It's An OCD Thing, You Wouldn't Understand

[aw12345]

So when are we going to see all this fancy David(art) work go down the trail?
Boy you sure like making nice work for yourself

[inVERt'D]

So when are we going to see all this fancy David(art) work go down the trail?

Like I was telling daniel_buck, I'm thinking Fall or even Winter.

Boy you sure like making nice work for yourself

Yeah, it's a hobby

[aw12345]

Time for some David(art) sheetmetal work yet? Or what else needs Swiss cheesing?

[inVERt'D]

Time for some David(art) sheetmetal work yet? Or what else needs Swiss cheesing?

Not quite yet, unfortunately, but I am looking forward to tackling that. Hopefully won't need to cut much more off except to make the new stuff fit. It is possible I may cut some windows into and perhaps otherwise modify the front floorboards, but Idon'twanna.

Most of my Jeep effort is currently focused on a particular front suspension component which wasn't really necessary, is pretty involved, and which promises to make sorting out a couple of other things significantly more involved. Make sense? Will post up pics of that business pretty soon.

[aw12345]

Yes it does, the more German with Swiss cheese you can make it the happier you are, I can see this coming together with many plates and links. Waiting for it to unfold with great interest

[inVERt'D]

I can't argue, and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[aw12345]

Oh I know I won't be, seems to me you should start doing this TIG welding gig for a living

[inVERt'D]

Thank you very much, Art. TIG puts bread on the table now and again. Most of the welding I've done for hire has been either stick or MIG. I enjoy TIG welding very much. I think I could do much better if I had a remote amperage control and got to do it more often. If I could design, fabricate and create all day that could be fun, but welding widgets day-in, day-out would make me nuts.

[aw12345]

Well if anybody on this forum wants some pretty (good) welds and they don't mind the drive they should come see you out there in the Tullies. Never hurts to do some local advertising for welding though, you don't want to do a job you simply say no

[inVERt'D]

I used to advertise on CL for local work. It didn't cost anything, so I can't complain. I've gotten most of my work through word of mouth. There's work I'd like to take, but simply don't have the facilities for, and unfortunately that probably includes most of what MJR people might consider worth driving out here for.

[aw12345]

You got a big yard, should have all kinds a room for projects, just don't catch the weeds on fire

[inVERt'D]

I'm not set up to entertain out here. If it's something that can be dropped off and more or less exposed to the elements, welded on when it isn't too windy (in the case of TIG) or rainy and doesn't require MIG (and therefore shore power), then it might be a good candidate. Something like a bumper, no big deal. A tractor implement, right up my alley. An axle truss, probably doable (unless pinion angle is an issue), but why bother to come out here for something like that?

[Tumbleweed13]

Just caught up on your thread. Wow. The stuff you come up with is way above my pay grade. Very impressive, stuff. As a beginner welder, your beads are something to strive for. Thanks for sharing.:beer:

BTW haven't seen any pics of critters, recently. No time for fish'n or hunt'n?

[inVERt'D]

Thank you very much for your gracious words, Mr. Tumbleweed! That's great you're learning how to weld--whole new realm of possibilities there! Making things by hand out of metal can be a lot of work, but it can be a lot of fun, too. Part of what inspires me is seeing the cool stuff other people make, and part of it is making my own ideas into steel. I like solving problems (and apparently, making problems ). Being a beginner is relative. There's always room for improvement. I've got a lot to learn and a lot to improve, but that's part of what keeps me interested.

Unfortunately I left my fishing gear out-of-state a few years back, and I don't like using other people's gear, so I haven't been fishing in far too long. The hunting has mostly been varmint control, and the aftermath of that is usually not too pretty, but I do have some critter pics to post.

[RAT]

Speaking of weather, it's interfering with my outside work at the moment, so I have time for another post.

Almost forgot about the links. Pretty standard 4-link fare, really. All of the links on the Jeep will have one right-hand threaded end, and one left-hand threaded end. The links will be adjustable like turnbuckles: spinning the link one way will lengthen it; the other way will shorten it. This has the potential to be high-maintenance, but it allows easy and minute adjustment. When I bought the hardware three years ago, I knew I'd probably regret not getting a hex tube adapter for each link, and I was right. Gonna have to improvise something for the lowers, because I really don't care for using a pipe wrench on them.

Here are the lowers: 2”, .250” wall DOM with 2.63”, 1-1/4” shank, 5/8” bolt Ballistic Joints w/ solid Nylatron races. The joints have a lifetime warranty with one free race replacement. Ballistic now uses polyurethane races, which they admit are better, so that's what I have when I end up replacing these.

The uppers: 1.75”, .120” wall DOM. They'll use the same Ballistic joints as the lowers. They're about 3” longer than the lowers IIRC. Basically roll cage tubing. They should be strong enough with a decent margin of safety, but if perchance they bend, replacing them with something heavier won't be a killer.


Here are the threaded tube adapters for the uppers. The round ones are Ballistic adapters for 2” tubing (what I'd originally intended to use for all links), left-handed thread, and the hex shaped ones I got from RAT/ Kurt with some Johnny Joints (thanks again, Kurt). Those were actually made for the size tubing used.


I TIG welded the all the ends with 200 amps, (except for the ~120A cap passes), including 2 or 3 plug/ rossette welds for good measure. Afterwards, it was necessary to clean all the threads with taps. At least weld failure shouldn't be a problem, and if I have 1-1/4” ID tubing, I won't need threaded adapters.

Next, putting it back together.

If you haven't figured this out already, grind flats 180 Degrees out on the ends of the control arms. That gives you two flats for a crescent wrench to adjust your CA length.