Gary Briggs

I'm half way done taking a break so I will throw the pics up, half inch EMT, I was inspired to make a basket style rack that could also strap a sheet of plywood or lumber, ladder ect.

I'm using silica bronze welding rod and a TIG welder, also anywhere there is a butt weld I'm putting a sleeve inside the tubing! Front and back is triangulated so the rack itself will support more than the gutters will allow!

Gary Briggs

Not trying to be insulting, and I blame alot of this on bad Internet advise, but most welding I see of forums is pretty terrible and at time down right dangerous!

Here is what it should look like



I've got 25000 hours of fabrication experience so my opinion is pretty jaded, but after you do food grade stainless work for awhile you learn to appreciate a nice weld!

Gary Briggs

Tipping the scales at a hefty 20 lbs, sould easily support 20x it's own weight!

CPLSeraphim

Good info. People should definatley take the time to learn to weld, but by fabbing stuff for yourself, you are learning, right? Better to learn making my stuff than learn making someone elses, right?

Gary Briggs

Don't get me wrong I'm all about DIY! What I'm not in favor of is people telling others how awesome things look when in reality it's well below sub par! Or recommending a welder from harbor Frieght to build bumpers and suspension components.

When I was 14 I took a high school metal working class, we practiced welding mig stick and oxy act for an entire semester before we ever got to fabricate anything! That's probably the way a person should learn, not learning while building something that may ultimately fail you when you need it most!

I have seen some awesome ideas/designs on this and other forums, but a bad *** design back up by less than stellar fab skills is a travesty!

The fab is done, going to mock it up to double check it fits right before paint!

It's 6'x50", weighs just over 20lbs and cost $30 to fab!

Gary Briggs

Got her mounted, overall I'm please with the fit, I prefer the look of the smaller racks but if I was to make it smaller it wouldn't suffice all the needs I require!

3 of my co workers and I stood on the front and back triangulated cross braces, it supported nearly 800lbs, it's final weight with the mounts is 22lbs. So it will support at least 36 times it's own weight!

Luv2mud

looks great! My husband is a metal artist by trade so I too appreciate a nice weld, it's the first thing he looks for in any metal build.

Gary Briggs

Thanks, i was inspired by pics posted by members of this and other forums, so hopefully my project will do the same for other, and I'm not trying to be a dick when I'm critical of welds and fab techniques, just want to see people do quality work that isn't dangerous.

Bustedknuckle

Very nice work. I can see where your passion for welding comes from, as well as your view on others finished products. And obviously you do bring up some concerns, i.e. bumpers and lifts, no doubt.

But keep in mind, CF has a large amount of younger guys & gals, those of which are either still in high school or college, and simply don't have the resources or know how or time into it others do. Instead of calling out, take a more apprenticeship approach. Heck, maybe do a welding 101 write-up for the forum, that'd be awesome. Then you know the newer ones to welding are getting good info.

But definitely an awesome and well built rack for sure.

Gary Briggs

Busted if you lack the resources or the time to learn a skill properly perhaps you should be doing it!

If it was that easy It would have already been done, you can learn a ton of valueable info on the Internet, unfortunately welding is not a skill that can be picked up reading, there are only two ways to acquire these skills, being taught by a competent welder who also has the ability to teach (not all craftsman have the ability to pass knowledge to others), or learning by repitition, laying down hundreds if not thousands of welds and learning from your own mistakes! FACT!

Here is Modesto we have a welding school, for $3000 dollars they will get you certified in 2-3 weeks, this is a joke and a trasvity! It hundreds of hours to be a competent mig welder, let alone oxy-act, TIG, stick, brazing ect!

The real problem lies in the fact that the price of tools that were only accessible to professionals now are sold at harbor freight for under 100$, or even under $400 for a pretty nice 115v Lincoln at home depot. This allows every weekend warrior with a charge card to play fabricator for a day and possible make something that might ultimately be dangerous! The reality is not everyone should be fabbing things up in their garage, some of us simply don't have the skill! I can buy a full set of dental tool online from amazon, should I try and preform a root canal on myself, or remove my girlfriends wisdom teeth?

At the end of the day the harsh reality is not all men are created equal, some people have it and some people don't!

Despite all my bull****, I'm a fan of DIY projects, some of the coolest **** I've seen has been back yard fabricated! All I'm saying is practice before you fab, and stop telling people things look great when they look like crap! Further more if you live in the Modesto area I will personally show you how to weld if you wanna learn and have a few hours free time, correcting bad technique before it become ingrained in a newbie can save alot of heartache and frustration!

white01

looks damn good!

b. lee

GB, I like your style. The rack looks good brother!

Gary Briggs

Go it painted and remounted, the paint job turned out less than stellar, which is ironic because i generallly purchase the .99 cent paint from home depot, this time i decided to buy some industrial rustoleum since the rack turned out so nice. not sure if it was a bad batch or what the problem was but both the primer and paint both sprayed like crap. since i needed to use the rack for its intended purpose i will have to strip it and paint it again later. i will post some pics of the final product tomorrow. looks a lot better on the jeep painted

Domaas

X2 on the welding...i hear ya. But many of the younger folks on hear dont have access to classes or a solid well rounded teacher/mentor. and 3k for some hack welding school would pay for alot of parts on a college build.i can see where the are comming from. They will learn as long as the are humble..and have the ability to learn from their mistakes..and stick to racks and what not. No one but the most competent welders should be attempting to build any suspension componets. I have literally run through thousands of feet of mig wire...and houndreds of pounds of tig filler..and yet some days a lay the biggist piece of chit that even the seagulls would be jealous..some days you just dont got it.


btw the reack looks great, post up some pics when you figure out your paint issue.

Gary Briggs

Happens to the best of us brother, it's been said that it takes 50000 hours to truely master a skill, so when I am ready to retire I will have this figured out!