irocbirdbuilder

Alright guys did one of these on another forum i'm on and was a huge success, plus a good guide for anyone getting into fab work. Rules are tips/tricks/safety for fabrication/ metal work. Take a look at mine and feel free to add your own. Just some background on me, i'm head of welding operations for grain and gooseneck trailer production lines at merritt equipment in denver, certified for about everything, been welding since i was 13 years old, professionally for 8 years, more less a passion i generally come home to some type of fabrication projects


First and foremost PPE, glasses, ear plugs, face shields, gloves etc WEAR THEM

1.next time your at the boneyard pick up a fender, hood, door etc, use it for filler metal to patch up body work or shaving work

2.DO NOT go cheap when it comes to gas welding outfits, good equipment can be the difference in your life, use flashback arrestors, some of the new stuff mixes gas in the tip rather than in the handle..well worth not loosing a hand

3. If you have to weld on or around something with a spray in type bed liner, remove as much coating as possible, wear a respirator or fresh air hood, have a lookout, some of these i know line-x and gatorhyde let off a cyanide type gas when they burn, i saw a 350lbs dude drop fast after getting a nose
full of it.
4.brake cleaner and welding is a no no, this also puts off a very nasty smoke that can cause seizures, death etc, if you have to let it dry very very well

5.Use good filler metal, i run thousands of pounds of lincoln L56 super arc a year without any issue, i was in a pinch and bought a cheap parts store wire one time and it ran like crap.

6. Removing stuck or rusty fasteners? Heat them with a torch and melt wax on em, it will seep into the threads and generally release.

7. WAX+++ we use do-all bit wax at work, saves bits and blades, or atleast extends they're life, if your wife has candles save up the leftovers they throw away and melt em into a stick, also used for number 6 above.

8.It seems basic but keep combustibles away from welding, car covers will ignite, along with insulation on the unfinished garage walls as well as tool box liners if a drawer is cracked open.

9. Broke the head off the bolt your removing? Have a welder handy? Find a nut just smaller than the diameter of the bolt, weld it on to the bolt, let it cool slightly, now you have a new head and generally the heat will help break it free, same goes if you strip the head or nut, weld a new one onto it.

10. Don't wrap your mig lead up tight, try and keep nice big swooping loops or straighten it out, it helps keep the conduit in good shape in the lead.

11. If possible keep a spare bottle of shielding gas full and handy, beverage co2 will work as well, you always run out a few minutes after the supply store closes for the weekend.

12. Get in good with the guys at the welding supply store, mine cut me some awesome deals plus alot of times you can demo the brand new stuff before its out on the markey!!!

13. Need some material for a project, skip the hardware or steel supply store, if you have manafacturing facilities around town talk to those guys, my shop scraps more steel in a day than alot of people could use in a lifetime, companies pay to get rid of scrap, most of em will sell it to you for a little more than what they will pay the scrap company. I picked up 8ft long pieces of 3/16 steel in 2", 6", 8" 12" wide straps and 3 8" wide 6ft long pieces for a custom bumper on my truck for under 10 bucks.

14. Stop by a tech school and pick up curriculum books, if the school has a welding program, the one i went to had a "store" you could go in and buy books from

15. ASK generally welders are good people to be friends with, especially good welders, offer a case of beer or a few bucks to watch them work or just get advice and learn from them, i have had many neighbor guys and they're sons welding at my work bench, chip in some cash for gas and wire you can learn alot.

16. Back to PPE wear a face shield over safety glasses when grinding, grinding wheels do and will come apart and they hurt like hell when they do. Same goes for welding wear glasses under your hood, slag goes where slag feels like going!!!

17. When welding on a vehicle safest bet is to disconnect the battery and keep the ground as close to the work as possible, i've been using this for years and never "fried" any electronics like you hear about.

18. Keep a bunch of sizes of "cheap" wrenches in the shop, when those times come when you need a 90* box end wrench that drops to a 45* 3" after the 90 you'll be thanking me. Cut that bastard and weld it the way its gotta be, learned that at 3am last christmas eve changing a part on a buddies diesel, bout hung myself cutting and rewelding a 1 1/2" snap on wrench ;(

19. Simple trailer theft solver, take a old ball, back the nut out 1/4" or so off the shaft and weld that bastard on, stick it in the coupler and put a good lock on, i swear i'm going to sell em, so simple and effective.

20. A scrap piece of square tubing in a vice does wonders when you need to heat and bend something, tack it to the tube, heat it up and do what ya need to do, mainly if your bench is wood

21. Enjoy what you do and take pride in it, i'm behind a welding hood 8+ hours a day, and i love it, i come home and fab up even little things or weld for the fun of it...Works just practice for home!

22. Mechanix gloves will burn!!! I use them usually to tack up for the dexterity but good leather gloves are a must once the arc starts running.

23. If plug welding or filling holes(mistakes) etc. Aluminum clamped behind steel for steel and steel clamped behind aluminum for aluminum.

24. Weld smoke on aluminum(mainly with alum mig) does not come out of aluminum once its exposed to outdoors, rain will make it permanent, wire wheel and wipe it off.

25. Plasma cutters will chop body parts, guy a few years ago lost half his pinky finger trying to disprove my point that the plasma will not cut unless it has a perfect ground.

26. Aerosols in tubes are wicked dangerous, welding a gooseneck coupler (built upside down) employee comes to ask a question, he sets a can of grafitti remover on coupler and we walk to look at his problem, i come back thinking he had the can(which had fallen into coupler tube) my mistake for not checking proceed to weld 2ft long vertical down coupler welds and that can blew, lifted the frame 1.5 ft easy off the jig, and shot the can into the insulation on the ceiling, burned the crap out of my shirt and pants from the basically rocket spray that came out under it

we'll start with that add your own, lets see what we come up with

ncmail

awesome post very good tips. thanks for taking the time to put this up. THIS SHOULD GET PINNED!

and I second wearing safety goggles and a face shield when chipping slag. When I was in my welding class my senior year I ignored all the safety warnings (cocky teenager syndrome haha) and got hot slag in my eye. Really f**ked my vision up. I can see good now (years later) but there were several months were my vision was cloudy. You can see a dark spot on the white of my eye where it melted and without contacts I am next to blind on my left side.

ncmail

And have you taken OSHA safety classes? They love saying PPE. I took one for my job and I didnt know what the hell PPE was til one of the other confused people in my class asked. He never bothered to explain it ment personal protection equipment lol

irocbirdbuilder

Yes sir i've played with those guys, i'm on the safety committee with the company, basically we meet once a month, review accidents and walk through a area and find issues that need to be addressed.

I'll continue to add mine to the original post, rather than running up seperate posts, so check back to the orig every so often, just trying to guide people along the path i've learned the hardway lol

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

I worked at Honda for a while. Youd be lucky to get 20 minutes alone without hearing PPE atleast once

Add to the list welding gear needs to complete head to toe even for the small jobs. That includes the head rag and shoe leathers. Ive done the hot foot dance more than once...

Ear plugs arent for your hearing when welding, they're to keep the sparks out. Yes, the sizzling is very loud on your eardrum and feels equally awesome

Keep lots of working sharpies, white masking tape and soapstone around. Youll always run out when you need one

Primetime91

iTrader: (15)

You didn't really mention it, but making sure that what you're welding is clean and free from anything that will contaminate it is really important.

Keep your head out of the fumes! If you can, try to get good ventilation. (without blowing the shielding gas away) If your helmet gets nasty looking pretty quick, you need to change your position.

Personally, I like to clip the end of the wire off before each new weld so I have a "fresh" start to the wire, also clean out the nozzle and tip pretty regularly.

I always wear a hat facing backwards under my helmet, not because it looks cool but it keeps the sparks from landing on top of your head or going down your shirt, those hurt like a ****.

3rdgenmaro

iTrader: (9)

Id like to add a few things

Always keep a fire extinguisher near by.

Dont weld, grind, cut with pants with frays on the bottom. Caught myself on fire twice like that.

Proper shoes. NO tennis shoes. Slag burns through them right to your feet.

irocbirdbuilder

From what i'm hearing yall are afraid of a little pants fire lol, Primetime good catch on the clean metal especially when it comes to aluminum!!

I'd like to add to this DUTY CYCLES. This is so simple yet so often not know or just misunderstood. I was working with a new employee who is fresh out of 3 years of welding school, real mechanical guy, great welder and i said oh yea dont worry about duty cycles the booms your on are 100%. He looked at me like i was dumb, so duty cycle explained, directly from the miller catalog.

"Duty cycle is the amount of time during a 10 minute period that the welder can continuously operate at its rated output without causing heat damage to the system. For example, a millermatic 252 has a 60% duty cycle at 200 amps of DC output. It can weld for 6 minutes out of 10 and then needs to cool for the remaining 4 minutes. For applications requiring extensive arc on time and/or welding at high amperages, choose a welder with a higher duty cycle, such as a delta weld 452 with 450 amps of DC output at 100% duty cycle. If a welder is operated below its rated output, the duty cycle typically increases"

So why does that matter? Most 110 and even lower end 220 machines generally have 20% duty cycles. This means you can run a continues weld for 2 minutes at its rated output, and 8 minutes letting the machine cool. So for small garage projects its ideal, just beware of the 2 minutes so you dont risk harming the machine, the miller i have at home has a 20%, luckily mine shuts the power out of the welder off when it hits its cycle to safegaurd against damage...Problem is i hit it alot, While i definately do not need a 100% cycle machine in my garage, i'm going with what suits my needs.

When picking any type of welder look at the duty cycle, i'm going with a new millermatic 350P,(yes i bleed blue) still a fairly small package but provides a 60% Duty cycle at 300 amps, more than enough for my garage, but still enough power to get big stuff done(Its not uncommon to have skidsteers and large trailers in my driveway, poor poor neighbors of mine)

If money is avail pick a welder with just a little more than you think you'll need will save you time and money down the road when you need to step up.

irocbirdbuilder

Heres one i learned a few years back trailer welding livestock trailers, more for the professionals or just to keep your tips in one spot. I'd be up front on the top deck of a 53' cattle rack and burn up a welding tip, would have to work my way through everyone else installing gates down to the first deck to get out of the trailer go 50 feet to the back of the trailer, and 50 ft to the front where my tool box was to get a tip, the shirts we get from the company have open pockets so usually the bottoms burn out from overhead welding, so tips in the pocket are lost tips...Problem solved, i chew and had a empty can there, why not put the tips there? One of them beef jerky cans will work as well, we have to turn in tips to get new ones so i toss the old one in the can and grab a new one and put the can in my pocket

bonebrake22

COPENDIRT!?!??! you need to man up and get some real chew..haha

AlkyIROC

Hot metal looks the same as cold metal. After cutting a piece of steel, use a piece of soapstone or chalk and write HOT on it if you don't immediately cool it off.

Cotton and nylon clothing burns. If you get slag or sparks down your shirt, don't pat it to put out the fire. Hot slag against the skin is worse than the cost of a shirt.

If you're under a vehicle and welding, if you smell cotton burning, stop welding. You're probably on fire.

A simple spray bottle full of water beside your welding is good to put out small fires.

Sorry but after reading through your list, it looks more like common sense stuff. I've been a mechanic for too many years to think any of them are real tips. A lot of stuff is trial and error learning or ingenuity fabrication to get something done. You could make a list of thousands of different things and it still wouldn't cover every little trick someone might know on how to do something a little different. I'm always teaching apprentices different ways to troubleshoot or repair a job. If they remember it, that's good but don't expect anyone to remember some little tip or trick.

RS Chris

Common sense is a big one too.

ncmail- I agree 100% about a face shield when chipping slag. I was in welding classes one night chipping away slag. A hot piece shot up right under my head band on my hood and seared itself right onto my skin. Had a dime size dot right on the middle of my forehead for about 3 weeks.

GTA50

I for one appreciate all of the above tips. First of all, working on cars is not for the faint of heart. Secondly though, is the "short-cut" approach is not the safe approach. An aquaintance with one of the local fire departments has commented on the number of bodies they have had to remove from underneath cars in home shops.

The one quote that drives me up the wall is "easiest way is best".

"Planning, preparation, then performance" is my motto.

So again, good tips - especially for the amateur.

irocbirdbuilder

Common sense to real complex stuff is all welcome, i deal with a crew of good welders everyday and amazes me the things i tell them and see em do day in day out trying to make life a little easier, yesterday for example in a run to get caught up rather than taking the time to hook roof carriers through 3" light holes in a 32' gooseneck roof assy, they hooked under the coves and as they got to the trailer guy on front crane over shot the trailer and they pulled the roof off the carrier and dropped it into the trailer, thank god no one was in the trailer. All to save a minute, some people looking through these may go ah yea thats common sense but some will have no reason why or how they have to do things

RS Chris

It only takes one little mistake or missing something in a rush to create a dangerous situation. I would rather take five or ten extra minutes to make sure something is right all the way versus a day or two fixing the mistake.

Primetime91

iTrader: (15)

If you're welding in a patch panel or something on a body panel, where it's not exposed to great stress and you need to minimize distortion, weld it in using tack welds. Weld them an inch and a half or two apart, let the panel cool, put in another set of tacks next to the first set, etc until the panel is completely welded.

It won't be as strong as a typical weld, but the heat affected zone is much smaller and distortion is kept to a minumum

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

I'll second or 5th or whatever the double eye protection when grinding, welding... slightly different but same issue, I was taking appart soldered copper hot water heater fittings when I was a kid, heating with a torch and it wouldn't come appart so I hit it with a hammer... ended up launching some solder in my eye, it stuck my eyelashes together and melted my contact... I consered that lucky, the only damage I suffered was a slight burn on my eyelid. that could have been much worse.

Again, I'll second that. My first project after buying a welder was LCA relo brackets. Sitting under the gas tank, wearing nylon shorts (dumbass), I got tired of the sparks burning my legs and covered them with a towel. A few minutes later I noticed it getting warm, then I noticed some extra light getting in behind my face sheild. It took took a few more seconds to figure out that I was on fire.

Laying on the floor welding (subframe connectors, exhaust...)- _earplugs_

The first time you have a hot welding goober bounce around on the floor and get in your ear you'll understand.

ericjon262

My advice, don't rush, walk don't run, chances are, if you're fabbing something up, it's very easy to screw up, and probably hard to fix.

Norwood

iTrader: (1)

All good tips. bunch of experts around here. I got one hardly nobody has ever heard of. If you are welding on something that is really rusted up bad, just find you a rusty welding rod and give it a try with that! It will still be a really horrible weld but you sound really smart telling that to newbies....

zachkuby87

my motto is preperation prevents poor performance

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

I really like this topic. Here are a couple tips I have learned over years of wrenching on my 3rd gen and other vehicles.

- Whenever I have to loosen a bolt that's in really tight or rusty, I'm very very careful about how I position myself and how I grip the wrench. I think about what will happen if the wrench comes off the bolt or it suddenly releases. I make sure the path my hand would take is clear of anything that will hurt! I've smashed my hand, skinned my knuckles and even cut open my finger on sheetmetal by not taking the time to analyze the situation first. Not fun.

- Before fighting a stubborn bolt, here's a smart way to utilize leverage instead of straining yourself. For stubborn bolts, first attach a socket wrench or a regular wrench using the closed side. Now take another larger wrench (7/8" or 18mm usually work) and hook the closed end of the larger wrench either around the handle of the socket wrench or into the open end of the smaller wrench. You now have a much longer effective handle to give you leverage on that bolt.

-It might sound weird, but in some cases you can use your stronger leg muscles instead of your arms to loosen a bolt. I used the trick above with a breaker bar and a 7/8" wrench on a tough bolt under my Blazer. Then put a folded up rag on my leg just above my knee and wedged my knee against the wrench and my foot against the frame rail and pushed. It was very controlled and broke the bolt free with minimal effort. Much better than busting my knuckles and straining my back/arms!

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Actually, in a pinch you can tig or gas weld rusty metal using a coat hanger (the junk steel in them seems to melt at a lower temp so you don't instantly burn through the rusty crud... of course, that will never be a strong or long lasting weld).

as far as pushing up on the wrench with your knee... if it's really that tight you can try putting a jack under it. For that matter, a few things that will help getting stuck/rusted... fasteners loose:
- a mixture of some kind of solvent an auto transmission fluid will work better than most pennetrants, usually you hear acetone as the solvent but it doesn't really dissolve ATF, so you have to keep shaking the stuff to keep it mixed
- similar trick, heat the fastner with a torch (propane works), and then touch a candle to it. the melted wax will wick into the threads lubricating them
- If it doesn't seam to want to move, try tightening it, sometimes that is just enough to get it to unbind so you can back it out.
- hammering loosens fastners: give the head of the thing a few hard whacks with a hammer, some people swear by taking a center punch and putting it up against the flat on the bolt and hitting it in the direction to back it off. Hitting the wrench with a hammer or even the palm of your hand sometimes works (but isn't great for the tool)

Have something with a press fit like a bearing race that doesn't want to come out? Run a weld bead around the inside, when it cools it will shrink and the piece will usually fall out out. Welding heat will do this to most steel, it has lots of useful applications. Hammering has the opposite effect.

63bravo!!

here are some iv seen go bad... if your gas tank is leeking... just drop it the time saved cutting a hole in your floorboard to patch it is NOT worth a week in the hospital!!!!
1 2x4 cannot hold an engine and trans
a air cleaner stud is NOT a good place to lift a engine out of a car with
an m16 takes 10 times as long to clean as it did to shoot it
jackstands are life savers! even when just changing a tire us em! thats why their there yes a car does hurt when it falls on you even if it is just the tire!
come alongs are rated for a specific weight not a good idea to rely on it to hold something it aint rated for to hold someting over you
if u bought it at harbor freight its probably gonna break so make sure u aint underneeth it when it does

i kno these sound common sence but i have seen 20+ year mechanics make these mistakes so maby its not so common lol
good news is smoking around deisel is perfectly safe!!! lol col totaly **** his pants when he saw that one

Salvo

This goes along with the first post... Check your local Dump scrap metal pile for old hoods and good metal. I have been doing this for years and have a good selection of hoods that i have picked up and cut out teh body metal. Good solid steel tubing that i have made nice bumpers and things for my 4x4. you would be amazed what you find their. I have come out of their with 3 sets of front and rear axles for my toyota and toyota solid fronts are hard to find anyware... and best of all its all free

khulsebus

iTrader: (2)

ppe is used in the army too

63bravo!!

Hooah

EFIhead

I was trimming a replacement floor patch for a bird with an air cut-off tool. The piece was clamped to my work bench and I was apparently too close to the sparks shooting out from the tool because I finished my cut and found a quarter sized hole smoldering in the front of my sweatshirt. Good thing I had a couple shirts on underneath that or that woulda burned!

BlueMagicSS

A lot of good tips and advice in this thread. Although some may be seen as common sense... Common sense isn't all that common, not everyone has it.

KWIK84

iTrader: (5)

NEVER wear loose clothing around drill presses, once again common sense, but I have been around (luckily) when someone wasn't using any common sense and got there sweatshirt caught up in the drill.

zachkuby87

Keep your hands clear when using a hydraulic press my buddy just about a month ago was doing a qaulity inspection on an exhaust pipe to make sure the weld help up and lost most of his thumb

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

never hold something that you're drilling with your hands... I knew better and just tried it opening up some holes in some brackets with a step drill... the drill caught, whipped the thing around and wedged my thumb between the bracket and the drill taking a nice chunk out of my knuckle...

89_RS

I'm completing my OSHA 30-hr cert currently. Over Christmas I'll do a nice write up for the thread. PPE is great to talk about, but it helps to know what it can and can't do. I also happen to have covered Welding in great detail for my OSHA class, so it can't hurt to supply that info.

mudmaster

cant fix stupid
common sense actually is not that common........

never weld something that has brake clean on it. the fumes can kill you or severely damage your nervous system for life....... if you have ever sprayed a rear out to weld the spiders and then smelled the fumes when you started welding you know that chit is toxic by the smell as well.

dont try to put out fire with windshield wiper fluid... its flammable, mostly alcohol.

always make sure car is in park when you start it. disconnect battery before changing starter. especially if it is a stick shift or neutral safety switch is unhooked.

see above, use neutral safety switch....

dont hot rod with your kids in your car.

if you have a t-top car and dont wear your seatbelt your not real smart. most fatalities from auto accidents happen from ejection in any car , t top or not.

dont buy new headlight motors for your firebird, go to lowes and get some plastic spacers and whittle them down and drop three in each motor and screw back together and your finished.

dont lean on friends cars.... i am fukn tired of people cracking my plastic wing on the back of my 91 pro street t.a.

let your engine warm up before you run the **** out of it.... also if your drag racing, safely jack up the rear at the track and secure it and let the rear end warm up or drive it around the pits....

dont drive without your safety hood latch... my paint job was two weeks old and painter had removed back up latch. i stood it up on the back bumper off the line, car flexed and popped latch and it folded back in windshield at half track.... not a real good day

always torque your lug nuts.. when you go to have your tires installed, insist they torque them instead of hammering them 30 seconds with a 8o00 lb air impact wrench.

stay cool in town and the cops will leave you alone..... they would much rather ticket the pimply 17 yr old in the honda with the fart muffler and shopping car wing than you in your muscle car...... been driving around in a blown t.a. for months now with abnoxious loud spintech mufflers, no cats, blown big block with nitrous and no hood ( see hood latch tip above) , back halved with wheelie bars and parachute and four link and passing state police often without incident to date by behaving and being respectful in town...... i will regret posting that soon.... lol

dddogg11

Also everybody that's gonna replace qtr panels scrape all the foam from the weld area weather is flexable foam or structural ridgid foam when that burns it puts off cynaide. Don't wanna breath that smoke in. Also wear a respirator when welding galvinized metals!