I will be welding me some rock sliders on the truck today. I've never welded directly to the frame before. I was just wondering if there was anything that needed to be watched out for when welding to the frame or something I need to be careful of. Thanks.

 

Disconnect the battery first.
And use scab plates and gussets.

 

So I did a quick look up on scab plates as I'm not familiar with this. Is it basically just a plate that is welded onto the frame where the sliders will weld on and then weld the sliders onto the plate? I read that the plate should be roughly 2x the size of the area being welded on. Also, what thickness would be good for the plates? Thanks for all the help. I'm pretty sure I would have just welded directly on without the suggestion.

 

id weld the plates onto the sliders first, then plates to the frame. do the same thickness of sliders material

 

3/16ths will do. 1/4 is a bit overkill.
Something like this is sufficient:


I went with something like this, because welding vertical is a PITA. The diagonal allows for better beads.



I generally tack the scabs to the frame, then tack the legs to it, set the slider angle, tack a few more times, then pull the whole thing off for finish welding.
If you just weld the scabs to the legs before anything, well, I hope the scabs don't interfere with any brackets or anything. Ya know?

 

ah yeah i figured it was implied when welding tack everything prior to welding er up.

 

Measure. Check. Measure. Etc repeat

Check where legs will hit frame and not interfere with anything.

Clean frame. Tack scab plates to frame. Check slider legs again.

Tack weld on legs at angle desired, check again to frame.

Weld everything out only and only after you've checked everything clears and is straight, square, even everywhere and like you want it.

Kills me when I quote someone $150 for welding on sliders and they think it only takes 30 minutes. Welding doesn't, but getting everything "right" is the hard part.

:wabbit2:

 

well said Wabbit the welding is the easy part

The prep work is 90 % of the job.

If vertical welding is difficult and it is not a case of enough practice you most likely are either not in comfortable position or in the wrong position to see the weld puddle and make it dance.

Maybe you have made up your mind vertical welding is difficult after hearing people claim it is and now believe that to be the case

 

It's not difficult in my opinion, especially when you are going down.

 

lawlz TWSS

 

What does that mean?

 

lawlz TWSS = ha ha That's What She Said.

:wabbit2:

 

Maybe I don't have enough practice with it. I know that last time I welded on a set of sliders my flux core welder was throwing too much slag, I had a really crappy position, and got some really crappy welds. After that, I said screw it. Next time I do sliders the legs will be diamond.


......

 

Ah... .got ya. ha ha.

 

Welding vertical when standing upright is much easier than welding it upside down..
though the diamond idea is pretty good.

 

I saw a video on youtube about vertical mig welding. The guy said when welding vertically you want to weld bottom to top cause you will never get the same penetration welding top to bottom. He also suggested a triangle pattern.

 

Like your scab plates and gussets. I did my own too. Think all the good advice is given.

 

wabbit got it lol haha

 

I always go bottom to top, the welds look better that way. The penetration is much deeper, and always has better adhesion.

 

I'll have to weld bottom to top then if it's got better penetration. Guess I never thought of it that way, but then again I don't have a lot of experience welding either. Just when I need to get the job done I bust it out.

I just finished up one side. I'm starting up the second side right now. I'll try and get up some pics, but it's kinda a pain as the forum always says my photos are too large to upload. It turned out pretty good though.