fab question (how do you do it??)

[mmagnumpi9]

Curious what you all do when making brackets when doing fab work.

Lets say you have a few holes in a frame, or piece of metal you want to make a bracket to bolt onto. How do you get it so the holes you drill line up correctly?

I have done the measuring thing, cardboard and holes, aluminium foil and holes, chalk dust and greese to transfere the location of the holes onto the metal you're working with.

Anyone else got a better idea??

[mprayii]

I pay todd beer to do my hole.

[jps4jeep]

whats the problem? can't get the holes to line up?

Measuring should be more than fine, just make sure all your measurments are on center of the holes. also, measure twice, drill once.

[mmagnumpi9]

I dont have a problem getting them to line up. I was just asking how other people do it, maybe someone around here has xray vision or something.

[rockdaleTJ]

mprayii said:

I pay todd beer to do my hole.

thats f-ing gross.

[xjma]

Place it where you want it, mark one hole with a center punch, remove bracket, drill. Bolt the part on with one bolt. Make sure it is where you want it. Then center punch another hole, drill, bolt. If you need to move the bracket a tiny bit, make the hole in the bracket a tiny bit bigger.

If you hold the bracket up there, mark all the holes, and drill them right away, they won't all line up. Murphy says so.

[bluerocket]

Its hard to mark the hole when its covered up by the piece of material you are making the bracket out of There's no getting to the otherside of the frame either.

[pianoguy]

This is what I do when you have holes but no holes in a bracket.

You can cut a head off a bolt. Use a grinder to make a point on it. Than thred it in to the hole but make sure you have enough to take it out with vice grips or something. Than put your bracket where you want it and give it a hit with the hammer. The point on the bolt will leave a impresstion on your bracket. If you you have a rusty hole you may what to re-tap the hole and use some oil to make sure you can get your bolt in and out easy.

but Murphy's law. I once worked in a shop that was owned by 2 borthers and there last name was Murphy. A lot of sh!# went on there.

[jps4jeep]

so you looking for the method, I do the measure method I have found out the hard way that holding metal up to something and marking it is not always perfect, I measure from center points, then once I get everything all set, a simple center punch and drill. always lines up. as for securing it to some thing that you can get to the back side, there are a couple option somewhat similar to what Rich wrote but a little different, lets say the hole is 1/2 dia, I would thread a nut with a washer (and not a fender washer, I mean something thick!) welded to it on tot a piece of threaded rod, and fish a line through the hole to another hole in the frame that was a little larger. the washers OD would be a little larger than the 1/2" and the nut would be a 7/16 thread. I would pull it threw to the hole I want to attach the bracket, then I would tac weld the washer to the frame, remove the threaded rod and weld up fully, let cool, then re-incert the threaded rod. then I would grind down another washer with the same ID but make the OD 1/2 so it sits flush against the frame, tac it, remove the threaded rod and weld up and grind smooth, now you have a threaded hole that can take a bit of a beating.

Also if there was little fo no stress to be applied to the bracket, just drill and thread the hole. or if your using a really large hole, you could try a heli-coil to size it down.

[jps4jeep]

I can swing by real quick tomorrow if you need me to show you what I mean... I tried to draw something on the puter, but that sucked!

[jeepgod]

mprayii said:

I pay todd beer to do my hole.

what are you some kind of "Fing" fa@g?


leave me out of this! homo!

[88jeepyj]

Another way of doing it is make the bracket. C-clamp it in place. Use a drill with a small drill bit and drill your holes. Then take the bracket down and drill out the little holes to the size you need, do the same to the bracket. The put it up there and bolt it up.

[Tooch]

rockdaletj said:

mprayii said:

I pay todd beer to do my hole.

thats f-ing gross.

I was going to leave that one alone because didn't want to go there.

[mprayii]

jeffsantucci said:

rockdaletj said:

thats f-ing gross.

I was going to leave that one alone because didn't want to go there.

Well, looks like your involved now, want to earn some beers?

To stay on topic however.. Measure and drill holes, if they are off a little... big deal, open them up and use washers.