Solar Arch DIY

[PCUK]

It's an alternative reply but if your not in a rush for it then as Stainless is a very forgiving material to weld it might be an option to learn to tig it yourself! The outlay is initially high but not silly and once you have the rudiments then perfecting the technique is just a question of time and effort which if your inclined is both enjoyable and rewarding.......if you then need to bail out at a later date you can just sell up the equipment and recoup the outlay ...and if you bought well maybe even turn a small profit from the equipment...! just a thought...!

Don't even think of tig welding unless you are prepared to practice for a year. It is ubnlike any other welding and vastly more difficult to master without professional tuition. on the other hand you could mig it with suitable wire as that would be far easier if you spot welded in the manner of car bodywork.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Exhaust shops often have decent pipe benders and would probably help you out. Since I was enjoying the idea, I made a draw bender for 20 and 25mm tube.
As I mentioned before, it is not difficult to find ready made bends, as the food trade used lots in 316L.

I agree we have a number of tube bending shops around and custom car exhaust fabricators do have machines for bending thin wall pipe but to bend schedule pipe you need a hydraulic bender.

20 and 25 mm O/D thin wall pipe can be bnt using a good hand bender. Mine is bolted to a wall of my house and I use a 20 meter lever to bend 25 mm O/D tube.

Much above that I take it to a local tube bending shop to get good quality bends.

I used to work for Tube Investments in the UK and worked designing tube manuaping machines like tube drawing and making machines nd tube bending machines

 

[rogerthebodger]

Don't even think of tig welding unless you are prepared to practice for a year. It is ubnlike any other welding and vastly more difficult to master without professional tuition. on the other hand you could mig it with suitable wire as that would be far easier if you spot welded in the manner of car bodywork.

I agree if you wish to weld thin wall tube 1.6 up to 3 mm. t becomes a lot easer with 3 mm stainless and keep the weld moving

At low welding current its more difficult to maintain the arc and stop sticking as you strike

In other words practice practice and practice some more

 

[DangerousPirate]

I agree we have a number of tube bending shops around and custom car exhaust fabricators do have machines for bending thin wall pipe but to bend schedule pipe you need a hydraulic bender.

20 and 25 mm O/D thin wall pipe can be bnt using a good hand bender. Mine is bolted to a wall of my house and I use a 20 meter lever to bend 25 mm O/D tube.

Much above that I take it to a local tube bending shop to get good quality bends.

I used to work for Tube Investments in the UK and worked designing tube manuaping machines like tube drawing and making machines nd tube bending machines

The lever is 20 m long? Jeez. I don't think I can fit this in the marina. :-D

What is usually the weakest spot then? Maybe that can subjugated with additional horizontals.

On my old boat I ended up using t-poles, which worked okay, but I wouldn't want to do that again. I also would like to use the arch for extra storage (as you can hang stuff under it etc.
It's just so darn expensive to have one built and doing it yourself is always the risk of a botched up job and then it all breaks while you're rolling one day. To have a boat, means you have to be an electrician, carpenter, plumber, welder and much more on top of a sailor.

 

[Daverw]

What thickness of stainless tube did you use and what was the diameter of the tube.

My arch was bent to shape using a proper pipe bender which reduced the amount of welding required

It’s I recall 36mm OD x 3mm wall seamless, we did bend some with hydraulic pipe bender but the deformation of the side was visible when polished and the curve too sharp without getting special formers, hench the welded bends, all tig welded. The guys who did it made machinery for food factories.

 

[ean_p]

Don't even think of tig welding unless you are prepared to practice for a year. It is ubnlike any other welding and vastly more difficult to master without professional tuition. on the other hand you could mig it with suitable wire as that would be far easier if you spot welded in the manner of car bodywork.

I'm afraid that that is just not so. Most people are 'afraid' of tig as it is either / both unusual and/ or they are using cheap scratch start machines. Stick and mig would make for a shite very amateurish finish on 25mm tube and unless high sched' would be very difficult, especially stick. Tig with a half decent lift start machine and a couple of dozen hours playing would be much preferable.

 

[B27]

I'm afraid that that is just not so. Most people are 'afraid' of tig as it is either / both unusual and/ or they are using cheap scratch start machines. Stick and mig would make for a shite very amateurish finish on 25mm tube and unless high sched' would be very difficult, especially stick. Tig with a half decent lift start machine and a couple of dozen hours playing would be much preferable.

To be fair, a couple of dozen hours 'arc time' is probably half a year's training and grinding tungstens?
And a lot depends on the machine, you need a £1000 machine, argon, a suitable workspace to learn TIG.

 

[DangerousPirate]

Found these plans for solar arches from some american company. Maybe just try to find a welder who wants to copy them? Just need to measure the width I need. They seem popular overseas.

 

[Graham376]

I'm afraid that that is just not so. Most people are 'afraid' of tig as it is either / both unusual and/ or they are using cheap scratch start machines. Stick and mig would make for a shite very amateurish finish on 25mm tube and unless high sched' would be very difficult, especially stick. Tig with a half decent lift start machine and a couple of dozen hours playing would be much preferable.

Not so if you're a decent welder, this is my stick welded (but not by me) pulpit .

 

[Graham376]

Found these plans for solar arches from some american company. Maybe just try to find a welder who wants to copy them? Just need to measure the width I need. They seem popular overseas.

I found measuring difficult. In the end, mocked it up in 3/4 x 3/4 timber held together with gaffer tape until it looked right, which made measuring, particularly bending angles, easy.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I made a mock up of both the solar arch with 50mm dia PVC water pipe heating up the pipe with a heat gun to get the bends right

Once got it looking right just measured it and fabricated the rest to the mockup.

Took tube and mockup to the tube benders and they bent the tube to the mockup

 

[geem]

Not so if you're a decent welder, this is my stick welded (but not by me) pulpit .

That's not arc welding. The guy would have to be magician to weld like that with a stick welder. That is TIG welding. Stainless steel is hard to weld. Arc welding works best on thick gauge milld steel. To weld stainless steel, you need a shield gas. Tig welding is normal practice for a proffesional welder where aesthetic are important. You simply cannot achieve that kind of weld on thin wall stainless steel with an arc welder.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I weld stainless steel with an stick welder its all about the correct rods , current and skill,

The wels shown looks like it has been dressed and polished. I agree you would not get that kind of finish direct from stick or even TIG.

Tig would need pickling and dressing and polishing to get that quality of finish.

I have done stick from the mid 1960's when I was an apprentice in a fabrication shop doing both MS and stainless fabrication tor conveying food stuffs.

I am a little out of practice these days but I still do stick, MIG and TIG depending on what I am construction

 

[DangerousPirate]

I found measuring difficult. In the end, mocked it up in 3/4 x 3/4 timber held together with gaffer tape until it looked right, which made measuring, particularly bending angles, easy.

Mock up is an idea, but I meant I only need to measure the width, the rest seems alright? Might check on my boat if the backstay is cleared that way.

 

[Graham376]

That's not arc welding. The guy would have to be magician to weld like that with a stick welder. That is TIG welding. Stainless steel is hard to weld. Arc welding works best on thick gauge milld steel. To weld stainless steel, you need a shield gas. Tig welding is normal practice for a proffesional welder where aesthetic are important. You simply cannot achieve that kind of weld on thin wall stainless steel with an arc welder.

Oh yes it is, I watched him do some of it. 1.5mm electrode @ 80 amps on 22mm x 1.5mm tube.

 

[ean_p]

Oh yes it is, I watched him do some of it. 1.5mm electrode @ 80 amps on 22mm x 1.5mm tube.

Mmmm yer good man must have been having the day off when this one was done then.....

 

[Graham376]

Mmmm yer good man must have been having the day off when this one was done then.....
View attachment 168055

That bit was done by someone else (not me) on a very windy day

 

[DownWest]

Geem, you need to back off a bit.. Plenty of welders can do nice 'stick' work on thin tube. It may not be the current idea, but works.

 

[Davy_S]

Geem, you need to back off a bit.. Plenty of welders can do nice 'stick' work on thin tube. It may not be the current idea, but works.

Yes, i welded the pulpit rail with a stick welder, it is doable if you are used to using one.

 

[geem]

Mmmm yer good man must have been having the day off when this one was done then.....
View attachment 168055

Yep, that looks like stick welding