Welding Project for my wrangler. All advice appreciated.

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So its pretty much as the title says but I will lay it out a little clearer. I am building a stinger bumper step by step to protect my winch, the offroading I do I am not too worried about roll overs or front end tips, so as far at the strength in those aspects I am not concerned. Its main purpose will be to protect my winch and any deer or other critters that decide to hop out, as well as to knock any tree limbs etc out of the way. I still plan to over build the stinger portion so in case of an accident it will be safe and will not colapse onto my grill/hood and will work as a functional bumper to some degree. I am currently running a stock bumper which is 1/8 steel at most, cut down to close frame width. so It doesnt give much protection. Anything will be an improvement. Several of the pieces I have ordered pre made. I have frame mounts from rokmen and the prebent stinger tube from jeeptubes.com. I had actually seen this project already done and am kind of following another guys basic plans. The frame mounts bolt with two bolts on top and one on the bottom and some what wrap the side of the frame. They have two tabs made to mount 3 or 4 inch square tube for a bumper,but all but 9/16 or so has been cut away. I have two 4x4 pieces of 1/2 inch steel I got a buddy to get for me from work, they were a little rough but I squared them up a bit with the bench grinder and have them fitting pretty well. everything on the mounts is clean and lined up right now, welding will actually start towards the end of the week. I am gona use a day or to brush up and perfect my welding, I have used 6011 rod before but not 7018. I have both to use.I will be welding the stinger at a 45-55 degree angle based on fitment, to the 1/2  steel plate. I also have a winch plate which gives me a full bumper except a front metal piece, which I may or may not add later. I can give you pics of all this later I just wanted to get this typed up first.The 1/2" plate will be welded on 3 sides inside the face of the frame mount so it should be strong.Stinger will arrive sometime next week so I will have some practice time to work on these mounts and get everything right before hand. My questions are these, and I am greatly appreciative of your answers, because I am quite a novice at welding and am not afraid to admit it.I am using a Lincoln 225 AC/DC (dont quote me on that, memory can be screwy. It is a lincold 225 ) and both the 6011 and 7018 are 5/32.1) do I need smaller rods for the tubing which is .125 wall thickness? or will it be okay?2) is it best to fill gaps with the 6011 or 7018. I know the 6011 willl penetrate better, but which is better for filling gaps, and which is best for filling cracks. 3) should I run a "root" pass with the 6011 where the fitment is not tight and then run over with the 7018 or will the 7018 be good enough. 4)Should I weld both the inside and outside surface of the metal, or just the outside?5)I plan on cutting the gussets for my stinger because I will have to make them angle specific to whatever I decide to set the stinger at. Will 3/16 cold rolled steel make a strong enough gusset or should I use something else? will thinner regular steel work fine for this job. I am sure there is something I am leaving out but that is enough for now, haha. Any other suggestions you have for this project are welcome. Thank you so much for any help!Last edited by JeepWelder; 12-12-2011 at 06:29 PM.
Reply:Hello. How are ya? Nothing wrong with being new. You have a foot in the door, as it were. That is a good machine, it's always nice to have the DC model, especially as you learn to use 7018. Which brings me to a point. While learning is good, and you should practice all you can, I have little doubt that questions will be raised concerning ability and confidence and safety and those sort of things. Vehicle mods are taken very seriously by many. I would try to find a friendly weldor with some time to help you learn, to avoid lots of wasted time and effort. I've had several mentors along the way whose willingness to give me pointers has been invaluable. They have many times even shown me how to's by actually welding my more critical project joints. A winch bumper is liable to undergo severe loads, the kind you need to have the utmost confidence in. I think you should do everything possible to create a clean fit up, but the welding is best left to an accomplished hand when it can be a question of your safety. 5/32 is quite a large rod to learn with. Get that machine burning and show off some practice joints and we can coach you along a bit.Welcome to the Welding Web!City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:Start learning with E7018 3/32" rod..anything bigger on the Jeep projects will make a mess..3/32" is an easy rod to control and will be more than sufficeint for anything you build for the Jeep...Just a few things i Built for my 95 YJ all welded with 3/32" E7018 before i bought a Lincoln 180 wirefeed..I didn't have a tube bender at the time but needed something for protection from deer,bushes and trees on trails,so i built it all out of cut angles..it has served well and been through 3 deer so far at highway speeds and only scratched the paintLincoln Ranger 8 225Lincoln 180 ProMigMiller Maxstar 200DXInternational Ironworkers Local 70930+ years and counting
Reply:Post your location and maybe a forum member in your area, if there is one, may be willing to help you out some as Tanglediver mentioned in his post. A little coaching from someone on site can go a long ways in shortening the learning curve on how to do it.
Reply:Thanks for all the words guys. I thought I might need the larger rods for the half inch. They are mostly to practice. Gona burn through them. I have welded a few things using 6011 3/32 out on the farm before but nothing that needs the attention of this project. If I still don't feel confident in my weld, my friends dad is a welder by trade and has offered to help me with anything I need. They are both fellow jeepers. He has built bumoersnfor both of them. Winch plates bar etc. I am still determined to learn for myself. So if i have to wait to develop better technique to do the best wells possible I will. To clarify the winch plate is a separate piece so no worries about the strength in that direction. The pcs should clear it up a little bit if I can upload from my phone. If not yet will have to wait until tomorrow after work.
Reply:And nice yj by the way. Haha everyone had to pick up the rod for the first time at some point.   I figure practice is the only way I am Gona get good and of course some advise never hurts. I should be able to run some beads Thursday or Friday so I'll get some pics to share then and you guys can let me know what you think. I want to practice the pinky to thumb way of holding to see how I like that verses the thumb to palm i have been using.
Reply:Again to clarify basically I am building a bolt on stinger. Bolted directly to the frame.
Reply:Here are some pics of the plate, mounts, and what I have done so far with cutting and grinding and fitment. winch platebrackets out of boxfitting for cut and grindrough finished before welding
Reply:You probably want to do a bit of beveling before you go to weld those up or change your joint layout so you can do fillet welds instead.I'd probably bevel since I doubt fillets on the front will work well the way you have this set up all ready. I marked on 2 of the picts where you probably want to think about beveling. You can bevel one or both pieces ( red and blue marks) Attached Images.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:do yourself a favor and read through the SMAW guide from Miller.   It is great for beginners and covers correct joint prep (beveling) too  http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/guidelines_smaw.pdfit will also give you a good reference for rod diameter and amperage settingsTiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:Okay guys thanks. I had heard of beveling before but wasn't going to start grinding until I was sure. I can do that in 15 or 20 minutes tomorrow no problem.  In also got confirmation that my friend who is a professional welding (his career/job) will help me out. Anyways I'll def read tht link on break or after work tonight thanks a lot.
Reply:Also I know you can't tell but I left about 1/8 inch edge on the brackets out from the steel piece incase I needed it. Should I grind it down or when I bevel or leave it? Thanks again guys.
Reply:Since you left a bit of the bracket standing out, I'd leave that and simply bevel the other plate. It will make keeping everything in the right position a bit easier than working with two beveled surfaces. My guess is with that small an area, you'll probably burn it flat anyways when you do the weld with your skill level. That is assuming you don't plan to grind it flush after welding.  In that case, I'd either bevel both pieces or grind it flush to start with  a single bevel and then weld.The idea is to leave as much weld area undisturbed as possible when finished, so as to have the most surface area welded remaining..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:Originally Posted by DSWSince you left a bit of the bracket standing out, I'd leave that and simply bevel the other plate. It will make keeping everything in the right position a bit easier than working with two beveled surfaces. My guess is with that small an area, you'll probably burn it flat anyways when you do the weld with your skill level. That is assuming you don't plan to grind it flush after welding.  In that case, I'd either bevel both pieces or grind it flush to start with  a single bevel and then weld.The idea is to leave as much weld area undisturbed as possible when finished, so as to have the most surface area welded remaining.
Reply:Here's my little rig this thing will be going on. I already have the winch on and mounted with that mount for a little over a month now. It is solid. So no worries as far as the strength of the winch/plate goes. It should come out looking pretty sweet when all is said and done. I built it up myself over the past year, too much money and too much time, but also alot of fun Suprisingly I can't find any pictures on my computer of my winch all mounted up on the jeep, haven't gotten around to uploading  them. hahaha. Pay day tomorrow, so I get to buy the rest of my stuff I need.Last edited by JeepWelder; 12-14-2011 at 10:08 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by JeepWelderSuprisingly I can't find any pictures of my winch all mounted up on my computer,.
Reply:Originally Posted by soutthpawdo yourself a favor and read through the SMAW guide from Miller.   It is great for beginners and covers correct joint prep (beveling) too  http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/guidelines_smaw.pdfit will also give you a good reference for rod diameter and amperage settings
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWYou must be a true 4X4 guy to have a winch mounted on your computer. Do you get your computer stuck in the mud often enough to need it?
Reply:I got the stinger ordered in this morning. I plan on beveling the pieces this evening I will follow up with pics.
Reply:Here is the link to the thread that I am basing my build off of. Hope linking and all that is good over here!http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f59/j...tinger-806698/
Reply:Well the beveling is all done. the shaped the racket made some parts hard with the bench grinder but u was able to get it pretty well. I might do a little more before the actually welding because the bracket pieces are still about 1/16 too long at spots.
Reply:i like the jeep forum, lots of good info on there......put up pics of your project when done
Reply:Will do. Hoping the shipping on the stinger is dast so I can get it done next weeks.
Reply:Watch this guy......  There is a 10 part series on youtube with him.  You will learn a ton by watching this series on SMAW.  [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nt9fS_WOZM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nt9fS_WOZM[/ame]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:Stinger is due in the 23rd so about a week to get the brackets welded and fitted etc.Originally Posted by SuperArcWatch this guy......  There is a 10 part series on youtube with him.  You will learn a ton by watching this series on SMAW.
Reply:Well I welded the brackets today. Pics in a little. They actually come out really nice. Used the 3/32 Rods 7018 and ran some really nice beads.
Reply:It's not professional, but I did it. Thats whats important inside is fully welded as well. http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/g...cobam/welding/