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Wrapping up final metal touches on my one ton. After I completed my running boards and steel I had to come back to fix an issue. My home made running boards turned out awesome except for one hiccup. I have a slight wave in both. I have been reading about oil can effect, but this wave seems excessively tight. Push down hard and it pops very loudly and moves noticeably. I'm not sure if this is in fact an oil can or if the panel itself has actually warped. I have been replanishing welds to little effect. However, I tried a small torch and quench but it scares me and seemed to make it worse. Also I'm not sure as to how to read an oil can and where heat should be applied. On the other hand, where would planishing be beneficial to drop this wave?
Thanks 😖

If you are having trouble reading the oil can, think how someone on the other side of the keyboard feels. In order to get more accurate suggestion for repairs, take a video that shows any welded area(s), shows you cycling the oil can in both directions, shows the surrounding area, and post the YouTube link. Then post a still photo so that someone can add circles and arrows, to better describe a repair..

Here is a video describing the issue.

Photo

http://s1372.photobucket.com/user/foxj12/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsbgqwehrv.jpeg.html

Hopefully we can get this flattened out. Thanks.

you will need to heat and quench with a torch. not nearly as hard as it seems.

This is the exact problem. Where to apply heat and how much. No one can tell you exactly, even an expert. So if you "guess" wrong, you are cooked. You will have start over. So think, wait for other responses and then decide. Someone may give you mini-step by mini-step instructions on how to shrink/expand.

I built the boards in pieces, front and back with 16 gauge. The undersides have 3 braces, but theses are also the mounting points. As I welded, I allowed for cooling and planished slowly as I went. It took a ridiculous amount of time to weld them out because of this. I plan on applying bed liner so it should hide some of the imperfections but I irritates me when people sit on them and pop!
May call it good enough and move on. Thanks for the positive feedback on how they turned out.

Some pictorials to help explain what is occurring, may be a good lesson for someone else trying this in the future....

Any time we weld, especially with a MIG, you have a shrink that occurs circumferentially about the weld dot, pulling from ALL directions. Despite efforts to allow cooling in between, the majority of the shrink and distortion in using the MIG is the starting and stopping. If one were able to tack the pieces in place and then perform a non-stop weld from one end to the other (using TIG or Gas) you would see much less distortion as the panel heats up gradually as the weld puddle progresses across the panel, and cools down gradually in the same fashion. With a MIG, even welding one dot at a time, it is a quick in and out, for the possibility of more distortion from shrinking. Planishing with either method is a must to counter the effects of shrinking, but a continuous pass will help to limit the weld distortion.

Looking at the running board:


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/Metalworking/RunningBoard.jpg


The upward bent flange near the body helps to keep things from moving. Ideally, if a flange were bent on the outside in a similar fashion, it would have eliminated much of the distortion you realized, depending on the heat introduced when welding on the brackets beneath. Given that welds were used in attaching the outside flange, with each weld dot we realize a shrink at each spot, and the distortion that comes with it. As the weld cools it is pulling the metal in from all directions, even though the picture only shows two directions. The shrink/pull in the direction of the red arrows may tend to draw downward, losing some of the sharp 90 where there may be more of a slight radius at the corner. Anything pulling in the direction of the blue arrows is going to shrink the length along the edge. So when you combine an area that doesn't want to move (yellow line) and an area that is moving (blue arrows), that transition area in the middle starts to form a sinusoidal wave as the shrink causes what outwardly appears as extra metal.. One of the best samples of this, lay a piece of paper in front of you landscape. Left index finger on lower left corner, right index finger on lower right corner, and push your fingers toward each other, representing weld shrinkage. Note the buckle in the lower edge of the paper. This is what is happening to your running boards.

As with any oil can, the "fix" is determined by the cause. Here we have shrinking that occurred from welding, so the CORRECT manner of fixing this type of oil can is to stretch the weld and HAZ. Not an easy task given the location. But likely the easiest way to do so, given the 90* bend, is to use a section of press brake die with a sharp 90, clamp in a bench vise and hammer toward the top of the die, parallel with the 90* planes, where we would expect the weld and HAZ area to be. I would note that welds, especially if MIG was used, will be notably HARD. You would be wise to insure the press brake die is hardened or make it so using Casenite or other hardening process.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/Metalworking/Planishing1.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/Metalworking/Planishing2.jpg

Now although this is the correct method of repair, given the difficulty of weld location and other factors, the REALISTIC method of repair, after exhausting planishing efforts, will be to shrink the bulges. Heating with a torch, I would heat to a size of about a dime, and cool. Start in the center of each "bulge" and work your way out circumferentially.


FOOD FOR THOUGHT. You've done some nice fabrication work on your truck, love the dually. But welding and flat sheet tend to cause issues like you have here. To help combat this in a fabrication process, bending both the inner and outer flanges would eliminate heat introduced distortion. Adding ribs using a Pullmax or other similar reciprocating machine will make the panel more resistant to distortion with the introduction of heat. A bead roller may work, but it shouldn't have HF or Princess Auto on the box if you're going to tackle 16 ga steel. Hope my ramblings help out..

Thanks Robert. I wanted to bend the board all in one piece but the weird angles and differing widths prevented me from doing so. This was the way I could do it with the tools I had available at the time, I appreciate the advice and help guys. I will give these options a go.

Heat them from the center out in small increments and use a metal shrinking hammer and dolly working from the inside out until you get the metal flat and back into shape. I've done this with many heavy metal surfaces and had good success.

Tim

The running boards on my 39 also have 3 braces. 2 for the mounting brackets, and 1 running down the middle, from front to back.

Rick

We recently added a bead detail surrounding some louvers on hood sides. Where this isn't normally the type of beads you see on running boards, it added quite a bit of rigidity & strength where something like this should correct the warp issue. You'd have to remove the braces underneath long enough to bead them, but a series of these added parallel would add quite a bit of strength.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5865987&postcount=1982

Robert, you are the master of field expediency (also known by a non-PC term).

That "fancy vice jigsaw" is just one example. Also the "patented vice grip iPhone" holder. One would have to be very careful about the adjustment of the pliers on that one. They don't give those phones away. It'd be a shame to crunch one.

Awesome work on the beading.

I'll be building one of your "donut dollies", and possibly a custom set of dies when I start working on my running boards (that just need a little tune-up on the beading.)

Update:
I removed the board and I "planished the snot" out of the running board along the leading edge. It took a long time, but I have successfully dropped the highs and lows considerably. I also rebuilt the mount point to the frame bracket as a couple degree variation in height contributed to the severe dip previously built into the board. It isn't perfect, but I'm very happy that progress was made. Now, onto the other side

Robert, that bead tool is pretty handy! I really like the look of those louvers lined by the bead. Maybe I should start saving pennies for one myself. That would be a welcome addition to my ever shrinking workshop.