Sturdy and Fast all Steel CNC , my first build

[CharlesJenkinson]

Very interesting build, and good research for me. A weld bead causes shrinkage where it is deposited, so weld induced distortion is not so much due to the 'heat' that goes into the part, but is due to the fact that a weld, when solidifying, pulls on the adjacent parent metal. Apart from looking nice, I'm not convinced these types of bed frames, with massive members, need to be fully welded at the joints, from a stress point of view anyway - stitch welding would be perfectly adequate - having said that, the effect of inducing bending due to weld shrinkage is possibly only noticeable on smaller dimension square hollow section, less than 70mm say. The effect of weld shrinkage induced distortion may be mitigated where possible by welding to the perpendicular plane of the material, if that plane isn't as critical for flatness, and the design configuration suits it - I don't think it applies in this particular build case though.

Sorry to theorize in your build thread - being a noob, I guess I'm eager and this seemed an appropriate, and reasonable relevant place.