Great job John. I've been welding a little bit and I'm no where near that good. The grinder is still my friend.
sl33p3's 4x4labs bumper building adventure
- Thread starter sl33p3
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DanS HJ-45
SILVER Star
alia176 said:
Who sells a 40lb spool? You know I'd grab it if I found it...
I don't think it would fit in my box.
Looks great! Might be cool to smooth over some of the welds and make a seamless transition! Enough spray paint will hide the rest of the imperfections! I like it! Way to go!
alia176
SILVER Star
LOL, I bought two spools about seven years ago from a welding place in Iowa! I'm on my second spool finally.
- Thread starter
- #26
well here is where i left off today spindles aligned and tacked, and the wing tubes placed... i decided to try something similar to landcruiserphil on the tubes, but he didn't do swingarms. since luke sent me ones with a longer than necessary top section (intentional or not 
) i could move the bend to land farther back than following the plate contour like Luke typically builds them. they are just tacked, but i like the look. i could never ge the wing plates gap to body perfect from side to side, one is about .5" larger than the other i am kinda hiding it with the tubes...
till tomorrow.
i have about 14 hours into it now, 2 of those were truck tear down and prep.
) i could move the bend to land farther back than following the plate contour like Luke typically builds them. they are just tacked, but i like the look. i could never ge the wing plates gap to body perfect from side to side, one is about .5" larger than the other i am kinda hiding it with the tubes...
till tomorrow.
i have about 14 hours into it now, 2 of those were truck tear down and prep.
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- #27
yeah i considered that. i have till i paint it, and well, forever really, to decide if i want to. i think the more i look at it the less it bothers me (as opposed to the other way around) so i'll have to see. some part of me likes the raw weld bead even if it looks less "finished" that way... shrug.
and thanks pappy, it could be better, but i'm happy with it, i'm sure i'll get better as i go on.
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- #28
day of firsts
captains log, stardate 111219...
well today was a day of firsts... first time with the bumper all finish welded and on for a while ready for swingout fab, first time having to wince and smell flesh burn in the middle of a bead and just grit and keep going, first time hearing slag hiss in your hear (yes right after that i thought hmm, earplugs might be good), first time a swingout swung out against its stop, and the first big build hiccup. but more of that later...
so i started this morning bright and early 8am and pulled off the bumper to do the last bit of final welding on the main part of the bumper, specifically the spindles, side wings and anywhere else i see a joint i can fit the gun into
operation melt wire... half way through the second 2# spool, def buying a bigger roll next time
i also realized i could get a bead on the underside of the shell against the spindle as well, after this pic. the spindles are welded full circle around the top of the shell, as well as the underside of the shell to the spindle and the bottoms of the spindles are welded to the lower shell as well for as much as i could reach. shouldn't go anywhere, but i figure there is a LOT of load coming through those spindles with a tire and everything i can do should help. this view is back into the corner of the bumper, the wall on the right sits against the inside of the frame rail so camera position would be like from the exhaust pipe.
ran beads down the wing tubes too, here upside down on the sawhorses of course.
capped the ends of the wing tubes and put the bumper back on, it's getting heavier so this is the final wing tube configuration, i moved the bend back and put the tube end as close to the spindle as i could. figure i have some tube points to guy out awning or whatever i can think of down the road.
i moved to scalloping out the swingarm to fit the spindle carrier tube and tacked up the spare tire swingarm and set it's stop... scalloped the second tube, laid it on the bumper and hit the oh sh!t moment i mentioned before...
this is way bigger gap than i can span with the latch... luckily i just got an email from luke saying they were sending my stuff out today (the few missing parts and hardware i've found along with the bolt on jerry can holder kit). so i hopped on the phone and actually got a hold of him! (we played phone tag for a week when i was trying to order originally) he apologized, we figured out what length would work with my tire arm i've already started and he will send it all out today. also mentioned he's had a new guy packing kits up the last couple weeks and has been dealing with the fallout
i think he should make the packers make a few bumpers from their own kit, then they'll know by heart what you'd need 
all in all, i'll say it again, it hasn't been perfect out of the box, but the fitup of this "mass produced" kit has been really good, ESPECIALLY considering the complexity... it does not have simple parts and joints and yet everything has been very painfree. plus i really like the design and features of it. lets face it, if you don't like a grinder and garage time, you should be bolting your bumper on, not making it
and luke is a pleasure to deal with, i'd totally do this again from him in a heartbeat and recommend this kit to anyone who has mild fab skills (i've watched before ) and loves making chit themselves.
it really has been a fun experience so far, zero regrets, i'm having a blast, and i am sooo much more excited to have this bumper on my rig after building it, even if it wasn't from total "scratch" than just buying and bolting... but dont' kid yourself if you are thinking of it, it is a HUGE time investment, but worth every second in my book.
today was another 5 hours including a quick sandwich for lunch and the phone call to luke.
fyi i noticed with my 211 i was having quite a bit of fine spatter when i tried to move up to the 1/4" thick material settings, wire brush wouldn't take it off after, but a wire rope disc on the grinder does beautifully. didn't have this problem at lower power settings either. i've been religious about wire rope or wire brushing even before tacking and trying to make everything as clean as possible. i chalk some of it up to not grinding off the hot roll scale finish on the parts, but turning up the gas flow to ~35 CFH seemed to have cut a lot of it down. i could run at 20 when i was doing all the practice on 1/8" and 3/16" stock with pretty much no spatter. the 211 manual says to use between 20 and 40 CFH, so i suggest to eat the gas and move to the highside unless you are doing thin stuff. YMMV
captains log, stardate 111219...
well today was a day of firsts... first time with the bumper all finish welded and on for a while ready for swingout fab, first time having to wince and smell flesh burn in the middle of a bead and just grit and keep going, first time hearing slag hiss in your hear (yes right after that i thought hmm, earplugs might be good), first time a swingout swung out against its stop, and the first big build hiccup. but more of that later...
so i started this morning bright and early 8am and pulled off the bumper to do the last bit of final welding on the main part of the bumper, specifically the spindles, side wings and anywhere else i see a joint i can fit the gun into
operation melt wire... half way through the second 2# spool, def buying a bigger roll next time
i also realized i could get a bead on the underside of the shell against the spindle as well, after this pic. the spindles are welded full circle around the top of the shell, as well as the underside of the shell to the spindle and the bottoms of the spindles are welded to the lower shell as well for as much as i could reach. shouldn't go anywhere, but i figure there is a LOT of load coming through those spindles with a tire and everything i can do should help. this view is back into the corner of the bumper, the wall on the right sits against the inside of the frame rail so camera position would be like from the exhaust pipe.
ran beads down the wing tubes too, here upside down on the sawhorses of course.
capped the ends of the wing tubes and put the bumper back on, it's getting heavier
so this is the final wing tube configuration, i moved the bend back and put the tube end as close to the spindle as i could. figure i have some tube points to guy out awning or whatever i can think of down the road.
i moved to scalloping out the swingarm to fit the spindle carrier tube and tacked up the spare tire swingarm and set it's stop... scalloped the second tube, laid it on the bumper and hit the oh sh!t moment i mentioned before...
this is way bigger gap than i can span with the latch... luckily i just got an email from luke saying they were sending my stuff out today (the few missing parts and hardware i've found along with the bolt on jerry can holder kit). so i hopped on the phone and actually got a hold of him! (we played phone tag for a week when i was trying to order originally) he apologized, we figured out what length would work with my tire arm i've already started and he will send it all out today. also mentioned he's had a new guy packing kits up the last couple weeks and has been dealing with the fallout
i think he should make the packers make a few bumpers from their own kit, then they'll know by heart what you'd need all in all, i'll say it again, it hasn't been perfect out of the box, but the fitup of this "mass produced" kit has been really good, ESPECIALLY considering the complexity... it does not have simple parts and joints and yet everything has been very painfree. plus i really like the design and features of it. lets face it, if you don't like a grinder and garage time, you should be bolting your bumper on, not making it
and luke is a pleasure to deal with, i'd totally do this again from him in a heartbeat and recommend this kit to anyone who has mild fab skills (i've watched before ) and loves making chit themselves. it really has been a fun experience so far, zero regrets, i'm having a blast, and i am sooo much more excited to have this bumper on my rig after building it, even if it wasn't from total "scratch" than just buying and bolting... but dont' kid yourself if you are thinking of it, it is a HUGE time investment, but worth every second in my book.
today was another 5 hours including a quick sandwich for lunch and the phone call to luke.
fyi i noticed with my 211 i was having quite a bit of fine spatter when i tried to move up to the 1/4" thick material settings, wire brush wouldn't take it off after, but a wire rope disc on the grinder does beautifully. didn't have this problem at lower power settings either. i've been religious about wire rope or wire brushing even before tacking and trying to make everything as clean as possible. i chalk some of it up to not grinding off the hot roll scale finish on the parts, but turning up the gas flow to ~35 CFH seemed to have cut a lot of it down. i could run at 20 when i was doing all the practice on 1/8" and 3/16" stock with pretty much no spatter. the 211 manual says to use between 20 and 40 CFH, so i suggest to eat the gas and move to the highside unless you are doing thin stuff. YMMV
alia176
SILVER Star
Looking good John. I see that you're using two sockets to hold up the arm. Might I suggest using a larger diameter socket near the latch? I hope it isn't too late but this way you'll have a tiny amount of pre-load in the positive Y direction while empty and then hopefully level out once the weight is on the arm.
- Thread starter
- #30
i had that thought too, but i'm not sure how to guess how much i'd need... i guess worse that could happen is i break the tacks while hanging the tire from the arm with a strap to see how much it sags? there is also room to add gussets above and below the arm back to the outer spindle, might do that anyway...
edit. my super scientific hang the spare off the end of the arm yielded ~1/8" of sag, this was only tacked, and i hung the tire from the end, not halfway down like it will be mounted. so i cut tacks and moved the arm up close to that much, socket od was 1.1" and before i was using 1.0, and clamped and retacked. ran beads on top and bottom so far (cooled cold inbetween), bearing race doesn't drop in anymore... i'll fight that battle once i'm done maybe in hindsight i should have welded with it in, but i was afraid to distort the race and not get it out, guess i might anyway now.... started the side bead and ran out of the second roll of wire. eff this i'm buying at least a 15# next.
update. got more wire, guess the biggest the 211 holds is 11lbs, and thinking about it now i should prolly have bought a second roll. that and a new helmet, the old one was acting funny, so they said they'd just swap it out and send it back to miller. after that they took it in the back and tried it, came back with the look of WTF? and said, yeah, swap it out is right.
that bottom race seat i distorted is pretty bad, i'm going to have to figure out how to drive the race past it now and hope it doesn't have any adverse effects, you can clearly see where it pulled the metal out and oblonged it. mental note, less heat on the bottom seam next time.
i was using full tube thickness settings since i really don't want the tire to fall off...
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alia176
SILVER Star
This would be a good time to install a rear facing work lamp bracket and plan the wire routing, somewhere.
- Thread starter
- #32
alia176 said:
Yeah! Tab on the top of the ladder, wiring inside the ladder frame, sleek out the back of the bottom of the frame and lashed to the back of the swingarm... I need to run a lic plate light to that arm already... Where did you get that sexy little led pod you have? Are there better ones now?
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- #33
so here is my heat mistake. easy to guess there might be a problem looking at it after, not so easy in the 2 sec it took for that bead. lesson learned i guess. the whole thing was COLD before i ran that bead.
anyone know good tricks when you want some strength out of the bead but dont' want to nuke it with distortion? tons of tacks are weak right? worse than just lower power setting?
if you pretend, or squint, you can see where the top edge is pulled out by the bead and oblongs the hole. pretty easy to see when i set the race on the topside of it. i'm thinking if i can't get a good tool to press the race down, maybe freeze the race and propane torch to heat the carrier?
you can see lower in the tube where i had already run the top bead in the much thicker section of the tube, and the heat was not that drastic. (we are looking at it upside down from installation)
lesson learned i guess. the whole thing was COLD before i ran that bead.anyone know good tricks when you want some strength out of the bead but dont' want to nuke it with distortion? tons of tacks are weak right? worse than just lower power setting?
if you pretend, or squint, you can see where the top edge is pulled out by the bead and oblongs the hole. pretty easy to see when i set the race on the topside of it. i'm thinking if i can't get a good tool to press the race down, maybe freeze the race and propane torch to heat the carrier?
you can see lower in the tube where i had already run the top bead in the much thicker section of the tube, and the heat was not that drastic. (we are looking at it upside down from installation)
- Thread starter
- #34
more progress today, finished up the swingarm to spindle welds, turned the welder down a little out of paranoia... turned out fine. then the moment of truth, just decided to try to seat the lower bearing race since i couldn't do anything about it... tapped down very easily with a brass hammer and then used a small punch working in circles to fully seat it, i've had a much harder time with wheel bearing races than that, for entirely different reasons of course. but it was still a big relief to have the race go in easily...
built the tire carrier, well its all tacked up at least. even carefully hung the tire on it and checked fit, if i push the tire as close to the truck as possible, it looks like i will hit the hatch unless i cut the tube a little. it makes sense to put the tire as close into the truck as possible doesn't it? they use a clamp to allow you to set the depth of the wheel to bumper and i dont' need nearly as much range as they give. i tacked the lug star one down 2 up and biased as low as i could on the bar thinking i could gusset the back of the one down finger, has anyone found a compelling reason to go the other way? ie 1 stud up, 2 down? where i have it in these pics gives me about a half inch of clearance between the wheel bead and the upright, which will hit before the tire on that angle. i haven't welded anything fully besides the top cap to the upright since i needed to grind it back flush to tack on the clamp plates. totally forgot to validate my tire sag weight on the arm adjsutment, oh well. next time.
oh yeah, new helmet did none of the crazy chit the old one did, fingers crossed.
other than finish welding the tire carrier i am really stuck till i get the new swingarm section and can build the ladder on it...
i think i've figured out a way to do my OBA chuck i used to have on the rear bumper, going to put a tab on the inside of the wing hoop to point the chuck up and out of the rear corner, should be accessible and still protected.
built the tire carrier, well its all tacked up at least. even carefully hung the tire on it and checked fit, if i push the tire as close to the truck as possible, it looks like i will hit the hatch unless i cut the tube a little. it makes sense to put the tire as close into the truck as possible doesn't it? they use a clamp to allow you to set the depth of the wheel to bumper and i dont' need nearly as much range as they give. i tacked the lug star one down 2 up and biased as low as i could on the bar thinking i could gusset the back of the one down finger, has anyone found a compelling reason to go the other way? ie 1 stud up, 2 down? where i have it in these pics gives me about a half inch of clearance between the wheel bead and the upright, which will hit before the tire on that angle. i haven't welded anything fully besides the top cap to the upright since i needed to grind it back flush to tack on the clamp plates. totally forgot to validate my tire sag weight on the arm adjsutment, oh well. next time.
oh yeah, new helmet did none of the crazy chit the old one did, fingers crossed.
other than finish welding the tire carrier i am really stuck till i get the new swingarm section and can build the ladder on it...
i think i've figured out a way to do my OBA chuck i used to have on the rear bumper, going to put a tab on the inside of the wing hoop to point the chuck up and out of the rear corner, should be accessible and still protected.
Great progress and details. But more importantly, are those beer taps on the fridge door?
Taps that don't tap anything
what am I missing...I'm developing a head ache trying to figure this out
If you have taps you should be able to produce many of these
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- #38
lurch said:Taps that don't tap anything
what am I missing...I'm developing a head ache trying to figure this out
If you have taps you should be able to produce many of these
it means my kegs are empty... And costco had good stuff, so I have bottles... I've been enjoying bourbon more than beer lately, so no keg is ok for now.
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If you weren't putting that bumper together, I would say something is wrong with you. Get rid of the foosball table for room, empty kegs, what's next, the garage is turned into an arts and craft room or something?
Nice work John!
