Ryoken's 89 Crew Cab Tubebed build... aka Mutt....

[ryoken]

I'm sure that could have been missed by the guy cutting today when they pulled it off the pile or whatever... but it makes me question the plate... the bow is on the same "crown" that the shear is on..

but that just doesn't make sense to me that the sheer doesn't have clamping down provision to prevent a bending like that.. I think it was f*cked before it went in the shear...

it's not like it's a 1/4" over 3', but it's more than an 1/8"... this is 1/8" alum, and it falls right out from behind the straight edge...

 

[Stomis]

Build the frame and pull the bow out to the frame and weld it up.

Doesnt seem right to me either... I wouldnt be happy. 1/8 inch is a lot when you're trying to build something thats purpose is laying stuff flat on it... If you build a frame for the top and leave 1-2 inches around the side for clamps you should be able to get it straight via an eyelet and come along shot into the floor.

 

[SilverduneJimmy]

I think you may find that many of the sheets of plate steel will have a slight bow in them from the mill, 1/2 on down, especially. Can you find a fairly flat piece? Maybe, but it might take looking at a few of them. Ive found this to be the case in general when I've ordered steel for the shop at work. I've made several tables/benches at work to weld on with 3/8 plate and all of them required something extremely heavy to get the center of the plate to meet the frame, so that it was fairly flat. I wish I had a pic of the last table I made. 6'x10', 1" thick top, on a 4"x4"X1/4" wall frame, jack bolts to level, yada yada, my pride and joy. Might be a little extreme for your application,lol, but that 1" slab was dead nuts flat. Anyway, good luck. I hope you find a suitable piece for your table.

 

[ryoken]

thanks guys.... the real-world insight is very helpful...


I'm just not sure how to get that kinda movement on it.. I mean I have a 10 ton portapower and such, but I just can't envision how to get that to meet a boxed frame in the middle..

and even than, if a 3" x 3" x 1/8" tube will keep it straight once welded..

logistically all I can think of is to put a front tire from Mutt down on it with the 3" x 3"s under it.. and obviously that brings up the issue of accessing the underside to weld.. I'd have to block it up some.. but my bigger concern is I don't think that's close to enough force/pressure to flatten that.. sure, 1/4", I think it would do it.. 3/8, not so much...


I suppose I could jack off the upper door frame of the garage with the porta power, but again, I'm not sure the porta power has enough snot... nor my house!


aiding in the straightening issue is the fact that the way I need to bend it down, is the narrow end of the table.. and the way I designed the table was so the long sides had the 3 x 3 inset about 3, 4" per side, and the one end one inset some from the edge.... so I can mount some drawers..






kinda like this....

the 4' side would be much easier to deal with...



heck, maybe they'll take pity on me and throw it in a big press and tweak the center down.. I'd be ok with that too..

 

[pblaze725]

I've worked with various gauges of metals over the years and I noticed a lot of the time our flat plates weren't really flat. It stumped us for a while.

Then one day I was standing there receiving a load of metal and I noticed the material on the back of the delivery truck was strapped down tight to the semi truck trailer.
You may have noticed semi trailer flat beds are arched up. I believe this is designed this way so an extremely heavy load will push the arch down to flat.

I'm not saying this is why your plate isn't flat but I noticed that the curve of the metal I was working with matched the arch of the flat bed trailer perfectly.

 

[ryoken]

well, I do have a couple days to f*ck with this... and it's actually supposed to be 30 to 40 thru the weekend, so heating the LAB™ is doable..

think I'm gonna try setting the plate on my 2 metal sawhorses, and jacking down with the porta power off the main metal beam across the LAB™ to see if I can actually get it to flatten with a hunk of 3 x 3 pressing down....

I'll also start building the frame in hopes that I can use this piece.. just don't want to commit myself to it and screw up a return possibility by welding it and such..

 

[ryoken]

I've worked with various gauges of metals over the years and I noticed a lot of the time our flat plates weren't really flat. It stumped us for a while.

Then one day I was standing there receiving a load of metal and I noticed the material on the back of the delivery truck was strapped down tight to the semi truck trailer.
You may have noticed semi trailer flat beds are arched up. I believe this is designed this way so an extremely heavy load will push the arch down to flat.

I'm not saying this is why your plate isn't flat but I noticed that the curve of the metal I was working with matched the arch of the flat bed trailer perfectly.

that would make sense, as the curve is lengthwise... whether it's a delivery/storage issue, or mill issue, no clue...

if I didn't see that paint pencil, I wouldn't have thought anything of it, and dealt with it as best I can.. that just gave me serious pause in the whole situation..

 

[Stomis]

For all you know that piece of plate could have sat with a sleeper under it for a couple months for some reason and it sagged. It happens. Same reason you always store a crank standing up for the long term ya dig?



That being said a 20ton bottle jack from the main beam of the house would probably do it. I was going to suggest that but you already came up with it lol.

 

[ryoken]

yeah, gonna see how hard it is to move...

I wanna jump right on fitting up the alum panels on the tubebed, the fab table is kinda secondary/fill work, but I'll at least f&ck with it for a couple days to see if that piece is workable..

I've just never dealt with that thick of a sheet of plate.. I've played with plenty of 3/8", but it's usually in 6" wide strip steel, etc.... just seems like a serious piece to bend/tweak, pretty daunting moving it around... 1/4", I wouldn't be batting an eye.. but that fockers 180 lb's and fuggin stout!


update tomorrow, and actually, I'll probably get that out of Mutt's thread and start a dedicated thread for it in the Tool Shed..

 

[ryoken]

table height should be adjustable from about 29" high, to 43+ high... that's leaving 6" of sleeved leg..

 

[runamok151]

y

that place is pretty amazing, blows away the Wall store.. frikkin huge.. the hardware store next to the steel building is as big as a supermarket.. coulda spent all day in there walking around.. throw in the 1/2 dozen hottie sales girls in the steel department...

oh well, looks like I'll get to visit them again next week...

Yeah it is. I'd like to know how much $$ they have tied up in all that steel laying on the ground that you drive on.

 

[cybrfire]

The bowed plate to me would be unacceptable. We get a lot of sheets in every week and I can tell you, I've received some that were bowed but it is very rare for us.

 

[streetrodchev]

When I worked in a sheet metal shop, I ran a shear. The lower blade was strait and the upper blade was a bowtie shape. The cut started on each side and ended in the center. It was rare that it deformed the steel, but it did happen some.

I have also seen shears that the upper blade is at an angle and cuts from one side over to the other side.

Keep up the great job.

 

[ryoken]

The bowed plate to me would be unacceptable. We get a lot of sheets in every week and I can tell you, I've received some that were bowed but it is very rare for us.

ok, cool, thanks... I was REALLY hoping you would chime in.. if anyone here see's massive amounts of steel, it's you..

I figure it's worth the ride, and I'm pretty sure they'll treat me right...

if it was a plate for the bucket on the marina backhoe, I wouldn't care and I would make it work..

my fab/welding table for the rest of my days? not so much...

 

[kgblazerfive]

Is it bowed so that if you put the bow ^ and not down. Would it straighten when you welded it into a table ?

 

[ryoken]

I don't think so.. I had no plan for doing long beads for the support structure to it... just stitch welding, a couple inches, big space, rinse, repeat.. and I'd have to REALLY pour some heat into it I think, being 3/8...

I know it does it, but on this project, not the approach I really wanna take..

if I can get it to bend tomorrow with the bottlejack, etc, I may go for it, we'll see...

to be honest, with the drawer end being so "open", and that being where the bow goes across, I'm really leaning towards just trying to get a flatter piece.. if they know what my issue is, and what it's for, I'm hopeful they can hook me up with a nice hunk...

 

[ryoken]

oh, and this whole episode is just a reminder of how my "stubborn, get a design idea in my head" deal bites me in the arse...

so set on wanting that thin edge, and the drawer area... whereas if I just did a perimeter frame, with corner legs, this would be easy to deal with probably...







like this..

 

[Chevy305]

You could still keep your thin edges by making the frame a few inches small than the dimensions of the plate.

 

[Greg72]

Paul,

I built my portable welding table out of 3/4" thick plate..... It has a crown in it across the long dimension.

Someday I will fix it by running some I-beam type supports underneath it and then drilling and tapping a few blind holes on the underside of the plate. I can then put some gr-8 bolts in there and crank them down to "pull" the crown down to flat... With enough holes, I should be able to fine-tune the entire surface and confirm its perfectly flat on the horizontals and diagonals.

You could probably accomplish something similar simply by welding nuts to the underside of the plate and threading bolts into them through the workbench frame structure.

I can draw a picture if it doesn't make sense.... But ultimately I wouldn't sweat it, you can make it perfect with less effort than driving all the way back to the metal shop for a replacement.

-G

 

[ryoken]

You could still keep your thin edges by making the frame a few inches small than the dimensions of the plate.

well, that's my current design... but with one end being more open for the drawer, it leaves way too much open area at the end... I'm guessing the crown wont go away down at that end..


I'm not willing to compromise on not having the drawer, tho I suppose I could move that support out like the other side and have the drawer sit 3" lower, if it absolutely came down to it.....

Paul,

You could probably accomplish something similar simply by welding nuts to the underside of the plate and threading bolts into them through the workbench frame structure.
-G

I really don't want to get into a whole drawing it down thing if I can help it... hopefully I can do the bottlejack deal off the beam today.. I figure if I go past level a bit and let it sit a day, hopefully it'll flatten out...

or at least I can get it flat temporally while I weld the supports to it...