Not picking on ANYONE here --- but I was cruising a thread and saw this little project.
The reason I'm starting this thread is in a effort to save you guys some TIME and HASSLE when building your projects… SO this thread should be posts of
TIME SAVERS -- and
TIPS on what to do WHEN… to make a project go a little smoother.
So here's the first one…
CLEAN THE PROJECT WORK AREA TO BARE METAL BEFORE YOU MEASURE OR MARK OR CUT OR WELD…. It's so much easier to have a nice looking job when you clean to bare metal FIRST… less contamination in the weld…. easier on discs when you're not cleaning against edges… and just all around FASTER over all.
So in this first pic here -- The entire area to be worked on should have been cleaned JOB #1
It would make this a far better weld job if the area was bare metal -- all the pieces - both sides! The tacks go flatter… the arc and start with less voltage meaning less burn through etc.
AND --- If you're going to weld on a gas tank…. Clean it with plain old soap and water --- and either fill it with ARGON or CO2 "inert" gas --- or drop some DRY ICE in it and wait for it to "smoke" before welding.