Welding Distortion - How to Prevent?

Your configuration is going to warp, not too much you can do about it. You are putting all the heat on one side of the plate, it will pull toward the heated metal. I would have expected much more than the 1/16" you measured!

You could change things by cutting holes in the plate and welding from the back (underside). You can clamp it down with some sort of strong back (big beam underneath) You can try short 1" welds and peen them while they are hot.

Richard Fergus> I built myself a tool stand, with the base made out of 5/16" thick steel

One thing you do is what all inexperienced guys do. You put on *way* too much weld. 2" around the ends of those gussets would be plenty strong enough. But with flimsy stuff like 5/16" plate you'll never get it flat anyway, so you're better off to design in 3 feet. Another thing you can do is sort of a meatball thing--take a 20 pound hammer and pound the base flat. A big hammer skilfully wielded will really move 5/16" plate easily. I've flattened a whole bunch of 3/8" plate, trust me. If it really doesn't move, heat it where you want it to "hinge" and then hit it beside the heat zone. Or just heat it where there's too much steel until you get a 2" cherry red spot and then quench it with a hose, then move over a few inches and repeat. You can shrink plate real effectively this way.

I used to be terrified to weld something together at 90°. Now I just stick 'em together, weld it up, take a heat in the forge and square it up on the anvil. Perfect corners every time.

Grant

Richard Fergus> I built myself a tool stand, with the base made out of 5/16" thick steel

Next time stagger stich the bar and gussets together first. I think something like a one inch weld every four inches would be enough. By stagger I mean that the one inch in four on the other side of the Tee joint would not match. After the stand is built then weld the plate to the gussets. I would suggest a total length of all your stiches to be maximum of eight inches. Any more and thing will warp all over the place. Of course you already know that. You are now a member of the club. Randy

"Richard Ferguson" wrote

Weld it a LOT less, jump around in your welds making two welds opposite of each other, and wait about five minutes between each weld. Clamp to something flat, or a couple of pieces of channel.

Still may warp, but less. You just put way too much welding on there.

Steve

Start with used truck wheels. Make up small plates to bolt to the wheel pattern.

These have the advantages of being disassemble, cheap and are easy to weight down if you need to make the base stable. Just fill with rocks, or cut-off metal scrap.