First Outlet Elbows Welded to Manifolds

 I got a little smarter about how to hold the heavy assembly while welding.  The vise worked great for a third hand.

The vertical took a little work to balance it but once i figured it out it worked great.

 I didn't weld the inlets all the way to the end because I still need to fit the flanges.  I'll finish the last bit of the seam when I weld on the flanges.


All the shells are welded and the inlets look good, well aligned and squared.

On to the Outlet Elbows.

 I had a lot of ideas about how to assemble these and fit them to the manifolds.  After some experimenting using lots of clamps I realized the easy way to do this was to weld the outlet half.  This left the inlet end loose enough to fit over the manifold without all the clamps in the way at the other end.

The first one I welded I used clamp blocks and a c-clamp to hold everything tight while I welded the overlap.

 For the rest of the elbows I used the clamp blocks and the outlet tool to more carefully fit the shells to the tool.  Like I did with the manifolds, only without the strap clamp.  I hammered them to a snug fit on the tool and they all fit the manifolds just fine.

 When I welded the overlap I tacked the center of the top and bottom to hold the elbow straight with the manifold and with the seams lined up.  I then started at the tack and welded 1/8th of the circumference.  I then rotated to the other side, started at the tack and welded 1/8th again.  The back to the other side started at the tack and welded 1/8th, continuing until all the seam was welded.

I don't know if it mattered but I didn't want to cause any misalignment by welding one side and then the other.

 I've got 2 finished and all the elbows fitted, ready to weld on the last 4.

They seem bigger then the old one which was missing most of the elbow.

This is fun.