Window well covers

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Now that I have my new welder (miller econtig) hooked up and good to go, I know what my first project is going to be. After pulling out two muskrats, frogs and 8 baby chipmunks (all alive) I have my worst mess yet, a dead rabit. by the time I saw it all that was left was fur ,a spine and a big pile of magots. So I bought some 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/8 angle and a 4x8 sheet of 1/2 16 expanded metal. My question is what's the best way of making them? I plan to go around the out side of the well and I figure I will cut V notch'es out of the top leg to bend it and reweld it back together once I have the shape. But whats the best way to get the shape? Make a tempate? Or rough cut the expanded and place it on top and trace and cut it and make my frame around that? And welding the expanded to the angle, can it be stick welded or would you tig weld it( 16ga.)? Any advice would be apreciated.
Reply:You can get ideas from sites like these:http://www.andersoncovers.com/http://www.andersoncovers.com/custom...ll-covers.htmlhttp://www.andersoncovers.com/custom-well-covers.htmlBe sure to click on the arrows at the bottom to see moreThe Lord has declared, "This is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  Moses 1:39Link: My name is John, and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.-- ColdCreekWorks.com --
Reply:For my children's bedrooms, as they are little, I was going to build one similar to this, but spring load the door so it was light (in case of fire)The Lord has declared, "This is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  Moses 1:39Link: My name is John, and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.-- ColdCreekWorks.com --
Reply:Though, I don't like the "tabs" they used to get this to stay--lazy designThe Lord has declared, "This is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  Moses 1:39Link: My name is John, and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.-- ColdCreekWorks.com --
Reply:Found a better one.  This is more along the lines of what I want to do:The Lord has declared, "This is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  Moses 1:39Link: My name is John, and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.-- ColdCreekWorks.com --
Reply:Those are nice but I don't have the nice wells like that, mine are corrugated metal and not that big where I could put a door in them, one is 42" x 24" and three of them are 36" x 16" and I don't have the capability of rounding the angle like that. I have a welder and a grinder with cut wheels so I am limited on how I do this, I can go around the outside and get close to the shape. If its a little big it' okay.
Reply:I've made a few in the past when we encased the corregated metal wells in concrete pouring a patio and the customer didn't want to worry about someone falling in. Usually I just made a plywood template of the well and worked from that at the shop.I've curfed the angle and then welded the gaps together in a few instances. It takes a bit of guess work and trail and error to get it close, but it's not that hard. I've also just lagged some small pieces of short angle to the walls and then set bridge grate on top of that in a number of cases. Usually I wrap the bridge grate with a piece of 1"x 1/4" that I bend to match the plywood template and cut the bridge grate short by 3/4 -1" so I still have a gap at the edge of roughly 1/4" to the well to take care of any irregularities.If working with a plain well no one will walk on, you could probably bend the 1"X1/4" flat bar to fit around the outside of the well by hand, then weld the mesh to the bar at the top where ever they cross, then trim off the excess with a zip wheel and clean up the edges with a sanding disk..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:This is the best I could do with an econotig and a grinder with cut wheels. If you rough cut the expanded metal and trace the well with a marker you can cut the expanded with a good pair of tin snips and use that for a template. Even tig welding 1/2 -16 isn't easy, probably should have used 1/2-13 Attached Images
Reply:Looks nice ironwerker, I think the 1/2 x 16 looks better than the heavy guage myself.Did you stick it with the econotig or tig it? The neighbor shop does pretty well with 3/32" 7014 for tacking thin stuff and re-strikes with no fuss at all.Matt
Reply:I stick welded the frame with 6013 rod after cutting out v notches where I wanted to bend it and tig welded the expanded to the frame with er70s 1/6 filler rod, I had to start my puddle in the middle of the diamond and drag the puddle over the 1/6 ga. If you started to close it would burn away.