Maddog74
Rank II
Enthusiast III
My take on a bed rack - now with 270 deg awning mount
- Thread starter Pyrotech
- Start date
Member III
Do you have a finished product yet? Been watching this... like watching Michael's build for the back of his rig. Suspense is killing me.
Enthusiast III
breathed a little life into this over the last week or so.
Lacking some of the tools need to finish this on my own has been the biggest issue stopping this from moving forward.
So I have been rounding out the shop tools with a new addition or two.
First up, a Finger brake so I can remake the mounting brackets for the tube bars. I picked up the heavy duty 20 ton SWAG offroad kit.
By the time I Reached this stage, it had gotten pretty hot in the garage, and I was soaked. Plus, it gave the metal time to cool off before I make another pass to clean up the ugly welds. ( It has been 20 years since I stick welded)
The other project involved adding the ability to powder coat small parts. I picked upm the Harbor Freight Powder coat gun and took an old toaster oven and gutted the controls, added rock wool insulation and built a custom PID control box for it.
while the current oven is to small to do the bed rack, it does let me practice on smaller parts such as my Zip Tie mounting tabs I designed for my roof rack, or any series 10 aluminum extrusion for that matter
Next step is to pick up a tube bender. I recently found out my dad has the 110v Hydraulic power unit The bender can make use off. So after a long wait things are moving forward slightly faster than a glacier .
I also need to hit up the local steel supplier and see about some buying some scrap by the pound to practice my welding. I have gotten really rusty..
Lacking some of the tools need to finish this on my own has been the biggest issue stopping this from moving forward.
So I have been rounding out the shop tools with a new addition or two.
First up, a Finger brake so I can remake the mounting brackets for the tube bars. I picked up the heavy duty 20 ton SWAG offroad kit.
By the time I Reached this stage, it had gotten pretty hot in the garage, and I was soaked. Plus, it gave the metal time to cool off before I make another pass to clean up the ugly welds. ( It has been 20 years since I stick welded)
The other project involved adding the ability to powder coat small parts. I picked upm the Harbor Freight Powder coat gun and took an old toaster oven and gutted the controls, added rock wool insulation and built a custom PID control box for it.
while the current oven is to small to do the bed rack, it does let me practice on smaller parts such as my Zip Tie mounting tabs I designed for my roof rack, or any series 10 aluminum extrusion for that matter
Next step is to pick up a tube bender. I recently found out my dad has the 110v Hydraulic power unit The bender can make use off. So after a long wait things are moving forward slightly faster than a glacier .
I also need to hit up the local steel supplier and see about some buying some scrap by the pound to practice my welding. I have gotten really rusty..
Maddog74
Rank II
Enthusiast III
Enthusiast III
While your building your Truck Rack, here is one that I made for Pops on his Chevy. It's full size Rack, 4x6, with offroad lights and power plugs on the post holding up the rack. Hope if give you some more ideas on building your rack. 2017 Silverado D-Cab
Enthusiast III
Quick update...
This is going to have some life breathed into it...
Just placed an order for a new JD2 model 32 tube bender along with a TIG welder.
been working on getting the shop outfitted with some big ticket items.
Enthusiast III
Been practicing with the tig welder. Bit frustrating learning a new skill. Especially when you are stuck doing the self teaching route.
At least I have some past experience with stick and some gas welding. So it is not 100% .foreign in concept.
Couple shots from today's practice seasion on 1/4" mild steel
I also ground down the first days practice plate,
A bit of porosity at the start and appeared to.clear up at the end....
Gonna try and pick up the steel to build the bender stand this upcoming week. And finish assembly of the bender itself and the air over hydraulic, and hopefully get some tube in before anybupcomming shutdown somincan practice bending and welding tube
At least I have some past experience with stick and some gas welding. So it is not 100% .foreign in concept.
Couple shots from today's practice seasion on 1/4" mild steel
I also ground down the first days practice plate,
A bit of porosity at the start and appeared to.clear up at the end....
Gonna try and pick up the steel to build the bender stand this upcoming week. And finish assembly of the bender itself and the air over hydraulic, and hopefully get some tube in before anybupcomming shutdown somincan practice bending and welding tube
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
I’m glad to see you are still going to be building this.
I don’t know much about TIG, but it looks like you are moving the toungsten too fast. The stack of
Coins should be a rainbow color.
I don’t know much about TIG, but it looks like you are moving the toungsten too fast. The stack of
Coins should be a rainbow color.
Member III
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- First Name
- Jim
- Last Name
- covey sr
- Member #
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16986
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- none - BREAKER BREAKER HAND HELD CB AND WALKIE TALKIE
It didn't look like very much penetration to me. I'm not familiar with tig but with arch welder you can see it penetrating as you weld. I bought a flux welder to play with one of these days. I like the idea of being able to weld sheet metal..
In the past I have only used acetylene torch and bailing wire or flux copper wire for sheet metal. Flux seems simple and will weld 1/4" steel nicely. I like because no gas is needed and any 110v outlet will do. You could probably use a car battery with inverter for power.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Yes no penetration.... the color told me that alone... also the puddle tells that he’s not welding with his wrist and the power settings are low...
Enthusiast III
Well... this project suffered a bit of a setback, due to stupidity..
it seems taht when I bought the bender and Die, I bought the Die for the wrong bender . how I have no clue but I did.. so now I have to jump through hoops to get the old returned wait for the refund, and then hope the wife doesn't spend it, which she will... so I will end up having to save up for the replacement die.
All because of me being stupid.
So frustrated at the moment...
it seems taht when I bought the bender and Die, I bought the Die for the wrong bender . how I have no clue but I did.. so now I have to jump through hoops to get the old returned wait for the refund, and then hope the wife doesn't spend it, which she will... so I will end up having to save up for the replacement die.
All because of me being stupid.
So frustrated at the moment...
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Enthusiast III
well... at least the stand for the bender is coming along nicely. need to do some clean up on the mounting plate, I needed to cut some clearance for the the air over hydraulic mounting bracket to bolt up . and prep the stand for paint.
Enthusiast III
redesigned this bracket, using the knowledge learned by the above mistake, and learning better ways of modeling a sheet metal part in CAD. I think I am gonna 3D print a slice of the bracket for a test fit.
Also in the very very early stages of designing my own CNC plasma table, that should be a fun project
Enthusiast III
Test printed a slice of the brackets to double check the slot location and over all fit..
need to shift the slot down ~1/4".. that should get the mounting bolt in the center, and allow for equal room on each side to adjust as needed.
need to shift the slot down ~1/4".. that should get the mounting bolt in the center, and allow for equal room on each side to adjust as needed.
Enthusiast III
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Enthusiast III
Still working on a design for that.. planning a on a table with a 4'x4' cut area thinking 2x2 tube for the base table 3060 extrusion for the gantry 25mm linear rail s with 20mm ball screws possible downdraft over a water table
And that is about the extent of a very flexible design in my head.
I need to spend some more time researching. And making notes etc not to mention shopping for parts.
The table size is pretty set in my mind so I might start putting that together in a few weeks. Q
Enthusiast III
The flats for the bed brackets arrived., remember the first set i ran into an issue where the part was bent wrong. This was mainly due to how I designed the original part and a lack of understanding of the sheet metal design tools in inventor2020....
As you can see this time they turned out to be much more useable over the prior version. They sit on the top of the bed nicely with no overhang and the s3/8" slot is centered on the mounting rail. I added the slot to give a bit of room if I ever needed to raise the bed rack. To compensate for sealing material or a metal bed rail cap in the future
Now to bed up the next 5 brackets...
Btw... I am been very happy with the SWAG offroad finger brake that picked up. Turns out it and the press have been an extremely useful addition to the garage. Amd has gotten far more use than I orginally anticipated
As you can see this time they turned out to be much more useable over the prior version. They sit on the top of the bed nicely with no overhang and the s3/8" slot is centered on the mounting rail. I added the slot to give a bit of room if I ever needed to raise the bed rack. To compensate for sealing material or a metal bed rail cap in the future
Now to bed up the next 5 brackets...
Btw... I am been very happy with the SWAG offroad finger brake that picked up. Turns out it and the press have been an extremely useful addition to the garage. Amd has gotten far more use than I orginally anticipated
