Edge Distance- How far from the edge should a hole be? When I worked in aerospace, it was a simple formula that worked- "2D" Meaning- Edge distance should be, at a minimum, twice the diameter of the hole. While it may sometimes be impossible to maintain double the diameter of the hole to the edge, wherever it is possible, it should be maintained. Also- on a different note- another thing I learned in aerospace was the effectiveness of many smaller fasteners over a few larger ones. Aircraft are built with millions of small fasteners and they are strong! If you have the chance to use a larger number of smaller fasteners versus "one in each corner," do so. It is not only stronger, but it looks MUCH better. Scotch~!
I've mentioned this before but thought I'd add it to this post. When you have a large amount of welding to do on a small piece and you know that the quan***y of heat will warp or damage it. Stick the part into a bucket of water to weld it. The water acts as a giant heatsink and is perfect for preventing damage of areas that cant be effected by heat or warpage. Alot of guys raise there eyebrows on this one but as long as you don't decide to get your gloves wet there's no chance of shock. Besides the amperage of any welder is designed not to shock or electrocute you.
petejoe, are you saying to immerse the electrode in the water; or just get as much of the part as possible into the water but keep the electrode (and the area being welded) dry?
Get out of Dodge! Thats a great idea. I have a used prostetic arm that I made w/ a strap on it to attach around my neck. I use it to hold the wires in place so I can use my other two for the Soldering gun and solder. Time to throw that one away...and go to the paint caps....
Naw,,, I'm not underwater welding Just immerse as much as possible without getting the seam wet. Water and molten metal just dont get it. Think Hawaii's volcano/ocean water action here. If the seam gets even slightly wet it will cause porosity in your weld.
thanx. looks like you could do the same thing with a rag d****d over the metal that you keep pouring water on if the piece is too big for a bucket.
Hey, When fabracatin patch panels.....try for a design of patch that does not contain right angles, but rather radiused or round corners. This allows ya ta keep weldin continuiously, once tacked , of course
When I am going to cut something in the band saw, I make my layout line with a Bic ball point pen. As soon as you start to cut, the chips will stick on the ink line and make a very bright silver line that is easy to follow. It sounds strange, but it works. When you are going to look for radiator hoses for your new project, go buy a length of pre-heater tube that runs from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner on a lot of later model cars. The stuff I use is silver in color, and very flexible, plus comes in different sizes. You can make it to the exact shape you need for your radiator hoses, then take it to the parts store and match it up. It is also great for making headers.
You all know how long it takes to make a repair patch out of 16 or 18 ga C/R for that bad place in a floor or body panel.....The first cut is usually an initial or "rough cut"- then you grind or trim with tin snips to fit-right? Heres a tip. instead of cutting around the entire perimeter with tin snips or even thos 1/6"thin- cut off wheels on an air tool, try this. Score each side of your marked lines[with the cut off wheels] I mentioned,[the heat will bluemark the back side]- this will then allow you to take some wide jaw pliers and bend it back and forth a few times...causing it to break on that score line...... then grind the edge with a 24 grit disc to fit...... It saves lotsa time [and cut off wheels] they aren't free ya know ....and it will work well on even 1/8" Cold/Roll steel, as well...you'd be suprised how much faster your part can be made this way! It also puts less heat in your part and less dust in the air to breathe....
One thing I've used for holding a nut where your hand won't fit is to glue it to a wooden tongue depresser like the doc uses. Enough to get the nut started and saves the cuss words for other stuff.
Great tips, I learned a lot so far... Couple things I like to do: Weld in nuts to make later ***embly/dis***embly easier, you no longer need two wrenches. When looking for smooth radiator hoses, if you can't find the exact hose, buy formed hoses that are longer, and cut the portion you need (with the correct shape) out of the middle. Put the shrink tube on BEFORE you solder...and use liquid flux, it makes less heat necessary for a proper solder. Lastly: fab body mounts using at least a couple shims (in addition to the rubber insulator) to allow for later adjustment. This on doghouse and fender mounts especially. Cosmo
When you decide to bend up some headers, use cheapo PVC of the same tube diameter and a propane torch and mock those puppies up. Then take the PVC to a muffler shop and have Joe Dirt at Meineke bend up your tubes. Or be cavalier and bend up them ****ers yerself. Doh, a fella who is ****ing KICK *** at sheetmetal showed me the cresent wrench trick...depending upon the opening of the wrench, you can bend in various radii into the edge of sheetmetal - bigger opening for larger, smaller opening for sharper corner. Simple but effective. Remember that your SBC cam is tapped at the end (1/4-20 I'ma thinking) .,..and so is your earlier spare tire retention hook. Screw that ******* into the cam so you can store the cam hanging instead of leaning against something (NO! Bad boy). TP for old canister type of filter. Easy one, maybe someone posted it and I missed it. It's easy as HELL to strip your oil pan drain plug...don't panic, go get a self tapping at any auto parts store. Sounds simple, but I freaked like HELL when I did it the first time. Paperclip can set your plugs and a matchbook can set your points in a pinch. Your chicks nailfile can be used to file your points, too. Wax coated milk cartons are excellent for water seal gaskets (water pump or especially thermostat housings) in Sunday at 10 p.m. thrash situations. Black pepper will HONEST TO GOD seal a temporary radiator leak. I've done it and it lasted better (1 year) than any OTC fix they sell, including Alumaseal. SBC fuel pumps can be used on inline 6 cyl. Chivvies. Advance Auto sells a 6 volt electric fuel pump for a VW that works GREAT for early 6v manly man cars. Whatever..I've got more from semi-poverty and a car addiction. Not all of us can be precision tuners for life!
i wire edge daily, the measurement is 2 and 1/2 times, this will leave a perfect amount of metal, if you measure 3 times, the metal is too long and will make a ****ty looking bead
Well I guess since were all talking patterns I'll share my tip: I use duct tape to make patch panels sometimes. You can loosely stretch it over an area, then stick it down where you want it. You can see where you need to cut by the bend in the tape where it sticks to the metal. After you cut out or mark your shape on the tape with a sharpie, you can either stick it right to the metal, or trace it and then save it. Duct tape also works well for compound shapes where paper or chipboard wont. Heres a tip for drilling holes in a straight line on a drill press. Get a drill press vise and bolt it to the table, then set your position and just move the part down in the vise for the next holes.
I like to use lumber for mock ups instead of screwing up expensive steel. I make my practice cuts with my miter saw in the same dimension of lumber as my steel. 2x2's and 2x4's are cheap and easy to work with and mistakes can go in the wood stove to keep the shop warm.
Another one from the aircraft industry -- Bolts install from the front of the vehicle to the rear, and from the top to the bottom. That way, if the nut on the backside falls off, vehicle motion (forward) and gravity help to keep the bolts in place and the part from falling off. When wiring, a good crimp is always better than a soldered connection. Soldering hardens the copper, and the vibration from the engine running or driving down the road will cause the soldered joint to crack and fail.
well, ntaphse beat me to the wd-40 on hoses trick, we use hairspray instead when we need the hose (or motorcycle and bicycle grips) to stay on. the hairspray dries sticky. don't think this one was mentioned, it's more of an ***embly tip: for p***ing wire through a firewall or another awkward/small space, i cut a length off of one of those 70's telescoping car antennas, i first push that through where the wire needs to go, then slide the wire through the antenna and pull the whole thing and then remove the antenna length. this is not so much for those model a's with no engines, but for under the dash of your custom or daily driver where space is really tight. this is a hell of a lot easier than trying to just push wire through a small opening. tred.
Finding the exact centerpoint on square tubing. Use a square to scribe two lines across the tube. (Dashed lines in pic) Use a straight edge to scribe two diagonals. (Dot-dash lines in pic) Point where lines cross is center.
How about some basic stuff? Maybe everyone reading this is an accomplished fabricator...maybe not? When you tack weld something it "draws" When the tack cools it shrinks pulling this perfectly aligned tube... Out of square. It's a fact of life. So plan for it and use it to your advantage. Find the high spot on the cut. This is exagerated. I hope you make better cuts than this. Mark the high side and place your first tack on that mark. When it cools it will lift the tube or bracket closer to that perfect 90 deg. desired angle. If you have no high spot tilt it a little away from the side you are going to tack. The tack will then function as a hinge. You can tap the unit back and forth until it's perfect. Make your next tack on the other side exactly 180 degrees apposite of the first tack. Why as close to 180 degrees as possible? Because the two tacks will now work as a hinge to perfectly align the piece in the other direction. Tap it until it is perfect, make the third tack and then imediately make the forth tack 180 deg. opposite the third tack. Both will then cool at the same time "pulling" against each other leaving the unit square. Many beginners don't get the welds 180 degrees apart making it hard to "hinge" the unit in the desired direction. When welding tabs onto a frame rail, for example, lean the tab a little away from the side of your first tack. When it cools it will straighten up some. You can then easily tap it up toward the tack for that perfect 90 degree angle. Tack the other side to lock it in place. If you start with that perfect 90 degree angle, it will "pull" out of square when it cools. Now you have to try to stretch the tack to get it back to square. Usually it just breaks off and you have to re-tack it but now you have the old tack to grind off or weld over making it not as nice as it could be. To square a flange on a tube, an old style wooden 6' rule with the slider or anything that can be used as a depth gauge makes it easy to square. Set the depth as in the first picture close to the flange... Then check it at the end of the square. When you can see no daylight (both measurements are the same) tack it 180 degrees across from your first tack. Now check it 90 degrees from those tacks. No math errors or forgotten measurements. Just checking the gap. K.I.S.S. Just some basics for the younguns.
for pattern making: this is a tip that was p***ed on to me and has saved me time in the past. When making a pattern or template out of cardboard or paper or whatever your preference is, when it comes time to trim your pattern for proper fit always keep the small trimmed pieces and tape them to the back of your pattern. Why? if you trimmed the pattern to small (because you didnt measure twice, or if something was not lined up etc.) you can just tape the small trimmed pieces back on to your pattern and trim again. This saves the hastle of making new patterns and having to find materials to make your patterns. I hope that makes sense to all of you.
Here's a good one: called a centerpoint tape measure and comes in two sizes a small 1/2 in wide 12 ft. and a 3/4 25 ft. Its laid out with a set of numbers on the bottom of the tape that is exactly half of the number you see on the top of the tape (center). Some people are quick with math and don't need this but the rest of us out there find this tape measure invalueable. It can be bought from any sign shop supply co. Also check out transfere tape. Its a low adeshion mask that can be had in widths up to 36" wide and has a million uses, especially masking off those flames as it cuts easily and clean with a razor blade.
Heres one I haven't seen anyone mention, to find center on anything factory square like tubing, flat bar stock etc., use your dial indicators set to half of the part, IE 1" on 2" flatstock, hold to the edge and use it to scribe your line down the center. And no it don't **** your indicator up, or it hasn't mine yet and I been doing it for years.
The Jalopy Journal
