Welding Tips and Tricks

Wanted a safer way to transport my little 40cf bottles when I run to get them refilled or when going on side welding jobs, instead of throwing them in my back seat ready to kill me if I ever get in a wreck.... or just throwing them loosely in a milk crate in the back of my 2010 Raptor. Looked online for some ideas but never saw anything I liked, so I came up with this idea. Yeah, it's a bit off the wall complicated, seemed simple on paper. Sure you could come up with a LOT simpler methods, but I thought it was cool, and why not?! Came out good, fits under my tonneau cover in the pickup bed (that was the plan), supports the bottles nicely on the flat sides of 1-1/4" square tubing, and I can stretch the design easily for bigger bottles if I ever need to (I like the little 40 bottles, especially with my old back... getting old sucks btw, don't do it, stay young! ha)...

Yeah, ran into the fun part when cutting the correct angle on the ends of the square support tubing, as it sits at both an angle to the end plates AND it sits twisted to match the sides of the bottle with the flat surface of the tubing. Needless to say, some of the tubes were some pretty piss poor fit-up, some were perfect. Sure, could've used round tubing, would've been a lot easier, but hey... I liked the idea of the flat support surface when drawing it up. And it was more a fun project than anything.

Just welded the mounting feet on it, and waiting for a warm day this weekend to take it outside and paint it (I live in a tiny rental house, painting in my 'shop' (re: basement) would stink up the house pretty bad... if I was still single I'd do it, but... lol).. Then bolt it into the truck. Still haven't designed a restraint to throw around the bottle necks (chains or something cooler, I don't know yet), but the way they fit in the rack they really don't need it.

Yeah, no idea what I'm doing...

Transporting bottles with compressed gas and unprotected valves is certainly a recipe for danger. You should at a minimum, create a retaining strap since those pony bottles do not have thread-on caps.

Most welding gases are inert, but the hazard of them being launched by valve damage is very, very real. Looks like one of yours is a NOS bottle? Risky to have the valve exposed and pointed to the rear (impact damage from a tail-gater will ruin your day).

cj737 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:20 pm Transporting bottles with compressed gas and unprotected valves is certainly a recipe for danger. You should at a minimum, create a retaining strap since those pony bottles do not have thread-on caps.

Most welding gases are inert, but the hazard of them being launched by valve damage is very, very real. Looks like one of yours is a NOS bottle? Risky to have the valve exposed and pointed to the rear (impact damage from a tail-gater will ruin your day).

Yes, as I said I haven't come up with a retraining strap yet... thinking something a bit more built into the rack that I can just flip down and it'll lock all 3 bottles at the same time. This is replacing having loose bottles in my truck... A big improvement.

Oh, and the nitrous bottle was a joke, I just needed a 3rd bottle to take pics with to show all 3 bottles in it... I only had two other loose bottles lying around.

Nice build! Great improvement from just rolling around that’s for sure.

I do miss my old NOS days . Power on demand.

Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

SusKatCas wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:54 am Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

Nitrous solenoid

Suggestion, make a hinged half lid low enough to cover the valves and use cam over latches on the side(s) to secure it. You even get fancy and throw on a gas strut on either side.

SusKatCas wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:54 am Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

ha, nah I was just using the bottle for the photo, only had two other welding bottles (didn't feel like disconnecting my 3rd bottle)... I have the correct bracket for the nitrous in the trunk of my '66 Biscayne.

BeeGee wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:24 pm

SusKatCas wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:54 am Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

Nitrous solenoid

lol.. actually, two of them as I run a direct port setup

drizzit1aa wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 8:23 am Suggestion, make a hinged half lid low enough to cover the valves Capture.PNGand use cam over latches on the side(s) to secure it. Capture1.PNG You even get fancy and throw on a gas strut on either side. Capture2.PNG

hmm a lid, that's a pretty good idea... but I might not have enough room under my tonneau cover to lift a lid high enough to clear it. Yeah, I could just lift the tonneau cover, but I liked the idea of not having to touch the cover, and just open the tailgate to load and unload the bottles.

Threw some rattle can on it and bolted it into the bed today... even though I'll probably modify it again. Thinking maybe to use just a simple chain or cable restraining straps on the bottle necks... idk, had to jump to one of my other projects, needed to do some bottle refilling first so time to make it useful.

My thoughts were of a rear-end collision and some extra security. Guess they are pretty contained in the bottle rack though, as long as a broken valve in a worst-case scenario just leaks and doesn't catch a spark, you're golden. Looks good! If no lid, I made some construction trailers about 20 years ago with full sized bottle racks in it, I spaced and angled a 3/4" nut and used a bolt to secure them. Since they were angled, they pushed the bottles into the rack and kept them from bouncing around.