Sliders

Is there any welding to be done? Lol

Here is one of my recent welds.

2x2 1/8 inch angle iron, my welder was maxed out, wire feed about 4.5 of 10.

I did a circular pattern with the torch to get the stack of dimes look.

Wow that looks great! I usually do a C shape back and forth that I learned from my dad. I don't know what amperage model we have, we got it from a guy at work last year. I also borrowed a 110V Lincoln which I'll probably try out this weekend.

All I know is the harbor freight welder we have kinda sucks. I mean I don't do a lot of welding so it works, but every time you move it the feed rate knob is so loose it creeps down and stuff. And I know on my front bumper there were sections I couldn't hold a puddle at all like the machine was tempermental. But it's a cheap 10-15 year old welder I think.

I'm surprised your feed is so low compared to what I use. You said you were maxed out? Cause our welder has 6 positions for the amperage, and I usually run on 2 with the 7 wire speed. Do you think I should try a higher setting? I don't think the machine has a chart on it anymore so I'm just shooting in the dark with what looks and feels good.

The wire speed is on par with what's on the side of the machine, maybe a little slower. None of the recommended settings go very high, and I still stuff to learn with how speed affects heat and pattern and what not.

I started with a harbor freight welder and the lincoln is night and day. Flawless wire feeding. My hf welder was junk. But people do get good results with the model similar to yours. I think the specs on the new 180 v harbor freight welders is like 1/4 in maxed out with gas and .030 wire. So for 1/8 in think you should be closer to the hotter end. I max my machine out for 1/8 inch to make sure I get good penetration.

What helped me was to watch as the arc sort of "ate away" a tiny bit of the metal and then keep the puddle in that area. I don't even know if that's a good way to describe it. But I need to take a class or something. A lot of what I learned I got from videos and reading and asking questions on weldingweb.com. Once I figured out to hold the puddle and keep my pattern, stick out and torch angle things got way better.

Lap and fillet welds are easy for me now, butt welds on .055 wall steel is something I'm still working on. I'm always down to talk welding, if any of you know more than me or want to learn very basics.

Brownfaux wrote:Is there any welding to be done?  Lol

 For certain.

 I got a lot better when I ditched my HF welder for a Weldpak 180 too.  Not that I'm any good now, but I'm better anyway.

Well after some more research, I don't think the weld I showed you was that good. I though concave was good but its not.

Also I learned about undercut, when there is a gap between the welded metal and the bead itself, and my more recent welds had a little of it.

So I think less heat, or less wire speed, since wire speed can affect penetration and other things.

Anyway, I'm going to start planning a front bumper rather than sliders. I think I can make one simple enough that I could handle it.

Brownfaux wrote:Well after some more research, I don't think the weld I showed you was that good. I though concave was good but its not.

Also I learned about undercut, when there is a gap between the welded metal and the bead itself, and my more recent welds had a little of it.

So I think less heat,  or less wire speed, since wire speed can affect penetration and other things.

Anyway, I'm going to start planning a front bumper rather than sliders. I think I can make one simple enough that I could handle it.

 I could see less wire speed, but don't you mean more heat?

What I read was the most common cause of undercut is welding too hot. I was turned up past the recommended setting on my welder for 1/8 inch since everyone on the welding forum was saying 110v machines could barely handle 1/8 inch. Well it turns out mine can run too hot for 1/8 inch.

But I don't know, welding is so complicated, lol. I'm going to practice some more and go off some other suggestions. But apparently having a slightly concave weld bead isn't good either, which that one was. Oh well.

Do a front bumper! They are sweet, and customs ones are second to none in my opinion. Easy to make also since the geometry is pretty simple.

How's your sliders holding up, Sniv?

So far so good. I have scrapped on them but not completely fallen on them. I don't know what I would jack from with the hi-lift without them, so for that alone they are really nice. When the truck flopped over we also winched from each support and then the frame too. The sliders weren't designed to be pulled down very hard, but they held fine for pulling the truck over. And then cosmetically I think they just look really nice, though when I go home I will have to bedline them fully (right now only the top part where you step is) since the rocks that get kicked up has sand blasted the front of the supports.

All in all they have been working great! Between them and the pimped out bash plates/bumpers, the truck is pretty solid and has helped boost my experience a lot I think. On trails before I would crawl down them or be super cautious because I didn't want to ding anything or I would be afraid of destroying the stock bash plates or having a bad approach/departure angle. Now that I have put my bumpers and bash plates through some abuse I'm really confident that the truck will hold together when I bang against something (not that I'm trying...).

Obviously lockers and more traction are always nice, but I think armoring first is definitely the right approach. I'd rather get stuck with the truck intact than destroy the truck but be able to get further down the trail.

Have you put these sliders thru the paces yet? it is great to see you doing this work your self , learning how to fab is the best thing you can do.
so please don't take this the wrong way, as you get out and wheel and your confidence is strengthened you will be taking on more challenging trails and obstacles, believe me it will happen.

I think your sliders look great for your level confidence that you are at now. your frame does as much sliding as your sliders, attaching them under the frame are major hang up points on rocks, you should always over build on an item like this, you could have put on more supports and welded them on to the side of the frame to get your support, you can always cut them off if want to remove the slider, grinding and paint are a wonderful things.

If you were in Utah and you came with us to Wayans World, you would be tempted to try the first obstacle, we all do. the runner would slide to the drivers side, hit the rock and bend the lower portion of the slider into your body.

keep up the good work, welding is such a power trip!

Rick

Thanks! I agree now that they should be stronger, they work fine but deflect more than I would like with half the weight of the truck on them. I also agree about them sticking under the frame and being a hang up point is a bad design in retrospect, though that can be easily modified out.

I have used them a few times, the only time I've actually needed them though was two weeks ago doing Left Hand Fork and there's all this sheet rock and granite that was on the trail, I slid on them fine and they kept me away from stuff nicely. The fact they stick out a lot further than normal sliders also helped a TON since some rocks were angled over and almost scraped the body since they leaned over the sliders.

This summer I'm going to reinforce them, which should be easy since now I've taken Statics and Strength of Materials and also have become more experienced in analysis with CAD so I should be able to do all the calcs to get them as strong as I want! I would love to go do Wayne's World with you guys, my experience in wheeling has grown exponentially since last summer though I lack in hardcore rock crawling since there's not much near Logan or where I'm at in CO right now.

I'm thinking I might take a couple day trip and visit all you guys and go wheeling at the end of summer once I'm more built, specifically my undercut 31s are a huge hindering factor and at this point I think my experience is beyond what the 4Runner is built too. Hopefully I can get one or two lockers and 35s plus my long travel by late July/early August and come do Mineral basin, 5 mile, Wayne's world, etc with everyone!