Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm going to be building some 48" x 48" fabric frames from 3/8" rod. These frames hold thin fabric that is used to diffuse light on film and video sets. They have a 6" perpendicular-to-the-frame handle that locks into a stand. Often these handles are under the strain of the entire weight of the frame itself and the fabric. Nothing exceedingly heavy but I have seen the handles bend every now and then. These frames (crudely drawn) look something like this:

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l l
l l
l l
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l

We have some of these. They seem to be made of chrome-plated steel but I'm not sure of this.

My question is: should I build these new ones from chromoly or chrome steel or some other metal? I want these to look good (meaning, shiny) but I don't have the ability to chrome plate.

I've only ever TIG welded aluminum, mild steel and stainless so I'm not familiar with chromoly or chrome steel (or any other metal for that matter).

Please include with your answer what rod you would recommend I use to weld any joints that I may need to weld. And any other tips and tricks that you have.

I am going to be TIG welding these frames, if that wasn't already obvious.

Thanks much for any input.

Jon

Hey mate,

Chromolly or chrome steel is a low alloy steel. This means the outwards appearance is not greatly changed by its alloying elements. Eg. It looks like ordinary steel and will rust as such. So, forget about the Chromolly and consider stainless steel, aluminium or chrome plated (I know you said you don't have access) the stainless will be expensive and require some finishing to achieve what you want. And the aluminium may not be strong enough. Hope this helps,

Mick

Tubing would be stronger than solid rod in this application. Stainless would be my choice.

Mick and cj - Hey, thanks a lot.

After I posted, I was thinking that SS would probably be the way to go. I didn't consider using tube but I'll probably go that route.

There are a lot of SS flavours. I have a ton of 308L rod (1/16", 3/32" and 1/8") that I bought when I purchased my machine and started TIG welding. With that in mind, what would be the best SS blend to get for this job, in your opinion?

Thanks again,

Jon

304 is all you need. Spend a few minutes polishing it up, and it’ll look like a million dollars-

Copy that!