Magnusian

Some history:
Some of you may recall (especially since I just bumped that thread) that my truck came with a fairly basic flatbed that itself was starting to fall apart. (click for huge as always)


Novemberish 2009 I got fed up with it and ripped it off, intending to build a new flatbed to replace it. I got the material for the bed's frame, and then that material sat in my shop for over a year waiting for me to start welding it together. Unfortunately at the time I was so green to welding I needed mowing and didn't want to risk ruining the material until I'd gotten better at it. I kept putting off the practice to rip other things apart and start and half-finish other projects on the truck. (Look ma, my truck still had wheels back then!)


Then this January I got to the point where I couldn't reasonably rip anything else off the rear of my truck. I have the frame nearly stripped of all rust and paint from the horse-collar back, spring hangers cut off, etc. Putting off welding practice any longer would basically mean I could not continue forward.


I found myself loathe to do this with my arc welder, as all of my experience with it has been making repairs to farm equipment on much heavier material. I also have a mig welder that was setup for flux-core due to my laziness about getting a bottle. I am -awful- at flux-core welding, though I have improved somewhat I wouldn't trust a single weld I've done with flux-core to do more than look like some awful globular mass. So I finally got around to getting a gas bottle and some solid wire and a couple weeks ago setup my welder for MIG, grabbed some random scrap from the pile, and started going to town. Almost immediately I could tell MIG was going to be (and now is) my favourite way to weld. The difference in the quality of my first MIG welds vs any flux-core weld I'd done up until that point was day/night. Spent the rest of that day practicing, getting feed rates right, testing out different thicknesses of material, etc. Did the same this past Saturday, and while my welds are by no means perfect I felt confident enough that I could move from the scrap to throwing together a (my first) real project as more practice for the welding I need to do to my frame.

The welder (LE MIG-Pak 180):


That project is this flatbed:


I figure that the worst that can happen is that I ruin the bed and have to start over, and even then, it's more practice. What I can't afford to screw up is my frame, as that would basically spell doom for my truck, because let's face it, I'm not gonna get a frame in as good a shape as mine for the $350 I bought my truck for, not in the salt belt.

Daddy always said "Son, you need a good grounding." I'm not sure what he meant by it but, when I discovered my ground clamp couldn't clip onto the 2" thick steel tubing, those words came to mind, so here's a bolt tacked onto one of the tubes to act as the ground.


I wish I had taken pictures of when I tacked the four outside tubes together, and the ensuing genius of how my dad determined how to make sure the whole thing was flat and square (it's less than a 1/16th" out of square at last measurement and pretty darn flat). Instead here's a picture of me making sure one of the cross-member braces was square before tacking it on.


So far I've managed to burn a couple holes in it that I managed to fill. Still locking in on that sweet spot for feed rate and how fast I go. I actually discovered that some dummy forgot to turn the gas back on when he went to tack the crossmember in place too.

That leaves just the other two crossmembers and four braces before I can start welding it together. I'm a little worried about how I'm gonna do the outside corners so I think I will leave them for last.

Hard to really see it now, but I think I like the look I'll end up with, and I can live with the bed sticking out a bit on both sides.



So, any bets on how long this bed put together by a nerd who is basically self taught will last?

Magnusian

Didn't get anything done on it last weekend, spent the time sleepin' instead. Gonna finish assembling and welding up the frame this coming weekend and get the mounts tacked on so I can do a test fit.

My truck's frame is a about 1/8" out of square from the cab back (cab forward is out like 1/32") and the passenger side rail is also about 1/8" lower at the back, there's a collision in the vehicle history that says my truck was damaged on the passenger side of the bed at low speed years ago and I guess it's been like that ever since. So, because it's out such a small amount should I put the mounts on the bed as if my frame is completely square and flat or should I take the slight offsets into account? I don't think I'd have much of an issue with lining the bolts up either way.

Magnusian

Did some work this weekend, the frame of the bed is done. I didn't put the bed mounts on because I ran out of light.

Someone order some snow?

This is what happens when you park beside a building that has over a foot of snow on the roof, a stove going full bore inside, and no insulation. Good thing nobody was outside when it happened!

All crosspieces and braces tacked in, starting to get really heavy now, I can almost not lift it:


Now to weld it all together:


Doing that pile of welds in all the corners, the engineer in me was starting to hate me for over-engineering this bed (it's pretty overkill if you think about it):


Some nice jerk decided to increase my feed rate by 25% without telling me and about a third of those welds I couldn't figure out why it kept feeling like it wanted to move further and further away from the material, until I looked over and saw the dial on 5 instead of 4.

One of the nicer-looking welds.


Doing the corners, I just love macro-mode pictures, don't you?


Ugly and slightly ground to hide my shame:


Waiting for next week:


What's next:
Mounts to bolt it to the truck.
Mounts along the back and sides for drop-in sides.
Rollbar with some plate and expanded sheet metal to protect the rear window and back of the cab.
Lights.

SCToy

Make sure you test some of your MIG welds on scrap and then bend them to the breaking point. MIG can look pretty when in reality there is no penetration. Might want to get yourself a wire brush to clean the rust off the steel around where your weld is going. The Macro shot of shows it just being ground down, didn't know if you cleaned it up a little more. Looks good though, hope to do a flat bed of my own some day

irab88

iTrader: (4)

sub'd

i'd comment on the pictures and say how awesome they are, but i can't see them here at work. so i'll just say that your description is great

have fun!

Magnusian

Have already done lots of welds on scrap first, my BFH and tractor couldn't seem to break those welds and honestly I keep having problems with melting through the material I'm welding instead of not getting enough penetration. Turned the volts down and kept the feed rate about the same and I still burn a few holes. I think I'm going too slow or something. Eh, it's a learning experience, I'll get better with time, I really just didn't want to make my frame repairs my first major welding project.

Also, the macro shot of the corner is the only corner I forgot to wire brush first, but I was trying to keep the weld only on the ground area anyways and the joint seems as good as the others. The corner where the weld's already been ground a bit (second macro shot) it's hard to tell but it was wire brushed clean before I ran a bead over it.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

ok, now that i can see the welds, nice job! the welds look clean from my pov

SCToy

yea, definitely a learning experience, be careful not to burn the metal. Good idea to stay away from the frame until you feel confident. I haven't gotten a chance to MIG yet, but I am on my 3rd TIG class at the local community college and loving it. Still saving for a TIG welder though. Keep up the good work

Magnusian

I'd love to try my hand at TIG some day, though I'm content with sticking with MIG for now and improving my skill with that.

Just noticed that all the thumbnails were opening to the same picture, fixing that now...

levsmith

Lookin good. Dont worry about the welds. Mine look like a pile of poop, but they haven't failed me yet! lol. Maybe when I get a house I can start practicing on it. Keep the updates coming

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

You never said anything about changing polarity when you switched to solid wire.

Maybe that is why you had such issues with the self shielded wire running on the wrong polarity.

When your ground clamp will not attach I just use a C Clamp cleaning your Metal first makes welding so much easier.

If you feel your weld puddle is getting to hot just let go of the trigger let it cool as soon as it starts to lose the red glow give it another shot there is nothing wrong with that method.

Magnusian

The welder originally came setup for fluxcore and I'd verified the polarity when I did that and as many as two engineers verified the polarity was changed and correct when we converted it to MIG.

Since I don't really have time for a proper class I'm kinda learning as I go, and have been using a start-stop method to counteract the hole burning. Any tips and suggestions are appreciated, I do want to improve.

As for the status of the bed: Nothing this past weekend. Still figuring out what material I need to finish it up.

Magnusian

No real update for fab work on the bed this weekend. I did buy some lights for it though from superbrightleds.

2x http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...lbl-r16w18.htm
I was going to go with their PT series lights for stop/turn/tail but wasn't keen on having to cut a lot of holes into the bed to mount them. I'm not a huge fan of box lights like these, but I can always go some other route if they don't work out. I should be able to mount them in such a way that they won't interfere with anything that ends up on the bed.

Got four marker lights for the four outside corners of the bed (two lights on each side) since the bed sticks out a couple inches from the cab and I am not the most spatially aware person.

And of course a light for the license plate, since it is legally required even though I don't have plates yet.

Inu

With Mig and FC Pushing has a slight cooling effect and dragging just the opposite. A slight side to side wiggle will also help with burn through and flatten the bead. Nothing like practise. I just drug out my FC machine and Did some ugly buggers before i got back into it.

Magnusian

Got some mail today:



Yes, I do have a fridge under my desk at work, same brand as the one on my desk at home.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

oooh... purdy! led, i assume?

Magnusian

Yup, from superbrightleds.

2wdWonder

Did you mount these lights up yet? I am thinking of doing somthing similar, how did you end up wiring them in? Like the project so far.

yotaman1861

Im gettin ready to do a flat bed on my 85 4x4 and i like that light setup you have there, youve gotta post pics with them installed!.

Magnusian

I've had a lot of work to do around the farm, especially since it's sugarin' season and haven't had a chance to finish it. Also waiting on a bunch of stuff and I still need to order those hemlock planks for it.

As for the light setup it'll go something like this:
] or [ = marker light
[] = tail light
+----+ = bed sides/tailgate (these will actually extend over the lights but don't in this diagram)
o===o = cab-side of bed, will be rollbar and some 1/8" sheeting that will go up to just under the rear window, in between the two pillars to protect the cab.

Marker lights will be wired to be constantly on when the headlamps come on but the two closest to the cab will also be wired to alternate with the signal lights. As I've yet to dig into the wiring I haven't come up with a solid plan yet but I'll post a schematic when I do. I will be wiring the tail lights to do stop/turn/tail as they have the pigtails for it (4-wire) though the wiring harness for the rear lights is some spliced together nightmare that will require me to run new wiring.