Has anybody got any useful tips for tack welding the chassis?

Clamping tubes?
Preparing tubes?
Welder Settings?

etc.

I'll be using a Clarke 160T.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

Matt

I started out with 2 1/2" thick pieces of plywood as a base, layed out the chassis on the wood, drew outlines as references so they don't move, then cut small blocks and screwed them in place around the lower frame. Then I tacked the lower chassis together, added the 6 uprights, and the front piece, then I drilled big holes in the plywood, and used large wood clamps to hold the upper part of the chassis down. From there I removed the tacked chassis off the wood and onto jack stands. I added alot of parts to the frame after that, then I put the chassis back in the wooden plywood base, and finished off the welding.

The chassis from first laying it out did distort slightly, but it is so slight that it just barely crossed the original marker line that I drew. From previous experience building a go cart, if you don't make a good jig in the very begining during welding it will distort itself alot, the jig showed me where to weld next by which way the chassis distorted, especially the first few welds, where the chassis is only tacked together.

[Edited on 9/12/04 by derf]