New project

[Rocky D]

I have been needing a mantle for my fire place for years. I had a carpenter take sime measurements once, but I never heard from him again...sooooo, after looking at what Royal Fe has built, I got the idea to build one....yep, you guessed it....out of rebar! I went to the local scrap yard and picked up, with some difficulty, some 1 1/2" or # 12 rebar and some 1/4" plate for $65. I'll post pictures as I go...I'm also testing my skill, using my HH90, the first Handler in the black plastic suitcase. .035, E71T-11 fluxcore.

Here's the print.

[Rocky D]

Here's a root pass

[Rocky D]

...and three passes later...

[Rocky D]

Top shelf setup to receive legs.

[Rocky D]

A little different shot of setup. Good ol' cinder block for a right angle.

[BillC]

Hey Rocky,

Nice project. I am amazed that you can achieve penetrating welds on 1-1/2" rebar with a 90 amp MIG welder, even with flux core. Did you preheat the joints first?

Thanks and keep the pictures of the project coming!

[Mowjunk]

Rocky D, you'll be able to do some fabricating on your mantle when you are done. It looks like it will be heavy duty.

But I didn't think that it gets cold enough in CA for a fireplace. I never did well in geography, either. Keep the pictures coming so we can see how it progresses.

[jniolon]

nice project Rocky..

keep the pictures coming.. it looks like an interesting Mantle.

Like your little welder...it's just like mine. Does a great job for a 120 volt box... but I'm looking for something with a little more heat... trying to line up a deal on a Millermatic 200.. for the bigger stuff... got to find a gun for it though... you haven't got a used 200 amp gun/lead lying around do you ???

john

[Dan]

Originally posted by jniolon
nice project Rocky..

keep the pictures coming.. it looks like an interesting Mantle.

Like your little welder...it's just like mine. Does a great job for a 120 volt box... but I'm looking for something with a little more heat... trying to line up a deal on a Millermatic 200.. for the bigger stuff... got to find a gun for it though... you haven't got a used 200 amp gun/lead lying around do you ???

john

John,

You can find the gun that your looking for at this site:WWW.Welding-direct.com

[Dan]

Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, man you let a perfect opportunity for a new toy get away. Just think, a new Syncrowave 180 or MM 210 or 251 sure would have looked good setting in your garage. Personally, I make it a habit of taking advantage of such opportunities .

On a more serious note though, I enjoy looking at pictures of the step by step construction procedure of a project way more than looking at a picture of the completed project. So, please keep feeding us some of these pictures as you proceed.

Looks like your having some fun on your vacation. Must be nice to be able to weld on a project outside in November with out having to suffer in somewhat cold weather. Up north of you here in the great pacific northwest we have clear skys but the temperature is only in the lower 50's to upper 40's during the day and in the mid 30's during the evening. Looks like Ill be heading to my Dad's to work on a couple of new projects that I need to complete. One is for my wives horses, and the other is a rack for holding my sons little tubs that he stores his small toys in. I should have known that the cheap plastic rack that came with the tubs wouldn t hold up against my son.

Wife wants me to help her so I got to go.
Dan

[jniolon]

Dan

thanks for the lead on the mig gun... they're easily 50-60 bucks cheaper than my "buddy" price thru AirGas... if the welder works out I'll be ordering from them...

john

[Rocky D]

Originally posted by BillC
Hey Rocky,

Nice project. I am amazed that you can achieve penetrating welds on 1-1/2" rebar with a 90 amp MIG welder, even with flux core. Did you preheat the joints first?

Thanks and keep the pictures of the project coming!

No preheat, but I purposly didn't cope the bars, which gave me a nice "V" groove to fill up with three passes. It's not structural, only ornimental, so I'm not concerned about the strength of the welds. There will be enough strength, for what it is, as I add more to it.

I had a machine breakdown, yesterday....I ran out of wire, and when I went to re-insert the new wire, the liner was wore out, so I changed to a new liner. To do this I unplugged the trigger leads inside the machine, so I could take the torch off to insert the new liner...but plugging the trigger leads back into the spade connectors, I pushd one of the spades though, and into the machine where I couldn't get at it! Sooo, I ended up taking the machine apart, (and this is the reason that Miller never made any more of the plastic suitcase models, is that you have to remove EVERY last screw and bolt out of the machine to work on it! )

I spent at least 6 hours on it, but I was finally able to fix that problem and a couple more, so now I'm back to square one and ready to go.

One reason could be that I changed from Hobart wire, to (gasp!) Lincoln wire. My little Hobart Handler wasn't having it. That Lincoln wire is extremely brittle, not like Hobart...It sucks! I have always been an advocate of Hobart wire, and this has confirmed it, once again!

I'll be doing more on this monster tomorrow, so stay tuned...

[Rocky D]

Here's a shot ot the shelf setup

[Rocky D]

A little closer from the other side

[Rocky D]

...and the other end