Quote Originally Posted by eci22 View Post
Yes I'm quite familiar with the bird poo welding technique : ). When you were welding, did you let the weld cool before removing the clamps and turn the piece around to clamp the other side or did you weld one side un-clamped, turn it over clamp it down and then weld the other side ? It you clamped down the first side then welded and turned over to weld the second side the clamps wouldn't have much effect on the first side at least ?- I'd be really interested to hear your workflow as I've alredy welded my Y axis and I am trying to improve my amount of warp in the rest of the build ( I'm using gaseless MIG, a very very basic machine), I've seen a bunch of you tube videos but haven't dialled in my sequencing yet.
You are overestimating my skill and ability! I used a cheap stick welder I bought online which is the only welder I have ever actually used. The pieces were clamped together with C-clamps and vice-grips and if I remember correctly I used a couple of pieces of wood as braces to keep the pieces as flat as possible. I don't have a welding table so worked on the gravel path outside my shed. I clamped everything as tightly as I could before I began and didn't undo any of the clamps until it was finished. Having spent the last couple of days properly aligning this machine for the first time I can say how pleasantly surprised I am with the result of my first attempt at welding. It's needed some shims to get everything level and parallel but has turned out very well I think. The important thing is to think about how you will make your design adjustable, where you will need to have joints that can take shims for alignment and how you will access those joints when the machine is complete without taking half of it to bits again.