Do i need to clamp it? Will it warp?

admin

Im in the process of making a headache rack i finished the rack portion (that i tack welded to some steel) and need to weld up the 6' long bed rails. does it need to be clamped or tack welded to something? Could the bedrail portion end up warping? I am using ⅛" 1½x1½ angle iron and ⅛" round tubing.Last edited by mike450136; 15 Hours Ago at 12:11 PM.
Reply:

Originally Posted by mike450136

Im in the process of making a headache rack i finished the rack portion (that i tack welded to some steel) and need to weld up the 6' long bed rails. does it need to be clamped or tack welded to something? Could the bedrail portion end up warping? I am using ⅛" 1½x1½ angle iron and ⅛" round tubing.
Reply:All welds create distortion, how much depends on heat input, material thickness and the amount of welding you do on it.6ft of welds on 1/8th mild steel is a good way to end up with a banana shape, even if you clamp it that's a lot of weld to try and keep flat. Do you need to do full length welds? Pictures or more details would help.
Reply:




Reply:With all of the heat on top of the bed rail, it will tend to bow up.  Really no way around it.Add to that, angle is very hard to heat straighten.  It moves very fast, and moves a lot.  It's not unusual to overdo it, and have it bow the other way.Clamp the bed runner to some 3" square tubing, preheat it, and skip around on the welds.  It's about the best thing you can do.  It's a tough one.
Reply:Or (mischievous grin) you could MIG weld it.  No heat, no penetration or fusion, no problem



Reply:I'd give the parts a hefty preheat before welding. Definitely clamp to a big piece of steel to keep it straight. Sent from my Lincoln Buzzbox using Tapatalk
Reply:i dont have any 3" sqare tubing. do you think tack welding scaffold would work? or does it need more support


Reply:Welding those posts all the way around will warp the angle pretty good.Welding them only longitudinally (in line with the long portion) will reduce the warp quite a bit.Welding across the short way will warp the worst.Begin with the knowledge in this awesomely old video - I show it in class.

Last edited by MinnesotaDave; 12 Hours Ago at 03:43 PM.Dave J.Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw~ Syncro 350Invertec v250-sThermal Arc 161 and 300MM210DialarcTried being normal once, didn't take....I think it was a Tuesday.
Reply:Anything that stiffens it will help, but that rusty old tubing won't give you much. If that's all you have then that's all you have but anything that's unsupported during the weld will still move. Sometimes if you stiffen up just the end of a part it'll drive all the weld distortion to the unsupported middle. So those little posts are just standoffs for the round tubing? Are you more worried about keeping it flat going down the length of the angle iron or keeping the legs of the angle iron roughly perpendicular to each other?As long as the posts won't see a bunch of shearing force applied to them (forces applied parallel to the 6ft section of angle) I'd think you could get away with a little stitch weld down the skinny sides of the standoff. Probably still warp but it won't be nearly as much as welding all the way around each one.