General Tech What did you work on Today?

[4x4_Welder]

I finished metal finishing the main body of my son's WJ bumper tonight as well as did a major cleaning of my shop. I had soooo much grinding dust on the floor it was disgusting. Grinding is definitely NOT something I do very often and it hands down my least favorite thing to do.

Next up is to fabricate the swing away tire carrier then it's off to powder coating.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

Nice. I like heavy duty bumpers that don't scream about it. Something a bit understated, but hit it and you'll know it.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice. I like heavy duty bumpers that don't scream about it. Something a bit understated, but hit it and you'll know it.

Thank you.

Mike

 

[Hickey]

I've seen a lot of increase in mud flap tickets getting handed out, and the new 37's stand out more than my previous tires. I figured I finally ought to take care of it before it costs me a ticket.

 

[Hickey]

We put this on. Had to BBQ it first.

 

[Hickey]

Then we put the other one on the other side. I guess you could call it a knuckle sandwich.

 

[Hickey]

That's a temp cover, but I'm excited to be this far on this axle. You're looking at a TJ width Tera 44 JK Rubicon axle.

 

[zmotorsports]

So the rear bumper of my son's WJ is done and ready to break down and bring to the powder coater.

Fabricating the lower support for the swing away tire carrier. I pie cut the 2”x3” tube to mirror the angle of the bumper.

Vertical for the tire mount.

I bent the 1.5” diameter tubing at 30-degrees.

Tacked in place.

While I was at it I fabbed up a little mount for the CB antenna and flag mount.

Mount for the carrier lock that holds it in the open position.

Done and ready to break down.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[Pike2350]

Do you worry that the upright and square tybe that comes out could decflect into the hatch? In the 3rd pic it looks like there could be some deflection. Maybe this is strong enough not to deflect much. Just can't tell that kind of clearance the is.

 

[zmotorsports]

Do you worry that the upright and square tybe that comes out could decflect into the hatch? In the 3rd pic it looks like there could be some deflection. Maybe this is strong enough not to deflect much. Just can't tell that kind of clearance the is.

Shouldn't be any issues. The latch is near the bottom 2"x3" tube and it is a good inch away so there is no way for it to make contact with the latch. The square tube at the upper portion for the tire mount is a half inch below the inset for the license plate and nearly 2 inches from the gate and with the vertical support only 9" tall there isn't going to me much if any deflection. Had this vertical support been taller I would have compensated a bit more but it will have to deflect more than 2 inches to come in contact with the hatch. I actually dropped the mount down about an inch and tucked that receiver tube inboard of the license plate recess on purpose to give a bit more support to the tire mount.

Mike

 

[The_Lobbster]

Finished up my drag link. Then pulled one of my injectors, it was leaking past the copper crush seal, cleaned it up, put a new seal in, had to weld some nuts together to make an injector puller for my slidehammer.

 

[2002maniac]

@zmotorsports, The bumper looks awesome!

Would you take a moment to tell us about your welding technique?

Your MIG beads look odd to me, almost as if you are making a string of tack welds. What's the purpose of this? Heat control? Trying to avoid warping?
It seems like this would be a time consuming method, I'm just curious what the motivation is.

 

[zmotorsports]

@zmotorsports, The bumper looks awesome!

Would you take a moment to tell us about your welding technique?

Your MIG beads look odd to me, almost as if you are making a string of tack welds. What's the purpose of this? Heat control? Trying to avoid warping?
It seems like this would be a time consuming method, I'm just curious what the motivation is.

Thank you.

Just for the record, these are NOT a series of tack welds or tac, tac, tac, etc. This is squeezing the trigger once and manipulating the gun to get the desired affect. I do one of several techniques based on the situation. I will either move forward in a cursive "e" pattern or forward with a slight backstep to freeze the puddle then forward again. This puts those distinct ripples in the weld. All the time being certain to keep the molten puddle at the root and front of the puddle where it is biting into the parent material.

Hope that makes sense, kind of hard to verbalize but the important thing is that this is all with one squeeze of the trigger and not a series of overlapping tack welds.

Mike

 

[Hickey]

I use the same technique as @zmotorsports and it is considered an acceptable technique, especially in the motor sports world. The tack, tack, tack method is not acceptable because these tacks are all much colder and do not properly fuse the metal together. The tack tack tack method can usually be spotted by a pronounced pin size divot in each ripple of the weld.

 

[Deleted member 12904]

I actually learned to “stack dimes” with a mig similar to these guys. Like hickey said it’s extremely common to mig like this in the motor sports world where people like the idea of having the stacked dimes look.

 

[corbin.black]

Pulled a broken 241 out of my new LJ, sad day. Luckily I found another t-case that was in a fire so I will tear both of them apart and have 1 good case when I’m done

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks Jeremy, that is a perfect example of the tack, tack, tack method as indicated by its distinctive dimple or crater. Sometimes on mine if I whip too far ahead and move back I will get a small depression similar to that crater but you can tell the difference by the way the toes are wet out compared to the ones in the picture that stand a bit proud of the parent material.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Machined an idler pulley for my LS engine last night.

Mike

 

[Herzog]

Damn. I need a lathe for fun things like that.

 

[zmotorsports]

Damn. I need a lathe for fun things like that.

It definitely spoils ya. I bouht a small 3-in-1 Smithy way back in the late 90's and built a LOT of one-off parts for my race cars, motorcycles, ATV's, snowmobiles and sand rails with that little unit. Then it got to where I was doing more machining and fabricating for people and decided to upsize and get a separate lathe and milling machine about 5 years ago and I haven't regretted it once.

Mike

 

[kmboren]

Finished this up yesterday. Just need to drop it off at the powder coater.