Truck dog box

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So I'm in need of a dog box for my truck. It's just a cage to hold my dogs when I go hunting.I can buy A nice aluminum one for 650, a cheaper (thinner)aluminum one for 400 or a nice  conduit one for 350. I think most people get those for light weight, but I'm not worried about weight.So basically imagine the width of a fullsize truckbed, 5'long and 22" tall. A 2 bay cage made of bars with no sides or bottom, 2 swinging doors at the front and a solid back(sheet metal or plywood). What's going to be the cheapest material to use for this? And would it be worth getting a welder from harbor freight and trying to do it myself? I have no experience and not many tools.Also if you are a welder, can you tell me what I should expect for a price on this?Sorry for the been question, I'm going to search around while waiting for replys.
Reply:A lot will depend on how you want to build this.If you want to use alum, don't bother buying a HF welder. They simply will not work well for the materials you probably will want to use and alum isn't the easiest thing to weld.I can see building most of this out of plywood with basic hand power tools as the cheapest and easiest way to go. You can probably get Depot to cut most of the sheet goods to size for minimal cost and then just screw it all together and paint it. Your lack of tools and I assume building skills will determine how costly and easy this is.I'm planning something somewhat similar in the spring. I need to build a larger cage to go in the back of the truck when my friends daughters get their 4H pigs. My plan is to build the basic frame from angle iron and then "skin" it in heavy 4 ga 4"x4" wire mesh with the whole thing set on a pallet so we can unload with the forklift. The only reason it's cost effective is because I've got all the tools already. I've got roughly $75 in the 3 sheets of wire already, and I'm betting at least another $100-200 in the frame when I get the design figured out ( want to be able to break it down for storage) My guess is if I price out the basic tools I'll use, I've got close to $1500 in tools alone if I use the "cheap" ones..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:If I had no welding skills and needed to build a dog box, I'd make it out of wood.  Seriously.  That's what a lot of the bear hunters around me have.
Reply:DSW, you beat me to it by one minute.
Reply:I may use plywood for the back, and part of the roof, but I'd never build a wood box, I'm in south Florida.I guess I should be more specific, it will be mostly metal, I have read conduit is galv. So the smoke is toxic? Bad idea? How bout angle iron and 1/2 pipe?
Reply:And I'm not thinking of trying aluminum myself. it would be a stick or wire feed from harbor freight, both arc welders right?Just weighing my options, before I go to a couple different weldrrs for pricing, wanna know what to expect.
Reply:If you don't like wood, maybe styrofoam/ plywood covered with fiberglass. Both easy materials to work with that are strong, light weight  and weather resistant.Conduit has many down sides. One it's galvanized and yes the fumes are toxic. The galvanizing will also play havoc with you getting good welds. Best bet is to sand off all the galvanizing. 2nd it's very thin and often a real PITA to weld well even with the galvi removed.Black pipe is so so. a lot of the pipe out there is cheap import pipe and it doesn't always weld as well as it might. Galvi pipe has some the same disadvantages as both conduit and black iron,.the galvi needs to really come off, and the pipe is often of poor quality. over all pipe is better than conduit, but it's heavier obviously.Note pipe/conduit is not the easiest thing to learn to weld on. You have to keep changing the gun angle as you weld, and you are constantly welding "out of position". Both increase the difficulty and it's made tougher because of the small size. Pipe/conduit is also a PITA to fit up well. You will need to fishmouth the joints of many of the connections. Large gaps will be a pain to fill and a nightmare with something as thin as conduit.Now about welders. Stick and wire feed welders are both types of "arc" welders, but there's roughly where the similarities end. Stick welding is usually best with thicker materials. Even with small rods, you will find conduit an extreme challange because of how thin it is. Wire feed welders either use fluxcore wire ( very similar to whats used in stick welders but thinner, or solid wire and a shielding gas. FC machines are cheaper, but like stick welders, they tend to burn hot and are poor choices for thin materials like conduit. Gas and solid wire is a better choice for thin stuff, but at a significantly added cost.Note that the cheap HF 110v units that I'm guesssing you are looking at have a lot of down sides. In general quality ranges from OK to useless. There's no way to know what the quality of the one you get will be until you try it. Most units fall somewhere in the middle. The wire machines commonly have erratic feed issues which will give you problems making decent beads. it's often hard for the newer welder to tell if the problems they are having is due to themselves, or the machine. Also all these machines are very underpowered. you simply don't get enough power for many things out of a 110v unit. Note the thickness ratings are WAY over rated. Most of the lower priced units top out at a bit under 3/32" and even the best  140 amp class 110v machines top out at 1/8" under real world conditions. Note iron pipe is pushing the max on most small units as far as thickness is concerned. Small stick and FC units have a very narrow range they perform in. They are too hot for thin metal, yet lack the power to do thicker stuff.All of this isn't to discourage you, it so you understand the many "hidden" pitfalls that usually hit new welders who rush off and buy inexpensive machines to do projects and then don't understand why things don't go smoothly. You are choosing to work with fairly difficult materials ( thin materials, galvi, and round small stock), you are most likely thinking about using a machine with some definite drawbacks and some serious limitations, and it sounds like you lack the basic back ground in general fab skills and tooling. It's sort of like trying to learn to juggle while at the same time learning to ride a unicycle while balancing on your head on an overhead wire. Don't expect good results right away. Expect it will take you some time to learn all this stuff. Don't expect to take it all home and get started in an hour or so if you want even fair results.If you must do this in steel, go with angle iron. It's simpler and easier to fit up. Work with material that's say 3/32" or so in thickness if you go with 110v. Pick a name brand mig/FC welder ( hobart makes some very nice inexpensive machines that are decent quality) preferably a 230v powered unit rather than 110v. In addition to the welder expect to need at least on 4 1/2" grinder for clean up and prep.My guess is by the time you are all done with this, you could have bought two of the $600 dog carriers for what you have in practice materials, project materials, tooling and so on. DIY is not always the way to "save" money....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:Cheapest materials would be steel angle, and ordinary concrete reinforcing mesh.Particularly if you can get some offcuts at a scrap metal yard.Cut up all the pieces yourself and bolt the angle together into it's full final shape.Then get a local welder to weld it all up for you.About 95% of the work is cutting out the pieces and fitting it all together.  Do that part yourself and if it is already bolted together, the welder just has to just quickly go around zap all the joins properly, a fairly simple quick job that should not cost very much.Then use a good chromate primer to stop it quickly turning into a pile of rust.Last edited by Warpspeed; 02-12-2012 at 08:45 PM.Cheers,  Tony._________________________________Transmig 310 + Argoshield LightOxy acetyleneOxy propanePrehistoric stick welder_________________________________
Reply:Thanks guys, just the answers I was looking for.So if I went with steel angle for the frame(50'), and either 1" flat bar, or 1/2 pipe(120'), any of you have any idea what I'm looking at in material?Last edited by jdjp; 02-12-2012 at 09:01 PM.
Reply:why dont wood work in south florida?
Reply:A wood box is like a sauna in the summer, not to mention ugly.Yes I asked about cheap material, but this is a WELDING forum. I sure didn't register to learn about wood... I didn't even expect anyone to throw it out there, but I guess I wasn't specifc.
Reply:1 x 1 x 1/8 angle iron and hog panels from Tractor Supply (or any farm and ranch store) and some rattle cans of Rustolium.Probably be able to do it with just one hog panel as they are 16' long.About $20 to $25 for the hog panel, a couple of sticks of the angle, paint and a couple of sheets of plywood and you would be well under a $100 bill for materials.I have built a few dog kennels using horse panels and 1 x 1 x 1/8 angle and they turned out well. Heavy, but almost indestructible. LOLjrw159Last edited by jrw159; 02-13-2012 at 02:01 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by jdjpA wood box is like a sauna in the summer, not to mention ugly.Yes I asked about cheap material, but this is a WELDING forum. I sure didn't register to learn about wood... I didn't even expect anyone to throw it out there, but I guess I wasn't specifc.
Reply:Well since its going to be a project with the bulk of the metal being bars then you should draw up a design, (barspacing size etc) then find an estimate of how many feet of bars you need. Call a steel place and get prices.  You need to decide what kinda bars because there will be a significant price difference between someSent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
Reply:Originally Posted by jdjpA wood box is like a sauna in the summer, not to mention ugly.Yes I asked about cheap material, but this is a WELDING forum. I sure didn't register to learn about wood... I didn't even expect anyone to throw it out there, but I guess I wasn't specifc.
Reply:Originally Posted by tbone550Pardon me.  I will refrain from answering questions asked by you in the future.
Reply:you missing the point. this is a welding forum. .."i got no experience and no tools...boohoohoo..." you  not ready to weld..not for this pack of dogs..maybe the next.go buy the aluminum box for 650..
Reply:I don't know about Florida but in Alaska folks haul 8 to 16 sled dogs at a time all year long in boxes constructed of plywood. The design allows for the sled to be carried as well.  Use pegboard partitions for air flow between the individual boxes.  See the attached pic of my neighbors 16 dog unit.  Keep in mind that they are pretty serious about their racing kennel and run their dogs all year long.  Summer runs are to stay in shape for the winter races Attached Images
Reply:I have talked to a few friends, and I think ill try to do it myself. What's the worst that could happen I have ugly welds, most of which will be hidden and I get a lot of practice.I'll come back and post some pictures when I'm doneI understand though, we all want to think not anyone can just pick up and do what we do.
Reply:Good luck,you will need plenty.