I was talking to a friend today that has some Ryobi ONE+ tools. He says that they are okay, but he thought that I should use LED lights and/or a headlamp. I am trying to do everything that I can with the ONE+ tools, so I will still be looking to those for all of my lighting needs. My friend suggeste...

If anybody has any ideas on how to do things differently, particularly with regard to safety, I would appreciate it.

I want to make the largest effort possible in order to eliminate the possibility of explosion, fire or health problems due to poor air quality.

This is what the inside of the van looks like; it was obviously a delivery truck. It has no rear windows. Even though I will be in a cold place, the rear and side doors will be open while I am working in order to maximize air quality. I will upload a picture when I am done converting it to a mobile ...

So I bought a Ram ProMaster high roof that I will turn into a mobile shop for my own projects. Since it is an enclosed van, I chose brazing for a welding process because I looked at TIG off of an inverter and it looked like I would need too many deep cycle batteries. At home, I have a 220V AC/DC TIG...

Here is the most recent bead that I made. I gave up on the wire wheel for removing the mill scale. I also tried 60 grit emery cloth pulled tightly on a large flat file, but for some reason the surface of the steel sheet was not flat after its trip to the hydraulic press. I now use the flap disk. I a...

Just a thought... but have you considered building a ring roller and constructing the internal shield from a single piece, then welding just 1 seam? That would be a huge time saver, not to mention consumables (gas and filler) and other necessary work (grinding, pressing, etc). You mean a single, in...

Here is the "shop" that I will have while I am at The Hobart Institute. I will only be there two months a year, and the shortest lease for a house or shop that I could find was 12 months. I will outfit this cargo area specifically for making these plates. I plan to make about 330 of the pl...

First, good on ya for developing your own bike, and good on ya for learning to weld! I'm trying to visualize how this armor plating works. The first post in this thread says you plan to bolt as many as 26 of these onto the bike to protect the tube from punctures. Where and how will these bolt on? J...

Fair enough. For this application, I would try simply fusion the steel with no filler. The parent metal should flow enough to join well. It won't be proud of the surface, but it'll do the job. Remember, nice sharp tungsten, short arc. I will try to get a good enough fitup to do that. I always have ...

Kudos to your efforts on welding practice, but I think you may be on over kill mode on this job. Could this part be formed in one piece? Either hot or cold? A small hydraulic press or even a screw press may have enough grunt for forming cold. These are just prototypes to test this particular design...

It looks like I failed to take a photo of the back side after the second pass. It had a very small stretch where I failed to achieve adequate penetration. I will have to wash part of that second bead tomorrow. I am a little frustrated, but I can see that the increase in cleanliness made for a notice...

At this point, I was lost because I had both cold welds and undercut. I decided to just run another bead over the first bead, using plenty of heat. The welder was set at 65A max because the plate had thinned to .063" during the flap disk step.

This is what it looked like after that second pass.

Here is the back side. I failed to go hot enough.

Here is after my weld pass, which I hoped would do the job. It did not succeed.

Here are the tack welds:

Like I said, you guys and gals don't need to feel obligated to comment on my overload of pictures here. This just gives me a chance to analyze what improvements I need to make. Having said that, I deeply appreciate any input. This is the .080" that went down to .063" after I overdid it wit...

Just adding some additional advice about grinding the bevel in... Using your angle grinder and a flap disc, grind the metal on both sides, ends and cut to clean shiny metal. And I mean clean. Then, take the grinder with the flap disc, and grind a bevel to 20-45*. It does not need to be perfect. Do ...

All day, I will get to think about what you wrote at my day job. I will plan to make these adjustments . For the next 5 days, I will have time to weld one plate a night. I will upload photos, but I will try not to drown you guys in these pictures. It would be ridiculous for me to upload as many pict...

So how concerned should I be about the appearance of these welds? I will certainly be practicing a whole lot. Give me a good fitup on a flat sheet and it looks much better. I actually work at a (steel MIG) welding shop 4 hours/week, but I only do cutting, drilling and grinding. My boss is awesome! B...

Final picture for tonight. Looking at the back of the weld, it looks like I achieved 100% penetration.

I took the part to the workbench and checked for warpage. It wasn't too bad, but I made some adjustments with the 4 1/2" pipe that I use to curve the plate, in a vise with a sledgehammer.

Here is the part after I was done welding it:

Here is another view of the completed hole repair. I really don't know what I am doing.

Here is my completed hole repair. I put a lot of heat into it, which you could call washing.

When I went to bicycle frame building school, they touched on how to fix a hole. I have not been officially trained on how to fix a hole, but here is my repair part way through.

I had the max Amps set to 85. I thought I was doing fine, and then I burned a hole: