Floor Plates

Floor plates started this week! They are made out of 11ga steel and double as skid plates. The frame is inverted on the rotisserie so the floor plates are actually on the bottom of the frame.
I didn't want to grind the welds on the frame down as that weakens the welds so I decided to weld the floor plates into each frame bay.

I would never do this again. It was a LOT of welding, and I moved around a lot to try and limit the heat input. However, welding the floor plates in would cause a big issue, but more on that later.

Not only was it a ton of welding, but cutting each plate out to fit into the bay took a long time. Several plates were a bit undersized, and I had to weld the gap closed leading to more heat input then I expected as well.

When I was 70% done I noticed when looking at the frame it seemed.... off. A quick check revealed the horror! The frame had warped from welding, luckily it warped in a fairly uniform way, creating a fairly even bend downward from front to back on both sides. This was most assuredly from the extensive welding.

I decided the frame would need to be straightened but I needed to get the rest of the floor plates in. I finished welding the floor so I could then get a final measurement for how bad the distortion was.