Project Metal Selection - How to decide?

[sarge338]

I may just create a carriage to put the running gear on. I like the running gear concept, but it was terribly built. The large wheels by the bottles literally look and feel like they’re going to fall off. You’d think that would not be the case for the price.

[Sberry]

Find stuff, hook it together. It isnt so hard to change or rif when there is not a lot in it.

[Sberry]

I goof up here trying to do 3 things at once. Actually isnt the newest version. There is a 140 sitting in there but I got rid of 2 carts by stacking the Hobart with spool gun and the 2050 plasma on top of the synchro was being used for carboard box storage,,, ha Free floor space.

[Sberry]

I will elaborate a minute. When I started didnt always look well at similar work and then dreamed stuff up. I was working Ironwork and heavy scrap was cheap, also spent wasted some money on a couple 1st things I dream up and while they were **** for strong way over built and didnt work as well as something more effeciently designed.
Real book learned engineers can come up with stuff make me look like I am still eating dirt.I copy and in critical work might improve by 1 thickness in a failed part. I make it a little better depending on duty cycle and can come really close to the guys with the book learnin. What I do is 1 gauge heavier and maybe more depending, I dont over build everything but lots easier to do to add a pinch.
Most of the time I start with the stock shelf and really rarely buy much stock steel anymore. I collect it along with pipe fittingsand strip it out in to "stock" so to speak so it stores on the shelves. I can do 50% of the work with a cut or a weld or even a pice with hole in it and use a lot of pre bent salvage. Mostly "thata work" type repair, mod or fab.

[Sberry]

I build wayyyyy lighter today than when I started.

[Burnt hands]

I often go to local Harbor Freight store and look at what they are selling and how well or badly built they are.
Then I use their designs to make my project.
Don't feel guilty stealing their designs as they have been copying US made tools and equipment for decades.

[AlexCaffe]

I use different metals in my projects. I can spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect material. Analyzers usually help speed up this process; I use them to analyze various materials. Here's a good example that's pretty easy to use: https://elvatech.com/applications/coating-thickness/ I figured this out when I used them in a previous project. I needed to do a coverage analysis. And, to my pleasant surprise, the mechanism of action turned out to be very simple. So no special skills are required for this. You can immediately get the data you need and continue working.