No tractor work lately, last couple of nights in the garage have been spent welding, cutting and a little grinding. Not as much grinding as some of my welding projects entail. Welder was running great. I had a little problem yesterday, welding 45* corners out of 2 inch square tube.my Auto darken hood needed new lenses as the other ones were well used and pitted. Started to have problems seeing and following seams with the bead. New lenses for the hood and much better.
One of my son's friends that boards horses gave him a pile of tube and a drawing and told HIM to "build this". Idk where this is going to be set up at but they wanted a handrail 128" long, 36" tall, with 1 vertical center divider and 2 horizontal ones. Of those, a 2" tube one at 18" high with the other being 1" square tube at 9" from the ground. It was going to be built in my garage instead of his anyway but I wasn't expecting the pile to be dropped off and the job passed off onto me / but it was.
We talked about this, whether to have it at 38 or to cut the legs off 2" each, the boy wanted to just weld the top rail to the tops of the vertical legs and cut caps for the ends of the top rail, I 45'd the top rail and the end legs)/ it's a stronger joint and eliminated the need to cap anything off.
I welded up the legs, great so far. I cut the center leg to 34" (36"-- the thickness of the top rail) and welded it in place, at this point still great.
It was when I went to weld in the 1st half of the middle horizontal 2" tube, and now since welding in the middle vertical leg I had some wobble to it while laying on the garage floor, I had my wife come out to hold the other end of the tape measure so I could cut the center horizontal rails, still square in the corners but slightly warped the other direction. But all centered and measurements were good, the same from either end towards the middle.
I had her stand on the middle leg (with the handrail laying flat on the floor) while I squared up and welded in the 1st section of 2" horizontal lower rail/ and stopped there for the night. Everybody decided to stop by last nite, to BS and slow my progress.
So today after work I headed to the garage to continue, and when I went to remeasure for the 2nd horizontal 2" tube on the other side of the vertical center leg I got a different number than yesterday. 1st real sign of problem. Ok , checked everything welded out so far for plumb and square, all checked out.
But when I went to measure with the tape for the 1" square tube at 9" up I got 5/8 " difference either side of the center. Did it warp that bad from the heat of welding or did the guy get me "banana bar"?
Nick (the kid) did come by and help me finish up today which was good. Welded in the 2nd 2" middle" tube.
We then took 2" ratchet straps and tied one outside leg to my 2 post lift, and had 2 people stand on the horizontal rail (upside down) which while cranking on the ratchet strap trying to pull the center leg towards the "big" half, and cut the 1st 1" tube (what was now the "short" side) a bit long and wedged it into place with a hammer, and tacked it in, under tension. I cut the 2nd 1" tube and put it into place, it came out a bit short, I found a piece of 2-1/4" exhaust pipe (hey it was handy) which I cut to match the space between the 1st side 1" tube to 2"tube, as a jig/spacer to match the height of the 2nd 1" tube to the 1st one and welded that 1" in. The scrap exhaust pipe worked great as a spacer to set the 1" on top of, while I welded that at each end.
Now last night, when I last set it up right on the garage floor, (note above where I had left off) and all 3 legs sat perfect on the concrete.
Tonight when we went to weld on the feet for mounting, the ends were fine, but the center (which we did last) had 1/2" of daylight underneath, with the plate beneath the center leg. In the same place within the garage, as I was working last nite, even. We're not talking sheet metal here. This was 0.090" thick walled 2" square tube. I found some 1-1/2" tube and tacked it to the mounting plate, stuck that inside/under the center leg, and ran off probably a 1/2 a roll of mig wire to weld in the gap/ and tie it in to the center leg.
It came out level and plumb somehow but with all the fighting of distortion from the heat, it's a miracle that I'm not sure how happened. I certainly wouldn't have expected this much problem keeping everything square.
