Some bumpers I fabbed up for the Jeep

[dexetr30]

These are some bumpers I fabbed up for my Jeep soon after I got the welder and learned how to lay a bead. I learned a lot from these two projects.

Before I got the angles cut on the ends and the mounting holes drilled. I bought the weld on D-rings at a local farm supply store. I've used this bumper several times to pull vehicles much larger than the Jeep and have had no problems with the weld joints. The dog can't seem to stay out of range of my camera for very long.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/dexter30/Jeeps%20and%20trail%20scenery/Picture148-1.jpg

Rear bumper with the angle cuts and painted. It's mounted with six 1/2" grade 8 bolts.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/dexter30/Jeeps and trail scenery/Picture003-4.jpg

Front HMMWV bumper modified to fit my Jeep. Again, strong as can be. I've used this bumper to push and pull all kinds of things with no problems. I fabbed the mounts using the o.e. Jeep mounts off of the original bumper.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/dexter30/Jeeps and trail scenery/Picture002-1.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/dexter30/Jeeps%20and%20trail%20scenery/Picture004-1.jpg

[farmersamm]

I usually don't like to talk about other peoples welds. So I'm gonna talk about both of our welds. See "Ford front bumper bracket". I posted a pic of a weld on a tow eye.

Your Weld-- Try to make a smaller bead with the heat and material deposition focused in the joint. What you have is a bunch of material spreading out from the joint. It really doesn't add strength. It looks cold, either because of too fast travel, or not knowing how to manipulate the gun properly. Look at a pic of a good weld, and practice making a weld that looks like that. Don't touch another piece of steel before you can make that good weld. Or do a project, and grind the weld down if it's not good. After a few regrinds, you'll get it right. You get tired of grinding:D

My Weld-- It has some pretty serious issues. First, and most obvious is the start and stop point on the final pass of the built up weld. It wasn't started at the beginning of the plate, and it finished before the end of the plate. Second, I didn't weld the ends of the plate. These are fairly old welds, and I've improved(I hope) since then. Doesn't embarrass me a bit to post 'em. It's a learning process.

[dexetr30]

I usually don't like to talk about other peoples welds. So I'm gonna talk about both of our welds. See "Ford front bumper bracket". I posted a pic of a weld on a tow eye.

Your Weld-- Try to make a smaller bead with the heat and material deposition focused in the joint. What you have is a bunch of material spreading out from the joint. It really doesn't add strength. It looks cold, either because of too fast travel, or not knowing how to manipulate the gun properly. Look at a pic of a good weld, and practice making a weld that looks like that. Don't touch another piece of steel before you can make that good weld. Or do a project, and grind the weld down if it's not good. After a few regrinds, you'll get it right. You get tired of grinding:D

My Weld-- It has some pretty serious issues. First, and most obvious is the start and stop point on the final pass of the built up weld. It wasn't started at the beginning of the plate, and it finished before the end of the plate. Second, I didn't weld the ends of the plate. These are fairly old welds, and I've improved(I hope) since then. Doesn't embarrass me a bit to post 'em. It's a learning process.

Thanks for the advise. The welds on the back bumper were definitely cold. One problem was that I had my amps down to low and the other was that I was moving to fast. That was one of the first projects I took on. I've learned to slow down a bit and crank up the heat a bit more since then. When I first started I was afraid of burning a hole through things. Now I've gotten a bit better and have learned to fill the holes back in if and when I do burn through something. Also, I wasn't aware of any scale being present on the material. I thought that since I bought all the material new that it was clean. From reading this site over the last few days I have learned otherwise. This is a great site. Again, thanks for the advise.
:D

[rudytj]

the rear cross member on a jeep is rather thin metal and can rip thru...get that bumper tied into the frame better before you do any more pulling