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I am making some jeep style diamond plate fenders for the trailer I am building. They are 10 or 11 ga diamond plate 10" wide that I bent up and will have 3/16" x 2 x 2 angle butt welded at an angle at each end. These ends will then be used to attach the fenders to angle brackets that are welded to the bottom of the frame on each side of the wheel.I have a HH175 and a Dynasty200 DX as my choices for welding. My question is which would be the best process for doing this job? Should they be welded up solid or should I just do a few short tacks? I don't want to end up with a lot of warping. Is my material heavy enough to be beyond the problems of sheet metal. I have never worked with diamond plate before but I have noticed that they seem to use short welds of maybe an inch or so to stick down decks on trailers. Any advice is welcome.Thanks
Reply:NY State, WELD them solid, all the way around the contact area, because if you don't, our wonderful corrosive atmousphere (even if Hillopotomous doesn't come within a mile of the trailer) will get between the angle and diamond plate, and grow sufficient rust to push the pieces apart.Manufacturers skip weld things like this because they want to save on cost.The HH 175 has enogh power to make the welds on diamond plate. so I'd use the MIG.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Weld them solid, 'cause its a guarentee one of your buddies is either gonna step on those fenders, or sit on it, or fall on it...
Reply:Thanks, solid it is. I am planning on putting solid backs in also which should stiffen them up enough for climbing around on. I was worried about them warping all out of shape with solid welding. They were kind of a pain in the a$$ to bend since I had to use my armsrong bender and if I needed more material I would probably have to buy a whole sheet. Maybe I will tig it though Franz so I can use my Dynasty. |
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