Club 80-90 Forums

If you've got a wooden floor in your shed you are courting disaster - splatter rolling into tongue and groove, old splash of fuel on floor,paint drips etc. Take care!

Re welding in the wet:
I used to work operating the safety boat for welders working at the top of 80 ft. steel piles that were being driven into the river bed, they worked in all weathers and permanently wet. We would get shocks walking near the cables laying on the deck of the pontoon. I wouldn't have done their job

i like the little shocks,best them ones that go right up to ya elbow

Lol no i dont intend on burning anything down just for some welding!

My shed is metal and the floor is on concrete so no problem there.Im not gonna weld when its p*ssing it down outside,hopefully when its dry but if its abit damp outside i still want to be able to use my shed

Panic over with a wooden shed then

first thing you want to make is a good bench,doesnt have to be huge but something you can work off at a comfortable height and move it around...some 25/25mm box or some 30mm angle for the base and legs and a steel top then you can clip ya earth onto it and anything you put on the top you will be able to weld.then maybe make some sides for the top so it shields you from the wind on 3 sides...something like that anyhows

Thats not a bad idea but im only practising,when ive done practising ill be doing it on the van rather than small bits of metal on a bench

when you do the van have someone on fire watch or stop welding after every 30 secs or so to check for any flames.also have a soaking wet rag handy for smothering the flames....dont try and weld up the petrol tank too..itll only end in tears...and if you cant do any of these things ,for gods sake dont kneel on the wet rag

Im only spot welding so will be stopping regularly,wont be rushing i dont want to warp the panel.

The wet rags a good idea ill be doing that,and I wouldnt dare try weld my petrol tank thats crazy! If its anywhere near to where im welding ill cover it with something.

When welding a panel would you grind down the spot weld to make it flush?

yes take the tops off if they are too high,generally theres a thick layer of paint so leave the welds low enough to make the paint cover smoothly but not flush with the panels as this will be undoing what you started out to do in the first place

I get you,the weld could do with being slightly lower so the paint can go ontop.If its not flush i can always use abit of filler

you want to be able to use the filler so it covers the welds but its not higher than the original lines of the panels then get it as smooth as possible and put ya paint on.so make sure you leave enough of the welds to still be strong but not too high that they are proud of the original paint..its a bit trial and error but filler is cheap enough to put some on then if the welds are too high just grind them down and have another go with the filler.

fix wrote:Thanks ill have to look for a gazebo,looked on the b & q website and couldnt find anything cheap.

Makes me laugh when people suggest b&q for gazebos at this time of year. They only stock gazebos as seasonal products (i.e. bbq season), as do Argos etc. This time of year, your choices are limited by how much you want to spend e.g:

ebay item no. 380104505373 (£65) (also on Amazon?)

http://www.campershop.co.uk/utility_tent.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Kyham utility tent (£59)

http://www.migtigarc.co.uk/Specialist/specialist.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; welding shelter (£230)

Cheap gazebos will be back in the spring, but you need to think about flame retardant, ventilation and wind blocking abilities imho.

Tony

anyway mr fix.........it wasnt cold today it was 7 degrees i hope you was practicing and not wasting you time away on t'internet

Yep that sounds like the plan to me,the grinding and getting the weld right doesnt worry me too much.Its chopping the old panel out that does!

I guess the best thing is to cut out less rather than more,line the new panel up and see how much more to take off and so on

if your using full panels then its better to use all of it,if your just patching ,clean all round the damaged area till you get to good solid metal then cut your sheet steel to cover the hole then offer the piece up to the cleaned area and mark round it with a felt tip and cut it out .then tack one corner in and push it into place and tack ,tack,tackity tack till its in ,crossing over from side to side if you want