....
And for you guys man enough to venture over to WeldingWeb, your in luck!!
Here is the the 380 posts, 15,000 views thread.
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?42 ... abrication

Nice.
No headache rack? Or not that far yet?

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79jasper wrote:Nice.
No headache rack? Or not that far yet?

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We'll finish building the bed, pull the bed off, flip it over, finish welding underneath, paint everything 6" back from the front, flip it back over, build the headache rack, paint the front 6" of bed and paint the headache rack.
Than put it back on the truck.

It will be easier to flip it over without the headache rack.

If that makes sense...

Oh, definitely. Lol
Think the truck will be taking any flexing at all?
Just something I had seen brought up on another forum when building a flatbed like that.

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79jasper wrote:Oh, definitely. Lol
Think the truck will be taking any flexing at all?
Just something I had seen brought up on another forum when building a flatbed like that.

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the truck should have plenty of flex.....
What thread did you see, and what all stuff did it say?

I think it was on oil burners.
Basically that the mounting can be a problem, as the bed is more rigid than the truck frame.

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coming along good John, Ive been following along over on WW, different crowd there for sure gotta wear your big boy pants. Ive used POR 15 in the past with the acid primer, works awesome and very durable it can be thinned for spray application...... not cheap but good.

How many hours do you think so far?

Rick_H wrote:coming along good John, Ive been following along over on WW, different crowd there for sure gotta wear your big boy pants. Ive used POR 15 in the past with the acid primer, works awesome and very durable it can be thinned for spray application...... not cheap but good.

How many hours do you think so far?

I to have used por15 in quite a few applications.

I'm kinda a beginner as far as paint goes...
Small stuff I just used a rattle can.....


As to hours, I'd like to keep that confidential at the moment.


John~

John,

From an engineering perspective, how do you size the components and spacing for desired strength (without overbuilding at increased cost and weight)?

And from the marketing angle, how do customers find their way to you for such projects? Do you do projects like this through a shop, or a personal gig?

RichardH wrote:John,

From an engineering perspective, how do you size the components and spacing for desired strength (without overbuilding at increased cost and weight)?

And from the marketing angle, how do customers find their way to you for such projects? Do you do projects like this through a shop, or a personal gig?

1st question....

I talked to other weldors, other men more experienced than me, as to the bed design....

2nd question....

Personal gig. shade tree welding shop.
I'm a hobbist who thinks he's a pro....

Excellent. And cool build!

I just got done reading the whole thread on WW. A couple observations, FWIW...

Your ball hitch doesn't have flat edges on the top base, so I don't think the idea of tightening it with a wrench top-side will work. I've only ever seen them installed with a large impact gun (like 650ft-lb), and you're not going to get that with a hand wrench. To that end, perhaps cut an access hole under the ball to fit a large socket onto the nut for tightening.

And, good on ya for bracing the rear bumper to the frame. Even stronger would be to use a piece of channel for the brace instead of flat bar. I saw some crash studies on big-rig trailer bumpers of the same style, and having the vertical bars closer to the outside and bracing them greatly improved the survivability of occupants that rear-end the trailer. (Most trailer bumpers will fold under in an impact, allowing the windshield to impact the main trailer.)

Cheers,
Richard

RichardH wrote:Excellent. And cool build!

I just got done reading the whole thread on WW. A couple observations, FWIW...

Your ball hitch doesn't have flat edges on the top base, so I don't think the idea of tightening it with a wrench top-side will work. I've only ever seen them installed with a large impact gun (like 650ft-lb), and you're not going to get that with a hand wrench. To that end, perhaps cut an access hole under the ball to fit a large socket onto the nut for tightening.

And, good on ya for bracing the rear bumper to the frame. Even stronger would be to use a piece of channel for the brace instead of flat bar. I saw some crash studies on big-rig trailer bumpers of the same style, and having the vertical bars closer to the outside and bracing them greatly improved the survivability of occupants that rear-end the trailer. (Most trailer bumpers will fold under in an impact, allowing the windshield to impact the main trailer.)

Cheers,
Richard

I tightened that big ball down very tight. And a locking tab welded on the bottom. In case you missed it.
My thinking that the only reason the ball would ever need to come off, is that it was worn out.
It takes 100dreds of thousands of miles to wear this grade of ball out.
I'm not sure if I want to punch a 2 1/2" hole in my channel...
Would weaken it quite severely I'm afraid..



Should be adequate to perform it's prescribed duties.


You must be a man of nerves of steel to have read the whole WW thread...

The bed is surprisingly good, considering the conditions it was built in...

Quite the fabrication masterpiece in my humble opinion...

I appreciate your time and concerns..

John

Nicely done, I'd agree. It's always cool when someone's willing to fund a project that you gain experience from!

I saw the locking tab, but it sounded like that was before trying to tighten it down from the top. I just know what it takes for the shop to put a ball on my truck, and ain't no way I'm getting it that tight by hand even with a cheater bar. But more concerning, I didn't see a hole in the thread for a cotter pin on the ball - that's to save your bacon no matter how it got tightened, and I don't think I'd want to install any ball hitch without one.

FWIW,
Richard

Come on John, show them the painted product. I still say it all looks good for the first time especially!
-Jonathan

My ex wanted to know why I was driving all over to look at used beds for the Ram 3500 dually I just bought. Wanted to know why I didn't just make one. Told her I can't buy the steel for what I can get a used bed for. I have to show her this thread sometime. Took a couple hrs to cut and remove the old bed I bought from seller's truck at his business (he had forklift at least) but got a 12x8 ft wood deck flatbed with liftgate for $500. Would love to build one from scratch but just made no sense time or money wise. Your bed Looks really good BTW

Looks great John!!! I am helping my brother in law right now. He bought a brand new GMC Sierra 3500, regular cab short wheel base, cab and chassis that he is going to use for a pipeline rig. We were planning on building a steel bed but since he has to run across scales and it is already going to have a lot of weight we are going to go with aluminum. I just bought a new tig machine and it is wonderful on ac. I have been practicing like crazy running different joints and configurations trying to get ready for this build. We are also looking at purchasing a bigger mig welder that we can run a spool gun off of to try and save my tungstens and torch from the abuse of all that welding. Looks very good and when we get started I will try and take pictures and start a thread. He is also talking about having us cut him some custom designs in his bed since he knows an awesome free hand plasma artist

mcoe wrote:Looks great John!!! I am helping my brother in law right now. He bought a brand new GMC Sierra 3500, regular cab short wheel base, cab and chassis that he is going to use for a pipeline rig. We were planning on building a steel bed but since he has to run across scales and it is already going to have a lot of weight we are going to go with aluminum. I just bought a new tig machine and it is wonderful on ac. I have been practicing like crazy running different joints and configurations trying to get ready for this build. We are also looking at purchasing a bigger mig welder that we can run a spool gun off of to try and save my tungstens and torch from the abuse of all that welding. Looks very good and when we get started I will try and take pictures and start a thread. He is also talking about having us cut him some custom designs in his bed since he knows an awesome free hand plasma artist

I hope you do a build thread on it. I would have liked to build an aluminum bed if I had the time and money.

My brother in law is buying the material and designing it, and I am providing labor tools and skills maybe. I will take plenty of pictures.

DJ,

Its funny you should mention price vs time.

We (Me and the customer) had looked at a handful of beds.
But most were wood decks, no goose neck ball (And if there was, it was usually in the wrong place)
Some were different frame rail widths, and some were 11' long, some 14' long.
We couldn't find a bed even close to what we needed for this truck.


We could build a bed exactly how we wanted it.
That's what it came down to.

Total cost of supplies was about $2500,(USD) when you figure in all the stuff (metal, lights, wiring, paint, etc etc)

There was no way on earth that we would find a bed to fit this truck, without some serious modification.

This was the best route to take.

Coming along great, and should be done by the end of this week.


Matt,
Please do take lots of pics of your alum bed build.

And I hope your Neverlasts last....

~John

I am quite sure they will last. I bought the appropriate sized machine this time. I didn't realize at the time that the machine we bought was for occasional use only and we were using it daily rigorously Lasted good for 6 months but this time we bought a bigger one that is rated a lot better than our old one.

Chassis cabs are odd creatures when it comes to beds.
Frame rails and rear axle is narrower than normal pickups. Makes it harder to just pick one up.
Luckily got one for mine for $400. A little beat here and there, but it does it's job.

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79jasper wrote:Chassis cabs are odd creatures when it comes to beds.
Frame rails and rear axle is narrower than normal pickups. Makes it harder to just pick one up.
Luckily got one for mine for $400. A little beat here and there, but it does it's job.

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Dodge is really screwy. Their dually is a 38" frame rail but has offset risers the front and wider flanges on the rear to fit 34" frame rails. That's standard for medium duty trucks. Some pickups also use 29" rails
Pic was all my tools and torch loaded up to get the new bed