Great Dane excavating co.

[Cooper]

I've been at a loggerhead with the dump body, make it out of aluminum? Or steel? I had planned on using 1/4" alum and milling the side profiles into the sheet, also making it lighter. A lot of work and not sure how accurate it would look. Steel, have the ability to bend but welding would not be able to make the seams look clean. Sooooo,,, I decided to try brazing. Went over the the barn and got the oxyacetylene tanks. Of course the acetylene tank was empty, ran over to airgas Wednesday and exchanged both. Thursday night got to play with the torch. Sorta,, oxygen gauge popped and acetylene gauge reading zero on regulator side no matter where bolt was. Made a trip to harbor fright as a cheep torch outfit will serve our rare uses at work. Also picked up this little torch,


And after playing around found out the little torch will be perfect for the tiny delicate brazing I'm trying to do. So after attempting to understand the basic principals of brazing I got my first weld,,


Once I found that magical temp and heat area I understood what to do. The second attempt



And found out not to overheat the flux as it glasses over and hard to remove. Some more learning and then I'm going to attempt to do the dump body like this. I was using 22guage steel. If I can find some slightly thinner I may use that instead. Would be neat to develop some scrapes and dents over time . I would like to say I acquired another skill but I'm far from skilled!! Hats off to you guys that make clean detailed welds!!