Welding Custom Spray Booth Stands
I had a lot of fun fabricating and welding custom spray booth stands for a customer of mine, the base was 12 ga laser cut mild steel and the tubes were stuff they had in their backyard.
At welding school, I use a 15K$ Miller multi-process machine with all the bells and whistles but at CNCROi.com, I use a lincoln electric buzzbox that I got for a few hundred dollars on sale, they both weld fine, I’m just limited to stick welding with the buzzbox but for this job, it made no difference.
I plan on getting an industrial grade welder once I’m done my first year (of two) of professional welding school but for now, the buzzbox honestly does everything the exponentially more expensive Miller does when it comes to stick welding, but I do notice quite a difference getting use to AC (alternating current) again after using DC (direct current) so extensively since September.
The biggest difference when it came to welding custom spray booth stands after cutting them out is the arc start, basically, a surge of power when you need to strike an arc to ignite the stick, the buzzbox doesn’t have this, the Miller does… so you just have to strike things a few more times and be a lot more precise about it so the rod doesn’t stick to the project!
AC stick welding also has some limitations regarding electrode selection, in this case, I used 6011 which is basically the AC equivalent to 6010 I’ve been using for DC over the past few months but you do notice a difference in the weld puddle and voltage expression when welding.
Of course, CNCROi.com used laser cutting for industrial applications before, it’s a wonderful machine for projects that are optimal to it’s capabilities.
After the initial tack and root pass was made using 6011 using my buzzbox welding custom spray booth stands, the next step was adding 7018AC to increase fusion strength between the pipe and base, there is going to be a lot of dynamic load so I wanted to make absolutely sure it was SOLID for the customer.
What I learned most about at welding school was proper layout technique, it really paid dividends on something this simple, I’ve done far more complex things than this in class and lab, so having that experience made this welding custom spray booth stands job quite easy for me at CNCROi.com.
I make a bunch of custom welding tags for other welders across North America, but I got caught empty-handed when it came to this project, the reason I didn’t put any on this is because this is going in a spray booth, so will be covered with paint, as such, the tags would be covered with paint as well, thus rendering them useless… but I got an idea around that for CNCROi.com customers that I’ll use myself too shortly.
The other reason for using 6011 for the initial pass, again, roughly equivalent to 6010 using DC, was the rust and contamination on the metal tubes, I cleaned the outside but can’t really do the same for the inside and what 6011 does is really penetrate into both metals (base and tube) and lift off the garbage to give a better weld with 7018AC doing more of the heavy lifting afterwards.
I knew for sure there would be some heat distortion on this, the base was very thin, but this is because the customer has employees to lift and move these around all day, they don’t want something heavy, hence 12 ga was more than ample as a base.
After making sure things were square and positioned, it was time to tack weld the tube to the base using 6011 using 90 amps from the buzzbox.
Of course, I’ve been wanting to get into welding for a long time, the table I’m using I actually welded myself knowing nothing about welding with this buzzbox back in March of 2018 at CNCROi.com… yes, lots of porosity, improper fusion and it’s ugly but now I know why.
It’s fun looking back at myself 5 years ago and realizing how much I did considering I didn’t now what I was doing!
After the initial tacks are made, it’s surprising how strong this is, I could easily lift these welding custom spray booth stands and move them around with just those 4 tacks in each corner, but to do a job right, you got to fuse and that’s why I did a pass all around using 6011.
As the tube is rough looking, I did clean it up the best I could but also made over-built tacks just to make sure heat distortion was at a minimum, meaning the 90 degrees I set between the base and the tube STAYED 90 degrees.
Custom welding tags are durable, strong and a great way to get repeat business, for this specific project, I couldn’t think of a solution to brand it but I thought about it every minute of doing this project.
If you weld on one side but not the other, the weld will actually pull the metal in the direction of the weld, so tacking each corner stabilizes it as I go all around, the 6011 also holds the 7018AC as I went around with that too, it’s prettier but more importantly, I went nice and slow without worrying about distortion coming-up on the welding custom spray booth stands as they cooled at CNCROi.com.
After welding one custom spray booth stand, it was time to repeat the process again until all four were made, of course, the last one came out the more efficiently – I learned how to do things well the first time then fast the second.
Welding is quite fun, I wished I did my schooling in it year ago, but it has really opened my eyes tremendously regarding the opportunities it presents to my clients, I’ve been sub contracting welding for a very long time and each time, I though to myself, I’m paying somebody else to play with my ball, now I can start to take-on the projects myself at CNCROi.com.
I’m very proud of the progression I’ve made on this project, it was a fun little thing to create and built.
The slag you see below is what’s left after welding using 7018AC electrodes, of course, this comes off using a chipping hammer or angle grinder, but it protects the weld as it cools, giving a stronger fusion but more importantly, that’s were all the possible garbage contamination from the tube will also end-up and come out of.
Welds can always be improved, and that’s why I enjoy welding, each projects gives me more lessons and experience to apply to the next one, these custom spray booth stands was definitely over-though and welded, but that’s fine, that’s how I do things at CNCROi.com.
I know I got proper fusion between all the parts involved, you can see it in the image below how the heat went all around the tube and about an eighth inside of the wall as well.
Most importantly, when the welding custom spray booth stands cooled-off, they were 90 degrees – job well done!
Need some custom metal working projects fabricated? Contact CNCROi.com right now!