welding up a bumper kit with 115v mig (mostly)

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This (Welding Tips & Tricks) video was linked to me & I really enjoyed watching it! Jody is getting along pretty good with a no-name 115v & switches to a hard wire Hobart after running out of 211 cored for the first mig. He does weld the tow lugs on after the 15 min mark with stick & a buzz box saying "I just don't want to ever have to explain to someone why I did it with a 115v mig"..Of interest also for plasma table guys is the "small kerf cut with bend tabs kit" for the bumper could give all sorts of ideas to cutting fab time down a bunch... I thought it was pretty cool. Anyway ->Happy viewing!Matt
Reply:Most bumpers in my humble opinion shouldn't be built with steel greater in thickness than 1/8" or maybe 3/16" at the very max!  A bumper needs to absorb the impact from a "fender bender," BEFORE the chassis frame gets bent.  The thicker the steel of the bumper, the greater the chance of bending the chassis and that's a SUCKED thing to happen.  Most trucks on the roads now from the big three as well as  Toyota, Nissan and Jeep are all about 16ga in thickness, give or take.    A 115v mig welder with the experienced "WELDOR" at the controls, is perfectly capable of fabricating a bumper.  By the way, my unprofessional, unqualified  and worthless opinion is in absolute agreement with Jody on using the stick welder for the tow lugs.Last edited by SuperArc; 03-17-2014 at 01:32 AM.Lincoln Power Mig 216Lincoln AC/DC-225/125Miller  625 X-Treme PlasmaMiller 211 Forney 95FI-A 301HF 91110Victor Journeyman O/PMilwaukee DaytonMakita  Baileigh NRA Life Member
Reply:When we made a bumper for my buddies Ford Ranger we used nothing but my HH140 (110v), hand power drill, and a angle grinder.(grinding wheels & cutting wheels). Worked out just fine. Even tow a utility trailor with it.We just did multipass on everything just in case with Hobart .030 FCAW. We tried using the original Ford brackets but they were to weak so we used some angle iron and cut and ground it to the shape of the brackets and sandwinched it and maxed the welder out and weldded the crap out of it and even did some plug welds.. made some more brackets out of plate. We even yanked out a few tree stumps with it and he ran into a tree stump too and held fine. We did this before trying to pull a trailor. lol I will say his bumber is pretty basic. Just square tubing, plate for brackets and to tie the square tubing together and for end caps for the tubing and for mounting d rings. angle iron for mounting brackets and for bracing. diamand tread for top plate to have more area to step on and a cheap reese reciever hitch from walmart. Generic rhino liner type product applied to prevent rust.HH140---------------------------https://www.facebook.com/brandon.pike.9
Reply:Original design of the bumper also had a swing out tire carrier and tool box we made our selfs and was awesome BUT we removed the swing out because from the vibration and weight of the tire the 1 inch square tubing that was holding the mount for the tire would crack. not the welds but the tubing it self about a inch aaway from the welds. we live where it all dirt roads and roocks so its bouncy and rough.forgot to mention the bumper was made to mount a hi lift jack on it so if anyone rear ended it the jack would take the hit first then the bumper and then the truck so who ever did rear end it would have there nice new plastic car f'd up. lolHH140---------------------------https://www.facebook.com/brandon.pike.9
Reply:Originally Posted by SuperArc...A bumper needs to absorb the impact from a "fender bender,"....
Reply:I call those inflexable bumpers " damage multipliers". Yes the bumper survives unscathed but now the vehicles' frame has a nice big buckle in it. It could be fixed with a machined out aluminum block that could deform saving the frame but most people cant make such a thing, so they just weld 80 pounds of steel to the front of their truck.old Miller spectrum 625 Lincoln SP-135 T, CO2+0.025 wireMiller model 250 and WP-18V torchCraftsman 100amp AC/DC and WP-17V torchCentury 115-004 HF arc stabilizerHome made 4 transformer spot welderHome made alternator welder