Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...) (11 Viewers)

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For alignment, before I made the chop, I chose to use two laser-level type tools.. One I bought at a yardsale for $.50 and the other I borrowed from my girlfriend's parents.. They are typically used for hanging pictures and such... In the previous picture you can see where they are sitting.. Here are a couple more. I was able to set them "square" by using the front two crossmembers that I welded in. I measured, from both of them, exactly 5" in, then made a mark on the crossmember with permant marker. I then made corresponding marks on really everything. Even though the frame widths were different, this was the best way to get it to still be completely aligned with "Laser precision" LOL so I knew that the frame would still track straight when done...
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I then remade sure the frame was completely level, both front to back and side to side as this would be a key factor when putting the two pieces of the frame together... I also added the two center jack stands (8 total) and again remade sure everything was level. I then cut, and started by making the top and bottom cuts first because I did not want any significant movement vertically when the end of the cut was near. In the end either there was no frame warpage or movement to be had, or, the cross members worked, or a combo of everything, because everything cut cleanly and easily...

The only thing was I ran out of cutoff wheels right after the top and bottom cuts. Plus it was about 1AM by then so we called it quits and resumed in the morning.. This was all with my friend Damon with the awesome BJ42 in the background of hte photos..
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Here is a photo of the section removed.. Anyone else who ever does this, you can see exactly where the section was removed.. You can see later on that I really lucked out, completely by coindience of where I cut, because you can see what was inside the frame...
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Here you can see where I scootched it together to get it aligned and about how much offset there would be (I wasn't sure how much there would be).. Turned out to be about an inch on each side..
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You can also see how I used the jackstands to keep it level and all the cardboard.. I put them together exactly level and use the cardboard to raise the height of the whole front half of the frame.. At this point I also wished that I had added one more thin crossmember as seen in the illustration to keep my readings on the rear frame/side more accurate. What I had done was trace the exact position of the laser pointers with marker around their bases, which worked satisfactorily. But I still wish I would have been able to get a hair more precision (because the laser pointers did move) by adding one more cross member as seen and marking that as well...
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Next came the welding...

First the plate that connected the two pieces.. This was all done again once the frame was aligned...
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The frame was actually really stout by this point and there was no lateral or verticle flex from it at least that I could cause.. I also realized that my rear cross members were in the way in regards to getting the rest of the plating and gussetting in.. So I cut them out as they were just temporary. Also once it was burned in, there was no need for any more alignment.. But I will check when it is done to make sure there was no further warpage from the welding process..
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And finally this is about as far as I have gotten, basically through "stage 1" of gussetting. It does look pretty good so far. So I have to add all 4 triangle gussets, then basically plate the whole thing, top and bottom and all 4 sides... As this happens (with luck maybe tomorrow) I'll post up...
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I am amazed,
oh and nice looking welds!!
Dave
 
I guess.. :rolleyes: Truth is I didn't want to post pics of the crappy looking welds :eek: Mostly cause I figured out my last machine (I guess your machine now Phaedrus! :) ) and this one is so damn powerful and still don't have my crazy welding numchuck skilz 100% dialed in yet with this machine... But these are good, strong welds but ain't as pretty I guess.. I did take that center section and did some trial with some 1/4" plate and yielded perfect beautiful welds, as good as I am good at doing, but I guess when I did it in the real world, vertically on this frame, they did not turn out as pretty. I am also noticing with this powerful machine that wirespeed is very finicy.. There seems to be a big difference even between 38 and 35 on the "infanite" wirespeed setting knob in terms of glob buildup. But at the same time perhaps I should be moving quicker with it as well, versus with the flux core which was nice and slow...

Anyway, doing the trial welds was also good because it got me to figure out what settings to set the welder at so they were not too strong, and not too weak.. Of course I did this as well because these are some crucial welds! I ended up using close to the recommended settings for the 1/8" setting for the frame (1/8" thick) to the 1/4" plate, and then used the more powerful recommended 1/4" setting for the 1/4" plate to 1/4" plate joints...

Anywhoo, when I weld the scab plates on, I am thinking I'll move the frame around horizontally so I can get some good "standing above" welds versus vertical so that they appear cosmetically good as well just being good strong welds because this will be the part everyone sees. And no big deal but for all you cruiserheads out there when I say "I cut 6" out of my frame" I want it to look like it was not super risky if possible! I still stand strong behind the idea that this boxed section should be quite a bit stronger than the actual frame where I did the cut, assuming I do it all right :)
 
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Ken and I (Bennett above, I have been referring to him as "berg" which is his handle on PBB) have been bouncing ideas back and forth about the frame cut.. He said the other night he was scared and couldn't sleep cause he was worried about the frame snapping in half cause I chose to do it in an offset location versus a place where the frame is straight like most frame cuts (or extensions) are done... He sent me this pic and thought I should have relocated the rear links and done cut in the rear section before the rear axle which I decided not to do..
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dieselcruiserhead said:
Ken and I (Bennett above, I have been referring to him as "berg" which is his handle on PBB) have been bouncing ideas back and forth about the frame cut.. He said the other night he was scared and couldn't sleep cause he was worried about the frame snapping in half cause I chose to do it in an offset location versus a place where the frame is straight like most frame cuts (or extensions) are done... He sent me this pic and thought I should have relocated the rear links and done cut in the rear section before the rear axle which I decided not to do..
Click to expand...

I think you will be okay as long as you put a TON of bracing and scab plates on it. I would bend up some 1/4" plate to put on either side of the cut and extend it atleast 7 inches past the cut. Then cut a peice out that is the same shape and extend that the same distance as the side peices but be sure to taper the ends of the scab plates so you have more welding surface.
 
Dre..
It's too late now anyway to consider the option of straight inline cut and straight scab plates. I would have welded inner and outer inline fishplates, scab plates or whatever you call them and rosette welds, etc....
You will probably be OK.. I just think out loud sometimes.

My dad always told me there is " always time to do it over .. but never time to do it right" and I was really trying to sway you into an inline straight cut. My bad..

Great thread and great work...

Bennett
Berg
Ken
 
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