Welding Equipment
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Hey Guys. I recently started a little endevour to make a mountaineering ice axe. I have cut the parts for the head out of steel but am now at the point where I need to make a weld to attach the pick to the back half of the head. The weld I'm looking to make is about 2 inches (on two sides) and mates two (more or less) 1/4 inch pieces of steel (not stainless). I would also like to weld another 2 small vertical pieces to the middle of the head that can be inserted into the shaft. |
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I always take my welding projects to Craig Brown at Brown's Welding. The guy is a wizard with a torch or arc welder. |
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If you cant find anyone else I can do it for you. I live in Junction so it would be a drive but I work as a welder/fabricator and Im always making my own gear. I would suggest looking for a local welding shop first Im betting you can get it done for $20-$50 bucks depending on how long it takes. |
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Thanks for the advice. I think my house may be getting a small welder so more than anything else I'd like to be shown the basics here. Ideally I'd like to make quite a few of these. If no one else local replies I would be happy to drive to Junction. Thanks for the responses. |
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I live in Boulder and would be happy to show you--it will have to be after X-mas , though, if you can wait. just shoot me an e-mail and we can coordinate. mountaindavis at comcast dot net |
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Davis, thanks a bunch. PM Sent. |
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Nice thread link Rschap--neat do-it-yourself projects there. |
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Dan Mottinger wrote:Nice thread link Rschap--neat do-it-yourself projects there.Thank you. |
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Not knowing which small welder youre talking about I just wanted to say they dont make a 110v welder that will weld ¼ with full penetration. If youre just welding the ads on to the pick you might be able to get away with it but if youre welding the pick to the shaft or the piece that goes into the shaft it probably wont hold very strong and its one of those things you might not know till it fails. Most 110v welders are good up to 1/8 and thats about it. The other thing I would think about is you dont really need ¼; I used 3/16 for the pick and 1/8 for the ads (well it was 4130 chromoly but steel would work just fine), just to give you ideas. |
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Rschap wrote:Not knowing which small welder youre talking about I just wanted to say they dont make a 110v welder that will weld ¼ with full penetration. If youre just welding the ads on to the pick you might be able to get away with it but if youre welding the pick to the shaft or the piece that goes into the shaft it probably wont hold very strong and its one of those things you might not know till it fails. Most 110v welders are good up to 1/8 and thats about it. The other thing I would think about is you dont really need ¼; I used 3/16 for the pick and 1/8 for the ads (well it was 4130 chromoly but steel would work just fine), just to give you ideas.Thanks so much for the advice. The pick is probably close to 3/16 with the ads even thinner. This substantial grinding was mainly done to reduce weight while still learning about how strong each of these thickness would be. I have kept the mating surfaces still pretty thick (around 1/4 inch) just to have a good mating surface. That iss interesting that there is a practical limit and that thinner may be safer with a 110v welder. Thanks a bunch for all the tips and tricks. They are much appreciated. |
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I would be happy to lay some welds down for a climbing project. I live in denver. 303-332-6080 |
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Brian - Thanks so much for the offer. I think at this point we may be OK on our welding needs. However.... |
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If you are looking for scrap, hit up the college metal/welding shops. |
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If you find a good supplier for 4130 sheet Id like to know also. The only place I know to get it is Aircraft Spruce but its not cheap. |
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Yea... The problem is going to be trying to find it cheap. The only place I've found is mcmaster carr and their prices are anythingbut... |
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Whoaaaaa! Do not MIG that especially with a small machine. If you want you can use one of my setups or I will do it for you. If you are going to be climbing on it and trusting your life to it you better make damn sure that there is no porosity and the joint is built right. You can Ox it too but TIG would be a lot nicer. Let me know what alloy it is and I can help out. |
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Im making another set of ice tools if youre interested Im doing a build thread on the other forum. rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/fo…;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread Ill probably do the welding in the next couple of days and Ill post pictures when its done. |
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I would like to help out but fell I have to add my two cents to this whole thing. I love building my own stuff but one of my rules is that if you can buy the engineering cheap why do it yourself. I have a full blown SolidWords seat with COSMOS for FEA as well as MasterCAM x4 so I can write G for any machine. Why cut everything by hand when you can machine it. If not that hydro-form it, you can do it with little tools in your garage. Do not use tools made to an accuracy of an eight of an inch when you can do it to a tenth of a .001. Now I know I am particularly anal but don't half ass it. |
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Well since this is a climbing forum Ill give a climbers answer, if you have to ask the question, youll never know the answer. I dont do it because its cheaper. |
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So.... The first "proto-type" has finally been completed. All in all I'm extremely happy with the results. Total weight for the 70cm axe is 500 grams. This is heavier than I had hoped but not horribly far off the commercial numbers for an axe of that length. I even have some ideas for how to reduce the weight. The target goal is closer to 400 g. My search for chromoly or stainless didn't go so well but I have found a large supply of Al at CU which I managed to liberate some scraps of. I decided to use 3/16 Al for the pick at the bottom of the axe to try to save a little weight. Its held in by just two bolts so it will be easy to replace if it breaks. The main pick and adze is made out of carbon steel that I quenched and tempered in my fireplace :) The shaft itself is made out of carbon fiber composite (both 12k and 3k pre-preg). Carbon is one of the coolest materials I have ever seen and working with it gives you an appreciation for its strength that I didn't have before. I even parked my truck on this axe for a few hours with no cracking :) |
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Edit: I just wanted to to again say thank you for all the help I was offered on this project. Climbers are usually pretty decent people it turns out. |