On Wed, 16 Oct 2013 14:34:46 -0700, stryped wrote:
On Wednesday, October 16, 2013 8:12:42 AM UTC-5, stryped wrote:
I have been reading about stress relief and general metalworking. If a
person wanted to prevent stress cracks in somethign like a t bucket
frame, is it a good idea to peen weld areas? Can an air operated needle
descaler work? Is hand peening possible?
I was considering some sort of free plans on the internet such as these:
http://www.tbucketplans.com/the-youn...t-frame-plans/
I think it is made of 2x3 rectangular tubing.
One probalem I have is I can "farm weld". I have a bobcat ac welder but
admittently not real good with stick. I have a Hobart 110 mig with flux
core capability and gas. I have a bottle of argon/co2 also. Worried the
little 110v wont be adequate.
I have oxy and could try to weld with it. (Never tried)
One thing I have wanted to try is to buy a bottle of gas and a tig torch
for the bobcat. Watching tig on mild steel does not look too hard (I
know looks can be deceiving.) I am not surehow well this set up
connected to the bobcat would work. I have been wanting to give tig a
try this way. The welds look neat but I know that TIG does not have very
good penetration on thicker material.
Another thought I had was taking the thing togther, taking it to a local
welder and having it welded there. However, sometimes even having a
"professional" weld something does not mean it is a good job. Recently I
was reading about someone who bought a t bucket frame from a company
that makes their own frames. The frame brke in half while transporting
the t bucket on a trailer. The person said it was a stress crack in the
frame. That is why I was asking the question about peening.
There's a lot of places that count as "a company that makes their own
frames". Some are good, some are crappy. Some of the owners are honest,
some shouldn't be trusted with your lunch money. Not all of the honest
ones are the talented ones. Life is like that.
There's also a lot of guys out there who -- knowingly or unknowingly --
will totally screw up the parts they're sold, then complain bitterly when
they break in exactly the way you'd expect.
(My dad's company, Wescott's Auto Restyling, sold car bodies. Our
customers helped to educate us on all the different ways that street rod
builders can screw things up, and tell stories about them. Very often
the mistakes were simply an under-educated car builder doing something
that you learn not to do, and not realizing that they shouldn't have gone
there. Sometimes it was a guy doing something wrong and not being able
to accept that anything that he touched might not be golden. Once in a
great while it was someone being malicious -- there's all sorts out
there.)
Without knowing the details, you can't know.
I'd suggest that you get good at MIG, or tack it together and take it to
a good welder. If you live close to a decent community college, go take
a welding class to get good at MIG welding. Assuming that you feel the
teacher is trustworthy, tell him what you've got for a MIG (or take it
in) and ask him if he thinks it'll be up for the project. If the thing
can get enough penetration then you can probably do the whole frame, but
you may need to do it one inch at a time with long rests in between to
cool your welder.
If you just want to buy a good frame and build a car, call Karl at
Wescott's Auto Restyling and ask him if he has a recommendation.
Wescott's doesn't sell T-bucket stuff, but when I was there some of our
dealers did. It's been so long since I've been involved in the business
that I couldn't know -- the names that were on the top of the list in the
1980's and 1990's were Total Performance and TCI, but I think that TCI
has been sold, and Total Performance taken over by the founder's
daughters.
For a first-time street rod, I highly suggest finding someone with a good
reputation that has a unified catalog worth of stuff. That way you can
buy a frame with all the trimmings, and get all the suspension parts,
etc., to just bolt on and go. It'll cost more $$$ up front, but it'll be
much easier and you'll gain valuable knowledge that you can use to build
the next one more from scratch.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com