New Heavy Duty Rolling Shelf

I needed a set of shelves to keep the clutter off my tables and for extra storage. They are 6' tall 4' wide and 2' deep on 5" total lock stem casters.
The square tubing is 1"x1"x1/8" and 16ga sheet metal for the shelves. All 90' of tubing was cut precisely with my Evolution Rage 3 DB cold saw. The sheet metal was plasma cut.
I weld a 1/2"x13tpi nut inside the bottom of each upright for the caster to thread into. The 8 hangers on the sides are 1/2" round bar, all bent at the same time in my press brake.
All joints welded spray arc with the 250p because it's almost silent and spatter free. The sheet metal was tacked every few inches with TIG and no filler.
I'll give it a coat of Rustoleum 9100 black epoxy mastic sometime this week. Maximum weight capacity is 1200lbs.

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Looks nice. What was your gas blend for that?

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

Looks nice. What was your gas blend for that?

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I made a quick coupling tee and mix my c25 with straight argon. I ran 4 lpm c25 and 8 lpm argon, .035 wire and a 1/2" nozzle, 24v but I don't know the wire speed. I lit up on a piece of scrap and turned it down until it sprayed right. I thought about making it a cabinet but decided to just keep it shelves.

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

Looks nice. What was your gas blend for that?

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What gas blend do you use for spray transfer ?

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Originally Posted by zoama

What gas blend do you use for spray transfer ?

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Usually 98/2 Argon/O2. The shop I used to be next door to, used some kind of inhouse triple blend that worked great, but they are no more, and I don't know what the blend was.

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

Usually 98/2 Argon/O2. The shop I used to be next door to, used some kind of inhouse triple blend that worked great, but they are no more, and I don't know what the blend was.

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LWS around here sells what they call trigas or trigon (something like that) that is a 3 gas blend. I used it years ago but do not remember much about it. I think Airgas sells it too.

Here is an interesting read on shielding gas and marketing snake oil. http://www.weldreality.com/MIG_welding_gases.htm Read the whole page please.

Yeah, I think I've read that article or one like it before. There is a lot of snake oil in MIG gas sales for sure. However, what is best in an industrial environment doesn't always apply to a hobby level, either. For instance it was mentioned that there is no need for any helium if you have a good 300-400 amp machine. Not exactly hobby class. In industry it would be foolish to use expensive helium, but adding a little can make all the difference when you only have 200 amps to play with. I think one of the biggest issues is that you just can't rely on getting accurate mixes anymore. I just want something like a C15 or C18 maybe with some helium as a goldilocks gas that I can use for short circuit or spray on all carbon steels. But I just can't find that, anymore. I guess I could blend my own, as you did. Seems like more hassle than it's worth, much of the time.

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

Yeah, I think I've read that article or one like it before. There is a lot of snake oil in MIG gas sales for sure. However, what is best in an industrial environment doesn't always apply to a hobby level, either. For instance it was mentioned that there is no need for any helium if you have a good 300-400 amp machine. Not exactly hobby class. In industry it would be foolish to use expensive helium, but adding a little can make all the difference when you only have 200 amps to play with. I think one of the biggest issues is that you just can't rely on getting accurate mixes anymore. I just want something like a C15 or C18 maybe with some helium as a goldilocks gas that I can use for short circuit or spray on all carbon steels. But I just can't find that, anymore. I guess I could blend my own, as you did. Seems like more hassle than it's worth, much of the time.

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The only gas supplier in my area that deals with hobby welders at a reasonable price won't even discuss anything other than the basics like c25 or straight argon. If you ask about any other mix they say "what are you welding" ___ "you need this".
If you ask what gases they sell, they say "what are you welding" ___ "you need this".

I hear that. I used to have a great gas supplier that I used for many years. But the old man that ran it retired, and while his kids gave it a go, it just went downhill until they sold out to Praxair. Still looking for a new shop. Two short fill bottles in a row have soured me on the one I'm using now. I have heard some good things about another, but they are not very local. Still it would be worth the drive to get good service again.

Here's my way of building square frames like the rolling shelves I just made or anywhere you need 90 degree joints.
I take short pieces of 1" angle, cut the ends 45 degrees, clamp them to the table at 90 degrees and weld them together. I like for each side to be at least 10" for plenty of clamping space.
When you're ready to build a frame you just clamp them to your tube or angle and start welding. I fully weld the exposed sides of the joint without tacking, then remove the jig and weld the rest.
The rolling shelves turned out dead square with all four casters screwed in fully.

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Originally Posted by TheGary

LWS around here sells what they call trigas or trigon (something like that) that is a 3 gas blend. I used it years ago but do not remember much about it. I think Airgas sells it too.

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Prax has stargon. My son likes is over c25. Do not recall what the third gas was (O maybe?). I rarely deal with Prax and Airgas. We are very lucky to have WSI (welder services inc). Always use Mitch, never does me wrong. We had a small shop (Lake welding) the were good but too far to drive,

Nice shelves by the way.

I put a coat of rustoleum 9100 black epoxy mastic on this past weekend. It's hard to make this stuff go on smooth with a brush or roller but it's tough once it cures.

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Originally Posted by zoama

I put a coat of rustoleum 9100 black epoxy mastic on this past weekend. It's hard to make this stuff go on smooth with a brush or roller but it's tough once it cures.

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What did you use to put it on. I like the hammered look. No skid/slip lol.

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Originally Posted by everlastsupport

What did you use to put it on. I like the hammered look. No skid/slip lol.

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A 3/8" nap roller. It feels pretty smooth to the touch. I tried a paint brush but it left lines that don't go away. In other words it's not self leveling. It does give about four hours pot time with the standard activator at 70 degrees. They have a fast cure activator that cuts that time in half. Lowest price I could find was from zoro.com at about $66 each for a gallon of color and a gallon of activator. It comes in many colors, can go directly over rust and makes a very tough finish like powder coating.

http://www.zoro.com/search?q=rustole...0+epoxy+mastic
http://www.zoro.com/search?q=9100+St...40+VOC%2C1+gal.

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Originally Posted by zoama

It's hard to make this stuff go on smooth with a brush or roller but it's tough once it cures.

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So how long does it take for a full cure?

I rarely seem to have enough time for Rustoleum products to fully cure before the items need to go back to work. I know the chemical cross linking they do gives them great toughness, but it seems like it's two weeks before that happens.

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Originally Posted by zoama

A 3/8" nap roller. It feels pretty smooth to the touch. I tried a paint brush but it left lines that don't go away. In other words it's not self leveling. It does give about four hours pot time with the standard activator at 70 degrees. They have a fast cure activator that cuts that time in half. Lowest price I could find was from zoro.com at about $66 each for a gallon of color and a gallon of activator. It comes in many colors, can go directly over rust and makes a very tough finish like powder coating.

http://www.zoro.com/search?q=rustole...0+epoxy+mastic
http://www.zoro.com/search?q=9100+St...40+VOC%2C1+gal.

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Thanks for the info and links. We use por15 a lot of output building metal items. Might try this. The POR15 is tough but we do not need though, better price for sure. I am with Rambozo on rustoleum taking too many hours to cure.

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

So how long does it take for a full cure?

I rarely seem to have enough time for Rustoleum products to fully cure before the items need to go back to work. I know the chemical cross linking they do gives them great toughness, but it seems like it's two weeks before that happens.

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I used standard activator because I wasn't in a hurry and it took around 12 hours.
There are two fast cure activators, regular and low VOC that say 5 hours dry time. 340 VOC 250 VOC