off-grid weldin'

[supermanotorious]

I'm making a gate for our neighbor up at Stoneman Lake, AZ! I originally took square tube up and he wants round so all I've done so far is weld the hinge mounts and set the catch ring, I exchanged the steel and will be working on the gate itself each night this week, will take it up Sunday to install. The rings will align for a lock or chain.

This is going so well I'm tempted to start offering mobile welding.

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[supermanotorious]

started notching the pipe, that harbor freight notcher is almost impossible to get really accurate but it's close enough for me
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[RobertD]

Looking good! And what a nice view "from the office"

 

[supermanotorious]

I think we've finally determined the final design, roughly to scale, it's not sexy but then again it's not supposed to be

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/18/87967526e1f3d97a63444f65c188806c.jpg

 

[itsid]

yes that looks nice (jealous about the tube notcher...) if only we'd have something like harbor freight...

but the real question...

How do you power your welder?! what's your experience is "enough" considering the power of a generator..
Stick welder? what 150Amps? details...
we want to know and exploit all your secrets

'sid

 

[supermanotorious]

Well you know I'm in love with my Lincoln 210MP, and I mean absolutely in love. In fact I MIG'd part of the hinge mounts then switched the machine over to ARC to finish those welds. Absolutely beautiful machine. As for powering this guy I've only used the 220 cord, haven't used the 110 yet.

Now for off-grid power, I rely on my trusty Harbor Freight 5500 run / 6500 peak portable generator model 98838 which has been discontinued but is basically survived by THIS guy. It runs on the old blue Lifan 13HP engine. Now brace yourself, I bought this generator in March 2011 for $100 at a HF parking lot sale which was amazing because I would've never gone to that particular HF if it wasn't for a soda blaster I bought at another location and found it was missing parts. I believe my gene had been returned and so was open box AND parking lot. I've loved it. It always starts no matter how long its been sitting.

The 220 outlet has a 50 amp breaker and I've never tripped it. I made an adapter to turn the 4 pin twist lock gene outlet into the standard 3 prong welding outlet. I actually leave the adapter on the gene and mounted the welder outlet to the gene frame. The only time it comes off is when I need the gene to backfeed my house.

I got down to business this evening and basically finished the gate on my driveway. I'll need to put a few finishing touches on it over the next couple days but I myself am impressed with how well it came out. There is zero vertical wobble it it.

 

[supermanotorious]

how hard is it for you to get it? is it an issue of HF wont ship to you? we could work it out through Paypal, I'll get a notcher with a 20% off coupon and ship it to you.....

yes that looks nice (jealous about the tube notcher...) if only we'd have something like harbor freight...

'sid

 

[KartFab]

This is going so well I'm tempted to start offering mobile welding.

I did mobile welding for a while on the side. You can make some decent $$ doing it. I charged $75 travel fee, and $50/hr (1 hr minimum) +materials.

Most of the stuff I ended up doing were 1/2 hr jobs fixing automatic gates that had broken brackets, so $125+materials, 2-3 of those on a saturday and you have more $$ to blow on go karts yeahh!!! Most of the common jobs were vehicle related, BBQ, fence, or minor repairs. I quit doing it when i made enough money to pay for all of my toys and welding equipment.

There were a lot of things though that I considered too much of a liability and over my head/too large and turned a lot of stuff down due to that. You can make some serious $$ if you have the time. Building pipe fences, decorative fences, and welding small steel structures to name a few.

 

[supermanotorious]

thanks for that, I wouldn't really know where to start with pricing, and I would love to do mobile welding rather than sit in a cubicle all day

 

[itsid]

how hard is it for you to get it? is it an issue of HF wont ship to you? we could work it out through Paypal, I'll get a notcher with a 20% off coupon and ship it to you.....

Wow that's nice.. thank you;
yes primarily the shipping issue; as always.
Right now I have more important 'tools' to get (and thus no money for a notcher) but I might get back to that.
Thanks a ton!

thanks for that, I wouldn't really know where to start with pricing, and I would love to do mobile welding rather than sit in a cubicle all day

Just wait for the sh177y weather to kick in...
you'll change your mind about that roof over your head then

'sid

 

[supermanotorious]

yeah I wouldn't enjoy it in 115 degree temps, but anyway, I paid $35 usd for my notcher!

 

[supermanotorious]

I decided to make end caps / plugs to keep moisture out of the pipes. I used the hole saw then welded the pilot hole. I sure didn't mean for these to come out looking like nipples but maybe I've just broken in to a whole 'nother type of welding

As for the cast ring, I sheared that dam 1/2" bolt installing it so I cut the remaining threads off and welded it in place

 

[supermanotorious]

Got it hung and painted, it looks amazing. But then again, it's just an old gate lol
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[itsid]

well done sir!

The upper hinge I think I'd flipped so the weight of the gate is trying to bend it further in not back out.
Also that way it'd sit further up on the gate itself (reducing the lever)
I don't think that's an issue tbh.. but that way it'd be even less likely to fail
(same thing, same costs, tiny bit stronger)
And at least it'd spread the weight of the gate over both hinges (now only the lower one is supporting the weight)

'sid

 

[J_Walker]

wow you checked to make sure it was level... that's when you know someone cares about their work...

 

[Poboy kartman]

well done sir!

The upper hinge I think I'd flipped so the weight of the gate is trying to bend it further in not back out.
Also that way it'd sit further up on the gate itself (reducing the lever)
I don't think that's an issue tbh.. but that way it'd be even less likely to fail
(same thing, same costs, tiny bit stronger)
And at least it'd spread the weight of the gate over both hinges (now only the lower one is supporting the weight)

'sid

Nope....then all one would have to do is lift that side to gain entry...it's fine as is....

 

[supermanotorious]

I agree that I would prefer to have the gate supported by both hinges but as Poboy mentioned, someone could just lift the gate off the hinges if that were the case.

---------- Post added at 09:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 AM ----------

you might be pleased to know I check for level in both the open and close positions.....

wow you checked to make sure it was level... that's when you know someone cares about their work...

 

[KartFab]

now all someone has to do is go around the gate. Wheres the fence?

 

[landuse]

now all someone has to do is go around the gate. Wheres the fence?

lol.

 

[supermanotorious]

I know it appears that way but beyond the large rock near the gate is national forest land. The whole idea is to push "tourists" further up the road to get turned around to head back. The road basically dead ends soon after this property. For years people have used his driveway to get turned around. They frequently get stuck in the snow or mud or both up there and they destroy his driveway trying to get unstuck. Both he and we spend money putting gravel and ABC on the dirt road and these jerks ruin it. We don't care if they get stuck on national forest and tear that up, we're tired of them tearing up our land. Of course if they really want to get to our cabins they can drive around it but they are taking a huge risk in getting stuck. We're not operating under the impression that this gate will keep unwanted visitors out- heck nothing will. We're assuming that most visitors are good people who make bad decisions at driving off road. We'll be placing more large rocks on both sides of the road to choke it a little, encouraging people to drive further on to forest land to get turned around or stuck or whatever.

---------- Post added at 07:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 AM ----------

also, there are very few fences in this area, most residents prefer the natural look of the land