Making a welding bed ideas/help

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I want to make a welding bed for my truck. I'm looking for help and ideas on the best way to make one. Meaning cheapest way but still have a quality bed and not a cheese ball, also the tricks on getting it all nice. Just everything. Thanks!
Reply:Call bob king and order one, that's the least amount of aggravation. Draw one up have your corners rolled and weld the seams. What looks best is not the easy way.
Reply:Are you from rifle colorado? I use to live in eagle but now live in Australia. I would have one made but I live in a different country than all the bed makers. Also have always wante to make one myself.
Reply:I was interested myself as theres alot of cowboys around my town and it makes loading/unloading hay off the bed easier. It would be a gold mine if I could build em cheap enuf as the rodeo is coming soon.Another member here estimated for me about $1,200 in materials but thats at his cost. I would guess a minimum of 20 hours for something cheasy.
Reply:I don't mind putting in hours for the bed. I have been thinking about it and I think the best way for tool boxes and other accessories would but to make the whole bed with no cut outs or anything and then once u have take welded everything securely you can then start marking out where you want everything. That way you have the whole bed built and can see how it is before you start putting in big holes. Since I don't have a place by me that rolls edges I will either use sq. tube or pipe for the top edge.
Reply:Originally Posted by ShakaweldingI don't mind putting in hours for the bed. I have been thinking about it and I think the best way for tool boxes and other accessories would but to make the whole bed with no cut outs or anything and then once u have take welded everything securely you can then start marking out where you want everything. That way you have the whole bed built and can see how it is before you start putting in big holes. Since I don't have a place by me that rolls edges I will either use sq. tube or pipe for the top edge.
Reply:I don't know what kind of truck you're rigging up, this is the preliminary plan for my new bed.  It's for a Dodge Dually.-------------------------Chemetron AC/DC 300 HFSnap-On MM300L Lincoln SP140 Lincoln AC/DC 225g Lincoln SA200 Lincoln SA200 Miller Bobcat 225GVictor torchesH&M and Mathey beveling machinesMcElroy Plastic pipe fusion
Reply:I say preliminary, the basic layout is going to stay the same, but I'm going to change the boxes some.  the bottom picture, the taller vertical box at the front of the bed, will house 2 oxygen cylinders.  The box straight out from the welder with the hand cranks on the end will be the lead reels.  Same basic reels i'm running now, except they will be enclosed in a locking compartment.  torch hose and remote reel will be in under bed box at the front.  The top opening boxes are each 2 compartment, with individual doors.  the rearmost ones on each side will probably stay about the same height as drawn, mainly tall enough to be rod boxes.  The front compartments I think I will make taller.  The reason for the low profile design is to still be able to pull a gooseneck trailer or my 5th wheel travel trailer.. I'm still thinking about another box between the frame rails at the back, where the spare tire would usually mount.  And a 100 gallon fuel tank built in somewhere (to fuel equipment from).  I've got SA200's right now, but I want to make my welder trough to where I could switch machines in the future (Sa250, SAE300, PipePro 350, Vantage...)  I've drawn it up for any of the Lincoln machines I might run, but havn't gotten measurements for the PipePro yet...This might not be anything like you have in mind, I'm setting it up as primarily a pipeline rig.  I know a lot of people don't figure in near as many boxes, but I like to be able to keep everything I need for up to 12" on the truck.  Beveling machines, line-up clamps... I've got beveling machines up to 30", clamps up to 26" of my own.  I've actually got a band beveling machine that I think I have up to a 48" band for, so I'm pretty well set up tool wise..-------------------------Chemetron AC/DC 300 HFSnap-On MM300L Lincoln SP140 Lincoln AC/DC 225g Lincoln SA200 Lincoln SA200 Miller Bobcat 225GVictor torchesH&M and Mathey beveling machinesMcElroy Plastic pipe fusion
Reply:Yes 100% I will start with drawing but was thinking after the drawings.  And the scoring idea is a good idea. I will be able to make it look pretty as I have done alot of that kids stuff as well. As to the photos that looks very similar to what I was wanting. Almost read my mind. Thank for those. What thickness will you be using? 1/4" or 3/16 or what for middle and then lights for the outside? What's your plan on putting the add ons? Make the whole bed first with the basic idea of where they r going and then cut it out or do it as you go alone?
Reply:Google: "welding truck bed images".https://www.google.com/search?q=weld...hrome&ie=UTF-8
Reply:My basic plan (which is subject to change...) is to start from the frame up.  I don't want to end up with crossmembers where I need open space for boxes, so the frame will be designed with all my boxes in mind.  I kinda plan on getting everything fabbed up and in place, then welding it all out.  Everything I can do that way anyway.  I have thought about buying a flatbed to use as a starting point, then go to hacking and adding on it, but I'm not sure I'd save any time in the end really.  There would be some drastic changes to be made, and I'm really leaning towards not doing that.  I'm planning on using 1/8 for most of the deck, then the area behind the top boxes, at the very rear of the truck where the v channel is, probably 1/4".  I am going to weigh out the weight differences between using 1/4 and 3/8 there though, as that is where any heavy beating on stuff would take place.  For the boxes, I need to do some research, I'm thinking maybe 16 gauge.  But I've never really dealt with that thin of metal before, so I need to do some research on it.  I can weld thinner than that, but I want to make sure it will be durable enough.As for the welding aspect of it, I will probably stick weld the framework, although I could run dual shield flux core, the rest I will probably mig.  I also have a tig machine if I need to use it.  I probably will tig the fuel tank when I figure out where I'm going to put it.  I've got a friend that has a true welding shop, that can shear and brake a lot of the parts, and I will probably get a lot of the steel from him.  He buys a lot of sheet and plate, and can get a lot better deal on material than I can.  I would like to have a plasma cutter, but I can do about anything I need to with a torch really.I want to get this thing together as soon as I can, but I've been working 140 miles from home since December, so I havn't had a chance to get it going yet..  I'm driving my old rig right now, and it's working ok for what I'm doing, but it's a giant pain in the rear end going back to a single cab truck after driving a quad cab for 12 years... Especially working out of town.  After I get my new rig going, I'm going to re-do the bed and boxes on my old one, I have enough tools to rig out both trucks.  My pardner is a welder too, so we could both go out and hit the pipeline that way, or with 2 rigs handle whatever work I can gather up.  I've still got all my pipeline equipment (trencher, sidebooms, boring machines, trackhoes, dozer, backhoe...) so if I could just get into some pipeline work again we'd be set.-------------------------Chemetron AC/DC 300 HFSnap-On MM300L Lincoln SP140 Lincoln AC/DC 225g Lincoln SA200 Lincoln SA200 Miller Bobcat 225GVictor torchesH&M and Mathey beveling machinesMcElroy Plastic pipe fusion