I have been making these hooks for a few years and I am wondering if there is a better way to do it.
My current way of doing it requires me plug welding the wire on the back u shaped bracket.
The bracket is 14 ga and the wire is 3/16
Normally I Mig these and I always get splatter and its a pain to clean out on the back side.
The problem is clean up after welding.
I tried Tig but I cant do it with out filler and the fixture to hold every thing in alignment makes it hard to get in weld it very easily. And for me its hard to do this small plug weld with Tig as its hard to get the arc concentrated down to the wire so some of failed twist test.
So I am looking for maybe a new way to make this hook that does not require welding, But I cant think of anything that does not get involved.
I am thinking of looking into seeing if there is a way to use a spot welder, but wanted to see what ideas you guys might have
I dont to weld on the exposed side
EDIT: So left here and wen to YouTube and low and behold with no searching this video was the first one that came up. Something is monitoring my presence on the web!
Think I will try this, I will make a much smaller hole in the bracket and give it a shot.
Still would like to hear what you guys think
Another option is instead of a single hole in the bracket and a dog leg in the hook part, cut your brackets with a notch about 1/2 to 3/4" long and then no dog leg in the hook. Then you can just put down a quick weld on each side of the hook arm in the bracket.
Either way, adjust your bends on the flat to accommodate you hook design, or your current hoo dropped in the notch an welded. Should make welding it easier without the large radius gap.
Maybe this would work?? It’s a bit exaugurated but I think you can get the idea of making a slot a little below the bend line and place the hook into the slot and now weld on the front side. Just a thought.
