My Multi Mount Winch Bumper Build

[The Jester Race]

Finally started building my bumper today, but I forgot to grab the camera[insert expletive]. So here it is.

CADD renderings

Winch plate

Looks like my MIG skills are a little rusty, but I know they're strong, I had to break a 6" weld cause I welded the plate on upside-down/backwards.

I think I'm going to TIG the rest, lay down some sexy beads.

Still to come:
Finish winch plate/prep for powdercoat
Build winch cradle
Tube work. I still don't know how I want to do my tubes, I think Its just gonna be *build as you go*.
Light mounts

Let me know what you think.

-Jester

 

[JohnnyU]

Why would you TIG 1/4" plate? Stick with the MIG, but turn up your heat and slow down, those welds look a bit cold...

 

[The Jester Race]

Why would you TIG 1/4" plate? Stick with the MIG, but turn up your heat and slow down, those welds look a bit cold...

Cause I'm much better with a TIG. Iv got a Miller Dynasty 700, so 1/4" isn't a problem.

-Jester

 

[Loanranger]

They'd be a little cleaner if you ground that coating off too.

Welds aside, it looks good.

 

[The Jester Race]

Well I didn't get S#!t done today, spent all day fixing machines.

Here is a TIG weld sample of mine on stainless, its all I had handy today.

Told you I was better at TIG then MIG. A little hot, but can you guess what needed fixed today Rheostat (foot pedal) went berserk, it would randomly fluctuate the amperage. Oh well still a good looking bead.

-Jester

 

[The Jester Race]

Well I finally got back to it today. Didn't get as much done as I was hoping, cut the plate for the winch cradle and took the bow out of the mount plate. And again I forgot the camera.

-Jester

 

[The Jester Race]

Got the cradle all welded up today and the holes drilled for the winch and fair-lead. Hindsight being 20/20 I could of just used the plasma-cam to cut the holes.

Got some finishing work to do on it before its powder coated. Going to mount the base plate tomorrow, and hopefully start on the tube work Thursday.

And just maybe Ill remember the camera [runs and puts camera in tool bag]

-Jester

 

[thegoat4]

What about stick welding? You know, 7014 makes some really pretty welds.

 

[steelmaniacwi]

as long as you chamfer it good and wire wheel all the oxides paint and such off you'll be good with mig. run some more practice with it till you get better. it'll be stronger than a tig weld for that application. we tig all our aircraft parts here but everything else we fabricate is mostly mig .

 

[The Jester Race]

as long as you chamfer it good and wire wheel all the oxides paint and such off you'll be good with mig. run some more practice with it till you get better. it'll be stronger than a tig weld for that application. we tig all our aircraft parts here but everything else we fabricate is mostly mig .

Why does everyone seem to thing TIG welds are not as strong as MIG? I use the same exact wire in the MIG as I us for fill rod for TIG, ER70S-2. So at the very least TIG is just as strong.

As for my MIG beads, thats what I get for jumping right into it without running any practice beads after a few months without any MIG welding.

-Jester

 

[The Jester Race]

Update:
Upon closer inspection of my welds and some inspirational words from my CWI, I have decided to grind out all my welds and reweld. While they are not terrible welds, I know I am capable of placing a higher quality weld.

This time through I will pay attention to things I looked past last time. Clamp the main plate to the table to keep it from bowing out. Grind the mill scale off the plate for a cleaner weldment. Take my time, don't try and beat the clock, I can always come back tomorrow to work on it.

Lesson learned: Don't rush your project, take your time and do it right. I rushed mine, and 2 months later its still nowhere near being done. But thats also from not working on it for 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

-Jester

 

[The Jester Race]

Cut the top half off of the cradle. Saved a pound or two.

Completely rewelded with stick, 7018. Needs to be stress relieved again.

-Jester

 

[swickwake]

now the only welding you need to do now is aluminium. you got tig, mig, and stick nice.
with your 7018 pass did you only do two passes. really sick project.

 

[Will]

You ground out the welds? Wow. The first one looked a little cold as the weld was sitting up on top and there wasn't much of a heat discoloration. It was probably only strong enough to make it through a thermonuclear warhead test. What you want is it to survive through the next Big Bang so the future universe's offroad crowd can use it too.

Seriously, those are good looking parts. I can't really tell what you are doing there--is there a big bumper part coming that will cover all of that? My next winch bumper I want to put that type of a top loading tray instead of a receiver socket, but move the stock bumper forward to make room for it. Sort of like this, but able to lift the winch up for use on the trailer. Is that sort of what oyu're doing?

 

[The Jester Race]

now the only welding you need to do now is aluminium. you got tig, mig, and stick nice.
with your 7018 pass did you only do two passes. really sick project.

Thanks, and I can do aluminum, titanium, steel, copper, brass, bronze, cast iron, lol I can pretty much weld anything. Three passes, one on bottom and two on top.

You ground out the welds? Wow. The first one looked a little cold as the weld was sitting up on top and there wasn't much of a heat discoloration. It was probably only strong enough to make it through a thermonuclear warhead test. What you want is it to survive through the next Big Bang so the future universe's offroad crowd can use it too.

Seriously, those are good looking parts. I can't really tell what you are doing there--is there a big bumper part coming that will cover all of that? My next winch bumper I want to put that type of a top loading tray instead of a receiver socket, but move the stock bumper forward to make room for it. Sort of like this, but able to lift the winch up for use on the trailer. Is that sort of what oyu're doing?

Thats the base plate, I will do a tube bumper off of it.

yellow squares are head lights, orange turn signals, white circles are 8" Hella 700ff driving lights, blue are 6" PIAA fog lamps.

More to come soon, finished the stress relieving and finish grinding. Just have to mount it to the truck and do the tube work.

-Jester