Flanged frame

Yariv and I spent most of Thursday prepping and welding the flanges to the frame. Yariv had already welded a few earlier in the week and developed a good process. Prepping involves preparing the steel for welding. We have to prepare the steel because the best welds are to clean steel. The connectors are partially SCH80 pipe that has black paint on it and partially square tubing that’s accumulated a little bit of rust. The flanges themselves have also rusted a little. So the first step is to clean the surfaces with an angle grinder:

On the left is a plasma-cut piece: you can see slight blobs of steel at the edge from the cut. On the right is a piece whose two edges have been polished with an angle grinder. Here’s a SCH80 pipe with its paint:

And here’s one after cleaning:

I did all the cleaning while Yariv welded. To weld, you put the corner being welded flat on the table, raise the flangeup with a few spaces, put it in place, and weld. And voilá:

These flanges now provide easy attachment points for the rest of the structure. We’re going to cut wood studs that fit on the inside of each face, and bolt them in place through the bolt holds. We’ll then mount the exterior and exterior surfaces on these studs.

Here’s what the full flanged frame looks like:

Phil