Door straps

[kdfiter]

When I cut my door out on my air compressor build the door warped at the bottom. I used a car jack and chain to pull it back to form ..its not a 100% perfect but I think it will work. I tack welded 1 1/2"×1/8" straps on the inside .so then I started to to tack the straps on the outside and and when I got it tack the stiffness of the strap bowed my door outward making it worse .. is there any flat stock out there that's a little more flexible than the 1"1/2×1/8

 

[SonnyE]

In my experience with my own, and working with welders, (Pro's), it sounds like you are trying to do too much, too fast.
When you find your project warping, you need to go back to smaller tack welds at greater intervals.
That begins the structural integrity, and avoids the warping you are finding.
With tacking, if you begin to see warping, you can strike it back into alignment (Hammer blows) and let it cool to see if it will shrink back.
Steel crawls with heat, as you are finding. That is another reason Heliarc is preferred as well. A much smaller area is heated to fusion.
My current preference is a MIG. Wire fed with an Argon gas shield.
You could go into the gauges of sheet metal for greater flexibility.

 

[kmmamm]

Sonny is correct, too much, too fast. When I am welding strap on a door I always clamp heavily, tack, and then stitch weld. Be sure to always alternate the stitches on opposite sides of the door. I then use blind welds on the side of the strap next to the cut edge, again, alternating welds on opposite sides of the door. Plan your build so there is something else to do if you need to walk away and let the door cool before laying more beads. Personally, I find that rest time is a good time to rehydrate the welder....which is probably why I always make sure the shop beer fridge fully stocked before starting a build.

 

[kdfiter]

Thanks for the reply..my tack welding isnt the problem or the heat ..I let everything cool down ..the problem is that the strap wants to bend back straight and is flairing out the sides..I took off the strap on the side and the door went back to normal ..I gonna try doing the top and bottom horizontal first then the sides to see if that works ..I'm also using 2"×1/8 flat stock ...my first post I said 1 1/2 but it was really 2"

 

[SonnyE]

Thanks for the reply..my tack welding isnt the problem or the heat ..I let everything cool down ..the problem is that the strap wants to bend back straight and is flairing out the sides..I took off the strap on the side and the door went back to normal ..I gonna try doing the top and bottom horizontal first then the sides to see if that works ..I'm also using 2"×1/8 flat stock ...my first post I said 1 1/2 but it was really 2"

Oh I see now, it's the danged metal.
Silly me....

 

[kdfiter]

Move on if you dont have any good advice ..if you read the original question it was if there was any thinner flat stock that people use on the doors

 

[SonnyE]

But first, please allow me to add you to my ignore list.
You have a nice life.

 

[kdfiter]

Good.. because I didnt need a lecture on the different kinds of welding you prefer or your tacking techniques when all I asked was about strap sizes ..smh

 

[kmmamm]

16ga (1/16") is generally available up to 2" wide....if you want something wider, it will probably need to be special ordered or cut from plate. A word of caution about going with thinner strap...it may be easier to shape to the door, but it will also not provide the same degree of structural rigidity to the door assembly. I reread your original post, and noticed you didn't specify the thickness of the door material, however based on your description of what is happening, I am going to guess the door is either the same or thinner than the 1/8" flat stock. If that is the case, you may have better luck prestressing (bending) the strap to fit the doors curvature before welding. It is your build, but I would recommend giving the heavier strap another chance before stepping down to 16ga.

 

[bgingras]

if I'm understanding the correctly, you are trying to make bands that overlap the door and CC. I made mine on a ring roller and made them with a tighter radius than the actual tank so there was no way the bands would pull the door open.

 

[Berettaclayshooter]

I would suggest that you take your material to a fab shop and have them roll it to a slightly tighter radius than what your tank is, this will help with spring back. Also when you tack, it will open up slightly due to the heat relaxing the form put into the metal from rolling. I wouldn't go with sheetmetal as it will be even worse. Get it rolled and you'll be in good shape.

 

[kdfiter]

So what I ended up doing was I tacked the flat stock on the inside of the smoker and it sealed it up pretty good..I still may eventually put it on the outside but it will probably be just more for looks ..kmann was right the material of my smoker is the same thickness as the flat stock