|
Frame rails and gussets are now fully welded:  Still new to AL welding so i did some practice beforehand to dial my settings in which i think paid off; im pretty happy with how my welding is going thus far:  I had 9' leftover from my 25' stick, so i made 2 crossmembers  First one is getting fit up at the front, to tie the frame rails to the headache rack
...and all done
I dont know the location of the second one yet. I want to put that one where the hinges will bolt to the bed, but i need to take measurements since this is a 9' bed. So i think the best way to do this will be to just pull the F250 into the driveway and yank the original bed off so i can mock this one up properly. So this week's plan will be to get the stock bed off, and get this one sitting on my frame so i can figure out where the hinges will bolt up. From there i can get it welded in place, and start working on building a beefy crossmember for the scissor to connect to. Finall, an update! So i removed the galvanized storage box for the ramps, and started removing the original frame rails from the truck bed  ...but then this happened during a storm:  So i lost a couple weeks while i cut those trees up, got rid of the stump and brought in dirt to fill in the hole and re-grade the yard. So with that done, i was able to resume my work on the bed. So... Both frame rails are removed now:
Looking at the construction, the I-beam cross members sit inside the outer frame instead of flush with the bottom of them:  ...which means the frame rails sat on 1/8" spacers so theyd contact the i-beams. Since the rails are getting replaced/moved outboard i had to remove these as well  So previously i had bought a 25' stick of 5" 6061, which i had cut down to two 9' rails (plus a remnant for cross members)  ...so that gets me to this morning, when i triple checked the frame rail width on the F250, set my new rails in place, and tacked them down!  I made all new gussets for every i-beam just like the bed originally had, made some spacers out of 1/8" plate, and started welding. I bought the spool gun for my machine, and after tinkering a bit started welding. I think ive got it dialed in ok? First time mig welding aluminum, i think the welds look good.  I have the rails fully welded so i started welding the first gusset before stopping for the day:  Tomorrow morning ill be back out there- hoping to finish welding this gusset (plus get the other 11 all done as well). Im not sure about the verticals yet, so im gonna have to set some scraps up and practice that a bit before i start welding on the bed. |
