Garage Merch                Ron Pope Motorsports                California Custom Roadsters               

Frame welding table/platform

M

mikesplumbing

New Member
Hey Guys, Thought I would start a thread on methods used to jig up and keep the frame accurate while welding. I was looking at Dons steel welding platform he had in the last thread on welding joint methods and thought it was really nice.

For a "one off" frame any suggestions on a good method for holding the frame and keeping it true. I was thinking about building a box (5 foot long x 23 1/2" wide) and clamping the frame around it. If I put gussets on the inside of the box it would be real accurate and strong, at least I think it would. Do you guys think that's a decent way or think thats a waste of time. I'm kind of tossed on how to do it. Not sure if thats the best way to build a bucket frame though.

Mike
 
Mike, I used my work bench that I had, and clamped it down real good. Just remember do tack welds to get everything true and square, let them cool then weld it all together. Just my input on the cheap easy way I did it. I know I spent alot of time measuring and making sure everything was square.

Eric
 
Mike, I don't have any pictures of it on the table. I never thought that it would be of any use. There have been several occassions where I wish I did, I have always been terrible about taking pictures until after I'm way into a project. I will double check and see though. My work bench is 8' long and and 4' wide, and I drew reference marks where the kickups needed to be. When it came time to weld the front and rear crossmembers in I attached blocks to my bench to hold the frame into place. I put a couple of blocks between the rails and then some along the outside to keep everything square. I also attached two vertical blocks for welding the rear crossmember into place. I'm sure there are alot easier way to do this though, lets see what the pros have to say.

Eric
 
A jig table is a very handy thing to have in your shop. But if you are just going to build one frame you can do an excellent job welding on a relitively small table. Because of space limitations, a large table is out of the question here. I have a table with a 18"x24" piece of 3/16" sheet welded to the top. I stack both sides on there with a space between them and clamp them to the table with my bessey clamps. The long rail are suported by an adjustable stand. There has been several frames built on this table and they all have been under 1/16" out of square. If you have a copy of the "Plans" from on the site there are diagrams of this in there.

Ron
 
eafree said:
Mike, I used my work bench that I had, and clamped it down real good. Just remember do tack welds to get everything true and square, let them cool then weld it all together. Just my input on the cheap easy way I did it. I know I spent alot of time measuring and making sure everything was square.

Eric
Click to expand...

Mike,

The above is the best and most critical information to have in order to keep everything in alignment. Regardless of how well you jig or clamp everything together, if you get trigger happy because you are laying down the best bead of your life and do a full weldment in one place prior to tacking it all together, it will pull out of alignment/square. It is best to put small beads and continue to check for alignment as you proceed.

Good luck...
 
On rectangle tubing framerails I just use the garage floor, some 38 plates and 6inch c-clamps.. Weld one rail together first, then clamp the pieces of the 2nd rail onto the first rail, then tack the 2nd rail together, then weld 3 sides of 2nd rail, pull apart, finish up welding.. Then both your rails match..
 
You saw the pictures of my frame, right. I have the good fortune of having a friend who owns a chassis shop, so we were using his funny car jig. If you have a steel work bench or a fairly heavy wooden bench that should be all you need. Look at my pictures of how we were doing the construction.on mine. Just make your steel cuts as accuritely as you can, tack everything securely, and measure, measure, measure. BabyHuey used a wooden bench, use that as a source of information also.

Danny
 
Baby Huey said:
I have had this link in my "favorites" for a couple years.....I think It was originally posted on the NTBA site.
I regret that I can not recall who's build it was but it shows some interesting ideas..

Baby Huey.....

My street rod project -- a T-Bucket
Click to expand...

That is pretty much how we build our frames. We have a 4' x 6' steel table to clamp all that down and weld. Then it goes in the jig to make sure both rails are parallel and square to each other.

The hardest part is getting the little short pc straight with the long front pc. If you don't, then the frame will have a twist in it.

You also want to make sure that after welding the rails that they are "exactly" the same length or you can't get it square.
 
Yep, the guys are right. You don't need a formal jig to hold it from pulling out of shape while welding, even clamping it to another piece of steel will work. Sometimes when we don't feel like pulling out that jig we weld lots of stuff up right on the welding table. You just have to clamp everything tight. Here is how we built the side rails for my Son Don's T bucket.

donsframe002.jpg


donsframe003.jpg


By clamping both sides together you can get them to be dimensionally the same.

donsframe004.jpg


And for the final welding we did put it on the jig, but could have used some more tubing clamped across the rails too.

donsframe007-3.jpg


Somewhere down the road we are going to build a new jig. This one takes up too much space, even though we store it on it's edge. My Son Dan wants to build one from a big I beam, something about 12" x 12" x 8 feet long. He feels it will be easier to store and with movable side arms we can lay up any frame we need to.

Don
 
That's pretty much what we have in mind Ron. You don't use them every day but when you need them it is great to have one around.


Don
 
Here's our take on a frame table. It consists of 5 W6X9 beams on a 2"x3" frame. The frame has 5 heavy angle legs that have adjusters and large wheels. We built this frame table just before building my frame, but have used it weekly for a welding/fab table. What makes it unique is its versatility. If you want to build a frame, just wheel it into position, lock the wheels and level it up. Once it is level, you can slide the beams up and down the rails as necessary for clamping and welding. The beams have fabricated clamps at the bottom, so you just have to loosen the clamp to move the beam into position, and clamp it down when it's set. The wide flanges on the beams are awesome for clamping and we keep the top flange clean bare metal so we can tack to it if necessary. If you are not welding or fabbing anything, we can roll it elsewhere and can put a top on it to make it a bench/platform for whatever. We probably have $150 into it, and is was the best money spent on a fabbed tools in the last few years. If you are only building one frame, it may be overkill, but if are planning on building more than one, of do a lot of fab work, a steel fab table like this is nice. I couldn't find one clear pic, but these should give you the idea.
 
Thanks for the great photos guys! That's a big help and I plan on doing it the same way, as in clamoing them together. That makes a ton of sense

Mike
 
Both rails ended up with twist and I had them bolted down with angle iron and 5/16 lag bolts. This really sucks, I had it all dead nuts accurate in the rail jig?

After I settle down i'm going to go out and cut it all up.

Mike
 
Mike, it's okay, I have cut up and restarted many different times. It's because we want everything to be perfect, it drives my wife crazy, she tells me that it looks good, but I know in my mind it's not right. Just keep smiling one day you will be driving your T bucket and you will know that it's done right.

Eric
 
I couldn't understand how this was possible so I went and checked my table and sure enough, the table has built in twist so I was doomed from the start. I have had that table along time and I just assumed it was always flat. I set a 4' level on the area where the joints sit and it has just enough dip so when I pulled it out it ended up being 1/8 inch out of wack on both pieces. I should of checked it!!!!!!!

I'm going into full blown depression for the next 8 hours.:sad:

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

trogdor
Frame height without engine
Replies
12
Views
276
guilld
guilld
trogdor
SBC motor mounts?
Replies
9
Views
692
AltBantam
AltBantam
Muscle Inkk
Trying to understand my frame
Replies
8
Views
982
Muscle Inkk
Muscle Inkk
trogdor
Suspension weld before engine/body installed?
Replies
3
Views
240
Randy Steel
Randy Steel
B
Dodge Brothers Windshield.
Replies
6
Views
430
DonnyRay
DonnyRay

     Ron Pope Motorsports                Advertise with Us!     
Back
Top