Every Fabricator's Best Friend | Plate Dog and Wedge
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2024
- #welddotcom
Every Fabricator should have a plate dog and wedge in their tool box. If you don't, we're going to show you how to build some from nothing but scrap material.
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Nice tip thanks
Very handy. Make your wedge with a flat on it instead of a point that way you have a surface to hit on when it needs to come apart then you don't need to hammer on the wedge surface.
If you hit the dog on the weld side the wedge pops out
As a union Ironworker and home fabricator as well these are one of my best friends, for anyone who's never used dogs and wedges you would be amazed at how much material you can actually move.
A “dog” like you cut out to use with a wedge - except with a nut welded to it, that a long bolt can screw through - is much easier to make/store/use … Tack on, near the Front edge , on one side(if Lots of force is needed, tacking on both sides does the trick) - screw the bolt in till both edges of the metal are “even”, sometimes just by hand or a pair of channel locks - Super easy to use … Once done, back the bolt off, and using the head of the bolt for leverage, pull the “dog” towards the metal that was initially higher - breaking the tacks - Done… (40 years of use with these, with metal and pipe )
We used them all the time in the field as Union Boilermakers. Then they started outlawing all "job made tools" and replacing our dog and wedge with engineered "screw dog" type mechanisms. They are basically a two part, engineered "grasshopper" device. They work the same as a dog and wedge or what we call a grasshopper. A grasshopper was basically just a heavy duty C - clamp or bridge clamp cut in half with a flat piece of plate welded on where you cut it. They worked great. But, too many cowboys on jobs not putting enough weld on them and or not tying them off in some way which allowed them to fail and take people's teeth out or fall, put that to a stop and now we aren't allowed to use anything like that unless it's "engineered". All it takes is one or two idiots to ruin it for everyone.
no, its the idiots who made and brought up the law that ruin it for everyone, not the fools who are supposed to be protected by the law or who are apparently the cause of it...
@@camillosteuss I don't agree with us not being able to make job made tools, because as Boilermakers, we know exactly what to make and how to make it for the job to go smoother and a lot of the time, safer. But, if people want to make tools and then take shortcuts and not use those tools properly, then it's only a matter of time until they hurt themselves or someone else. That is why contractors made it against their rules. Too many people didn't use the tools correctly, put enough weld on the dog (so it wouldn't fly off), weld a tie off not or washer to the pieces in case they failed and now we have the end result. Period. It's from the workers or certain workers taking shortcuts to try and speed the process up and it bit them in the ass.
Like other commenters (futher down below) I use them homemade screwtype grasshoppers in the shop when fitting heavy flange to large pipe. One pair is tack-welded to the outside in the positions 4:30 and 7:30, they are sticking out from the horizontal pipe end. The flange to be welded is then positioned with an overhead crane or forklift truck, just barely sitting on the screwtype grasshoppers. Perfect tool for controlling high-low in both directions (or axes if you will).
The almighty wedge. Such a simple concept with near infinite uses. I know what I'm making in the shop this week!
Have fun! Submit a pic to us in the forum! weld.com/forum
Instead of a wedge, you could weld a big nut (example M16 metric nut) to the dog plate and use a M16 bolt to align the steel plates. Very useful in tight spaces and it gives you the ability to precisely adjust the height with a spanner. Can be used in many other places too. Thats how we Do it in my job.
Metric tf ???
metriq ??? that is for foreigners. (Not the band!)
Old iron worker showed me the plate welded to a pry bar method. tack the one corner of the plate, pry it to 90 tack your seam. This is definitely great method too
A must have in my arsenal of "might".!
I used these in my 45 years as a Union Welder, Pipe and Pressure Vessel Fitter, Millwright and Fabricator.... required residents of our box of tricks... Seth
As a steel fitter fabricating complicated and large steel plate items plate dogs were invaluable to completing many projects.
I once had a plate dog, lets say "let loose" and went through an oxygen bottle and through the shop wall. Not to mention that the bottle traveled a quarter mile. And....no one got hurt!! True story, and a warning. Think about the forces involved, but an invaluable tool.
I've been in and around this trade over 40 yrs,the best ideas are the simple ones.I've used this method hundreds & hundreds of times!🇺🇲🇺🇲👍
You can apply some amazing force with these thing. Ive had some made out of 1 1/4" plate and hitting the wedge with a 12 lb maul to align deck legs on offshore production platforms.
I have so much respect for the welding professionals. I’m retired airline technician with sheet metal skills and composite training. 35 years now . Every aspect for structure building can be assisted by welding. Thanks for sharing the video information
Iam a escavator attachment fabricator and welder.. I build buckets, fork sets loader buckets ect... I use these everyday ive got all kinds of odd shape dogs and sizes of wedges. Very useful for thick steel fabrication for sure.
Great presentation to you my fellow union iron worker I was third generation out of local 40 NYC
The old is now new again love it you do such a good job
I Was a shipyard welder fitter at EB Electric boat General dynamics Quonset point building fast attack subs
Hold down dogs and wedges were essential and till this day still essential
Glad you are passing the old is now new hold down dogs and wedges we could not do our jobs without them
you always do a good job on your presentation your knowledge and skill sets are fabulous
Keep up the good work
Enjoy all of your shop chalk and talks
Red iron structural steel local 40 ironworker leather belts days long ago days
US Navy Seabees steel worker SW rate welder
I have used dogs and wedges every day for over 20 years! Come in handy when bolilermaking, shipbuilding and fabricating large heavy gauge lobster back pipes!!
As a Fab/welder in the u.k I used the same dog and wedge method for plating work also U dogs and screw dogs for pipe alignment all are very good methods and can be applied to all kinds of different situations but like the man said always carry a dog and wedge as one of your go 2 tools also a nice weighty hammer 38 Oz I prefer good balance not 2 heavy not 2 light.
These work very well
I made mine about 30 years ago -- yikes
I made the wedge from T 1 steel
So it don’t bend
Anyway great vid you are very knowledgeable
Love this group
I've used this method many times and it never let me down especially with very thick materials. The "half clamp" works great too on thinner materials. Great job man!👍
It's an oldy but a goody 🔥
I used it on 20mm plate it works
I used wedges & dogs to put patches (one foot to three feet long x 12-18" wide x 1/2" thick) on steel barges. They are in use on the giant canal that connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. I so enjoy the simplicity of the wedges & dog. Moving the mtl close enough for a sound ductile weld...is thrilling.
Thank you for a well planned out video.
Cherrs, Pete
I’ve been welding for about 42 years, old school, I’ve have theses dogs in my bucket and some dogs with fast thread bolts with a nut welding on the dog plate, I broke them out on some job in South Florida and these young kids always say old man what is those, watch and learn, as you do time in the welding and fabrication field you become a black smith also
You are smarter then the metal, make it into what you want, I enjoy it.
Brother I enjoy watching your channel, you are A Master Fabricator welder . Good job 👍
I'm not a welder by trade but in the 70's I welded in a ship yard and these were as used on 1/2 and 5/8 material every day along with a rose bud to shrink material.
Keith if you use a rosebud wouldn't it expand I'm just asking because I have never tried it?
@@mikewolfe5917 As the welder I never used this process myself , but if there was a large hump in an undesirable area after a section was completed they would heat this area up and yes it would expand but after cooling it would shrink and no more hump. I always found that pretty amazing.
Nice!
I use wooden wedges all the time in my guitar repair work, never thought of "crossing over" with the idea to metal. THANKS!
Check out stone cutting with dogs and wedges. Might be one of the oldest machines used by man.
The simplicity of these tools is brilliant! I'm definitely making some.
Thanks for taking the time to share that , great video Jason
Nice you can use that to pull up on bowed plates as well just reverse the process and tac weld to the plate and drive the weld .
Be blessed-Rastafari
Love videos like this. We use dogs with a push bolt all the time I'm my line of work but never thought of a wedge. Seems quicker and less tools. (no impact or whatever)
Love the channel.....retired ironworker of 28 years. Keep the videos coming brother...
The transition at 3:42 and then the music cue with the flap disk was so smooth
Very good video! The comment section has some really useful ideas based on the dog and wedge principle too! Over a 41 career as a certified welder repairing rail cars, among other things, I’ve made untold numbers of these things and they’ve always done the trick! Was always funny to me when they’d hire some know it all kid fresh out of welding school that would see me using the dog and wedge, and copy the technique when they needed to align plates. Almost universally, they’d brag about how “I made mine better than yours by welding the whole way around it!”, but they weren’t as boastful when it came time to knock it off! Ha!
As a hobby welder that is always trying to learn I think this is simple and brilliant. I am definitely making a set of these. Thanks 👍
Excellent tip . Thanks. Also preheating the underside of the cut is new to me . I Learn something extra on a lot of these clips
On the dogs i made, i welded a nut and an m20 bolt on it.
Made a big one with a m30 screw.
Otherwise i use wedges for assembly. Or demolition.
Useful when you disassemble welded parts.
And useful when you can’t carry a whole set of shims. (Or you’re too lazy to find shims😉)
We make the plate U shaped and the wedge goes in 90 deg to the edge of the piece worked on, you can then tack right on the distorted area.
Worked with those in excavator buckets and grapple manufacturing
back in 2000 made of Hardox 400 and 500 , we had an extensive array and models.
When i saw yours it brought me back !! Thanks for the video
Hey buddy I'm thinking of making up my own buckets, do you use hardox for the whole bucket or just for high wear areas, or even just around the G.E.T?
Also what material do you use for the pin/hitch area?
The best lay out for a wedge is 7 to 1 ....1 inch high 7 inchs long
Worked in a shipyard for years and used wedges made from 1 inch steel and dogs mad of half inch steel all the time. Portsmouth dogs with 1 inch screws and 2 inch steel body for the big stuff and sometimes we'd cut a C-clamp and weld a nut to the screw and use that for the times when you needed to be real precise.
Here's one that you may not be aware of
I used to use a flat bar and tack one side of the one end and allow the other end of the opposite side to cross over the gap
Pull the flat bar and pinch the high side until the plate comes even
Cool tip. Actually not just for steel work but for many uses and materials.
The bow is popping because is sunder compression from the sides. Eventually that table is gonna deform is you force it to be flat like that. Even more when the summer comes.
I will say the thicker the pieces you gotta bend down the more weld you want to put on that dog, have had a few times where its broken and shot the wedge or dog across the shop
Use to use these a lot when I was working at the shipyard
If you want something a little easier to handle and a lot more versatile make a couple half clamps. C-Clamps cut in half and then a small base welded onto the piece with the screw and turn handle attached. slide it along the low side of joint and give it a small tack weld on the front of the base plate facing the screw. Now you can lift the plate to match its counterpart. It is quick and can be done by one person without ever putting down the stinger as they march along the seam. Use older C-clamps is you are cheap like me.
Flintstone tools used them for 50 years. I used a thinner wedge more pressure and weld closer to the work piece. less chance of twisting.
Best friend, that's a fact, they are a must.
Used these a ton when I was pile driving, etc.
I remember as a child my grandfather making wedges like that and still have them but its time to make more like the stop wedge you made
It's a nice little added feature 👌
We use plate dogs with nut welded to it, then you put a cap screw or threaded rod with a nut welded to it, to fit pipe up
man...that's so simple its elegant.
Check out stone cutting with dogs and wedges. Might be one of the oldest machines used by man. Great trick for metal working.
i usually put the wedge across the gap at say 30 degrees , and it lines both top surfaces up perfectly , even if the wedge or the dog are a wee bit pre owned , used or abused , that way it also lets you cut the dog a few mils tighter and not have to home the wedge every time ,,, same idea , just slightly different , i made mine out of hardex thirty years ago , still in the box , other thing i did was put a hole about half inch dia in the middle of each part , then you can put an old rod , or a bit of string through them to keep them together , at least that way if you loose one bit , youve lost them both lol
Good idea with the hole.
also stops folk '' borrowing '' just one bit
I’ve seen and used these before but never seen them used with such a precise aim. It’s always been the nearest piece of metal laying on the ground and an over sized wedge
That's one I never thought about and I'll be definitely making some thanks for the tip thumbs up.
I'm so glad you do these video for everyone to learn. This tool in particular was invaluable for me when I was putting floors in scrapers and re-skinning blades on dozers and welding heavy equipment. I didnt have the little lips on the end of the wedge, that would have eased my heavy hand a bit. I also didnt know about 1/2 clamps at that time either, they might have made my life easier then too. Unfortunately when I was electrocuted I lost all of that stuff I made even from 25 years before I went to work there. I have to start making everything over better and stronger.
yikes, welding electrocution or you just decided to take a piss on a breaker box a bit too close to it? I still remember my own ``sticking a long nail into the socket`` adventure as a kid and the instant of the cold and hot grip of electricity that i was separated from by parents... i must have been a joy to them, despite all the safety plugs in the sockets, i found a nail outside and used it as a lever to open up the socket and jam the thing in there, to my quick learning that that was a bad move... Funny that i like welding now, must be the magnetic attraction, from back then, if you get what i mean....
@@camillosteuss No!
don't make your wedge pointy, leave a blunt end in case you have to pound it out after tacking.
I always found the wedge has to be harder than the dog so ive used the log spitting wedges from any hardware store or if I made my own id run some hardfacing on the angled slope part of wedge because 2 mild steel edges will sometimes jam against each other and not slide .
Always good information instead of trying to remember it I have been writing it down that is my memory, when you get old lol
Great tip. I could use that same technique for beam alignment in carpentry.
It's originally from carpentry.
Im primarily a carpenter, I'm always using shims (wedges) that's what we call them.
@@cabbyhubby Shims are for doors and windows.
of course!
Always heat from the bottom. Heat rises, so it goes UP through the metal and does the job quicker.
As a machinist who does some fabrication recently temporarily welding a piece onto your work never would have crossed my mind.
two completely different mind sets. as a fabricator who plays machinist on the weekends i struggle with not "just making it work", which might be every fabricators motto.
@@DieselRamcharger Absolutely, if someone can combine the two and master both they could build just about anything that is made from metal.
machinist blow my mind every time I see their work. Im gonna learn machining some day.
@@phillhuddleston9445 that trade is called mechanic or mechanical engineer, you walk the fine line between, it works, and it works well
As a boilermaker I started out grinding endless amounts of the welds that attached temporary fit up gear like fit up nuts to hold key plates and U bars used to fit seams. Even scaffold clips and lifting lugs, whatever it takes to get that steel into place and welded……
i use these on a regular basis. good job letting new folks know how we do
I actually found one of these wedges in a site box at work. (As an apprentice) I used it as a hammer at work to annoy my tradesman since it was a big chunk of steel. This was before i knew what it actually was and my tradesman did also confiscate it.
dude one of the BEST videos on TH-cam
your videos are just the best when it comes to welding and fabrication. I just watched this video about the dog and wedgel I will make some of these something I can do with my scrap metal besides watching it laying around.
the turnbucle with two pieces of angle iron do the job too :) but thats true the best welder friend wedge and dog for sure :)
The longer the taper,the more power your wedge will have.Also,if you wrap the weld around the edge of the dog,it will be less likely to tear off with the wedge and is still easy to remove.
I’ve seen guys cut a “C” clamp in half, weld it then tighten the clamp down on the bent piece
flat bar scrap tack welded at the corner to the flat surface near the risen joint and pulled. same effect. These lock in place, and look cooler though.
One other thought show a tankies key plate and square nuts you can bring flush , raise the upper plate ,or put a radius in your seam can be on round or flat plates .
Nice tool and nice demonstration! Saw some similar heavier duty wedges at Fabtech for some serious plate alignment.
Dimide was it Fit Up Guys? They make some really cool stuff.
@@GodslilRedneck23 I wish I knew off hand who they were. Unfortunately I had to man Dimide's booth so I didnt get too much time to walk around and see all the awesome stuff. Though I remember they were close by to us. I'll have to look a bit more into it.
-Emmet, Dimide Co-Founder
Dimide I know how that goes. We worked the entire show this year. It was pretty busy.
@@GodslilRedneck23 Yeah, unfortunately we didn't make it this year. Cant wait to get the opportunity to go again!
Thanks man 👊 I learn something all the time watching y'all's channel I'm sure this will come in handy
in the shipyard i work at thats a clip and wedge a plate dog is for vertical lifting plates of steel it clamps onto the steel and the dog bites into the plate to carry it its a spring loaded clamp
Those things are good to have, but I really like my slide rule, and a sharp piece of soapstone.
Nice. I love simple no cost hand made tools like this.
Used to weld patch panels an old coal cars and loved using my C clamp cut and in half. tack anywhere
I use dogs most days, I prefer screw dogs though. A little ready rod/ threaded stock, a couple of nuts and some plate. Both vert dogs and horizontal.
Thanks for the tip mate, I just happen to have a oxy torch in my hand, best I stop work and start making some..
Tack bar was goto tech Building vessels/ tanks in factory.
1/4"- 3/16" easy.
3/8" plate requires good tacks and 4'pipe
We used to make dogs with nuts welded on the end, with a bolt in it to align pipe joints.
Great advice! I have some also, because I use these kind of wedges every day at my work, and I have noticed that it performs better, if the gap between the dog and the wedge is big enough so you can get a tack in the middle of the wedge. So to say, the wedge is not on your way while tacking. With big pipes and big shipbuilding stuff in general, where the metal usually has some kind of shape that's making it stiffer, the plates and pipes tend to bend out of the shape when I hit the wedge out, if I can't get a tack somewhere in the middle of the wedges length. Seems like it happened slightly also on this video. My second notice is that the plate dog tends to hold better when I tack it closer to the wedge, because that way I get support from the whole length of the plate dog's side. In this example, you only have half of the length as a support, because the tack is in the middle. Keep making great educational videos folks!
I've seen it as a slot in the dog and the wedge goes across the seam.
You can add an amazing amount of force using this technique. The more force required the bigger the dog wedge and hammer
If you clean up the wedge then "case Carburise" it with an excess Acetylene flame it will not bind under load.
I just make em out of ar400 or ar500 plate, I always keep a few pieces of random AR plate in my truck, stuff will take a beating, the hardness gives it a much higher tensile strength and its much harder to bend.
@@semajniffirg230 BOOM! done
Thanks Brother. You rock!
I used to make them with a piece of all thread and the same size but one welded on the dog and one welded on the top to wrench on
Useful thanks! New to welding, definitely see these coming in handy.
Very elegant solution! Well done.
A good tip dont make your big end of the wedge higher than the plate thickness of the wedge! It will slide better and less chance of breaking your dog off!
Use them all the time. Works great for wall angle
Brilliant, simple. Thanks
Now I’ve been welding medical stainless I gotta watch that the stainless doesn’t get scratched up to bad we have polish guys but the less they have to polish a scratch out the better
Yeah we use these all day shipbuilding, especially because I build aluminum ships, massive warpage and fitment issues
another great video and very helpful..you seem to be a good man love to shake your hand....thanks again from ireland!!!
These are great. We call them a scotchman in the UK.
That's pretty slick! Definitely going to put that in my bag of tricks.
Great video! I use these on a daily basis building tank cars
Ive been fabricating very high quality work for over 15 years and have never needed this as there are so many faster ways to get plates flat to eachother lol neat tool tho
Wow I love being a more advanced student from your videos.
Really a helpful tip. Thx 4 the vid
No problem.
Gonna have to make one of these now