Saturday, September 20, 2014

Finished the bracket pieces today and welded them onto the frame.  First I transferred the mounting hole onto the bracket and eyeballed the center with a transfer punch.  I had to take a picture because I didn't totally hack it up this time:

I wanted to do some plug welds to help make sure the bracket never comes loose.  I hate drilling holes so I experimented with sweeping the plasma around the inside of a large hole through a piece of wood.  In the end I decided that it looks too bad.  Maybe somewhere that will never be seen but not for these.

Welding to the frame is dodgy business for two reasons.  One there is a doubler there, but I can't tell if the doubler is everywhere I will be welding.  So really I have no idea how thick I am welding to, and I can not inspect the back side.  And if I burn through it will set me back weeks.  Yeah dodgy.

First tack all the pieces together:


Now the dodgy part.  Once all the pieces are welded together, I have to weld them to the frame.  These are my first out of position welds.  Normally you position your work piece so that you are welding on a flat surface.  By welding up and down, the puddle is trying to fall off.  Looks like it worked, but I can't be sure about penetration.  I will fill the plugs and stitch up the back next time the engine is out.


I think I may have to replace or weld in the PS monstrosity:

This is great though.  I technically don't need my engine stand any more.  I can also take out and put the engine back in the exact right spot quickly every time.  This is huge.  I have a couple additional thrust mounts to do, and the tranny mount and then on to the steering.

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