Buddy of mine and I have decided to teach ourselves to [weld and] make frames. I'd like to think I have a baseline aptitude with from the years I spent brazing artsy fartsy stuff for a traveling sculptor- I was his apprentice/production worker for a couple summers over the years. Yes, I worked at renaissance faires. Loved the work, hated the cosplay dorks.

Annnnyway:
My friend has already picked up a frame jig, so that's something, but prior to today, neither of us had really fit two tubes together. Plates, sure, but tubes? notsomuch

Today we hand mitered 3/4" galvanized EMT (hopefully, the sanding we did took the zinc off. otherwise, it was an open garage, not too worried about it). Before today, I'd laid maybe of foot of bead with an arc welder, but had spent years brazing copper and bronze with an O/A torch so I felt like I might have a touch.

On the left is the second joint I attempted, the right is the third. Think I burnt through mostly because the fitment was poor and the end of the tube just melted, beaded up and rolled away.






Just this little exercise with oversized and small tubes was a wake up call about what framebuilding really involves. Excuse my enthusiasm, but I think I'm starting to see the magic here. I do, however, see that I have LOT to learn- the miter was supposed to be a right angle and came out nowhere really near 90 degrees.

Tomorrow I'll be firing up the O/A torch and seeing just how hard a fillet really is. Should be fun.

Anyone care to chime in on the welds? Frank? I'm feeling pretty good about them to be honest for this being one of the first efforts ever with electrical welding and cylindrical objects.



More pics: