Welding Tips and Tricks

Last year I made (and posted) a cart based on Jody's open frame concept made from 1-1/2" square tube. I have plenty of 1-1/4" sched 40 pipe on the rack, castors off a junked display fridge, and wheels off an axial man cooler so I have the materials to make another one out of pipe when (and if) I get the time. Started looking everywhere for templates for pipe XYZ corner joints and couldn't find any. Anyone know of the existence of these?
Anyway I decided to make my own template and I post my results here if anyone is interested or has a use. Could be good for furniture or anything. Maybe someone has a better, faster way of doing it.

First tacked together a bandsaw cut mitre joint for X-Y positions
Then tacked a square cut piece into Z position with pipe wrap chalk mark.
and used a piece of tig wire to transpose measurements to paper from chalk line to touch point of X-Y pieces at various points around the Z pipe to make a wrap template.

This is the result:
And this is what the Z pipe looks like (cut with a worn 5" wafer disc):
And fits like a glove:

Coldman wrote:Last year I made (and posted) a cart based on Jody's open frame concept made from 1-1/2" square tube. I have plenty of 1-1/4" sched 40 pipe on the rack, castors off a junked display fridge, and wheels off an axial man cooler so I have the materials to make another one out of pipe when (and if) I get the time. Started looking everywhere for templates for pipe XYZ corner joints and couldn't find any. Anyone know of the existence of these?
Anyway I decided to make my own template and I post my results here if anyone is interested or has a use. Could be good for furniture or anything. Maybe someone has a better, faster way of doing it.
First tacked together a bandsaw cut mitre joint for X-Y positions

Then tacked a square cut piece into Z position with pipe wrap chalk mark.

and used a piece of tig wire to transpose measurements to paper from chalk line to touch point of X-Y pieces at various points around the Z pipe to make a wrap template.

This is the result:

And this is what the Z pipe looks like (cut with a worn 5" wafer disc):

And fits like a glove:

Well done, isn't math great!

Well done Coldie - good result!



Kym

Love it, Coldman. I think that's the first time coordinate mapping a cope has been demonstrated here.

Well done!

Steve S

Hey how bout that!
Thanks fellas. I was a little surprised when I could not find anything in my books or on the web.
Guess I better get on with the cart now. I can see some challenges getting all the spacer pipes clocked perfectly both ends and all the same length. Maybe i should try cutting and shaping with plasma instead of cutting disc. Also warpage could be an interference so I think I'll tack the whole thing together well before welding anything out.

Looks great. I've done the same but used a hole saw in a drill press, grinding a flat for the pilot bit..full weld of the miter before drilling. Just halfway drilled. Goes faster too if you can find the right hole saws for the tube wall thickness.