MiniFla is just getting to the stage of wanting jumps, etc for bike, skateboard, etc and I have made a few out of wood but would really like to make some out of metal.

I know they will be no stronger (possibly less) that anything I can make out of wood (I have built a climbing wall so can maaaaassively over-engineer) – bu the questions are :
1, What cheap welder ?
2, Do I need lessons ?(obviously yes, but is it difficult …..)
3, Am I being stupid to even think of it
4, Will he die ?

slidy

potential to cut on sharp edges

I guess you could make the frame from metal and the actual ramp could be ply screwed onto it with self tappers?

1: no idea
2: no – it’s not difficult if you are coordinated
3: no
4: yes – everybody dies. you may or may not have input into the timing of his death.

1. After using a cheap welder and then a half decent one, I wouldn’t bother with a cheap one!
2. Probably will need lessons, my friend taught me, I’m still shit in comparison, but I’ve probably only welded for a couple of hours in total as opposed to welding for a few hours a day for 20+ years.

As above, frame out of metal if you really want to, then wood as the ramp.

I should have said I didnt intend to make the ramp itself out of sheet metal ….. although ……..

I shall look into it further then

Not convinced it’ll give you many advantages over a 3″x2″ timber frame with a plywood deck but worth a try if you fancy something different…

TBH I don’t understand why you’d want to build out of metal rather than wood.

Wood can be adapted, modified & added to so much easier than metal and if you make a mistake it’s a lot cheaper to fix, too.

I think wood would probably last longer too, require less treatment and not leave rusty patches all over the garden.

but worth a try if you fancy something different…

Is really where I am coming from

It depends a lot on the type of welder/welding you choose, not all the same. My cheap tig is frankly a bastard to use. Wish I’d got a mig but that adds cost and complexity.

I’m well versed in making stuff out of timber and metal and if I was building a bike ramp for home then no way would I choose metal. The end result could be very good but metal fabrication at home is nowhere near as easy, convenient or as cheap as timber. You will need a good welder for a start which wont be cheap. Gasless welders are useless so you would either need a stick welder (messy and harder to learn) or a mig set up with a gas bottle (co2 is ok for home use) welding mask, gloves and regulators etc. Then there is the matter of purchasing the metal. Its a lot harder to source than just popping to wickes and buying a pack of timber. Then there is the other tools required like an angle grinder.
As someone mentioned above sharp edges on metal construction are hard to avoid without specialist tools or sound design practices.

I’m not trying to put you off, more just trying to point out that its not an easy thing to try and do at home.

I work designing metal fabrications and have a whole factory’s worth of equipment to play with on a lunch time. I also built a car chassis at home from scratch and it was so much harder not having the specialist equipment. not impossible but just a lot harder and more time consuming.

Another negative of metal is that even small fabrications can end up very heavy. This may be a consideration if you ever want to move it.

I would stick to wood.

It depends a lot on the type of welder/welding you choose, not all the same. My cheap tig is frankly a bastard to use. Wish I’d got a mig but that adds cost and complexity.

I assume you meant arc , no one with tig ever said they wish they got mig even though its more expensive and complicated….cause thats not true 🙂

Na, Aldi TIG. Challenge you to get a mig setup for less…

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_tungsten_arc_welding

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_welding

You have gtaw and gmaw mixed up i think…. A bottom end tig set up will be in region of 500 quid. Bottom end arc… 25 quid and up.

Anyhoo technicalitys.

It has TIG written on the side! But yes, you are right on looking further, they’ve just misnamed it.

Even the pro firms use wood for the decking…

Home

http://www.shoretrax.com/gallery/

trail_rat

I assume you meant arc , no one with tig ever said they wish they got mig even though its more expensive and complicated….cause thats not tru

not quite. I’ve got a lovely TIG set, got it s/h for about £2.5, and you know what, there are still a lot of welding tasks that are just better with my £250 MIG set, such as welding anything that isn’t SCRUPULOUSLY clean metal, or just needs to be slapped together, or where the access is difficult (my back is STILL screwed from a week TIG-ing in the T45 cage into my rally car 8 years ago…….. 😉

The limitation if you’re starting out with welding is the weld is only really the end of the job. Cutting and shaping the metal is most of the work so when you first buy a welder it doesn’t really start to be useful until you’ve also got the tools to cut, fold, bend, curve sheets and tubes as well.

For things like jumps for bikes or skateboards the useful thing would be being able to roll curves into tube. That then means you end up with stuff that is lighter and wastes less material than cutting shapes from ply.

You can buy hand cranked profile rollers that can put an even curve into reasonably beefy square/rectangular tube, but its quite tricky to get two curves that match each other with them.