Adam Savage Fixes a Squeaking Bed! 

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"I am not *a* welder, I own a welder" is going to be my new motto

Speaking as a certified welder. Adam you did an excellent job of explaining this. Please wear gloves to protect your hands while you weld.

Funny how this video is about a squeaky bed, and yet Adam's chair is soooo squeaky 🙂

45+ years experienced bed user here. Thanks for showing that process, glad to see someone else shows an understanding of how important proper bed use is. Reminds me of my great grand parents who used a bed too.

I love how Adam’s chair squeaks as he explains how he fixed a squeaking bed :D

Im not sure I will ever grok the dichotomy of how on one hand Adam is so excited about his gauge blocks and chasing zeros and accuracy and fidelity, and on the other, he grabs something in one hand and a drill/grinder in the other and just freakin' wings it. Never change, Adam.

30+ year welder - There is no real need to grind slots into the swaged bit of the bracket. Just welding over the area at the 120-150 amps the welder was pulling on 1/8" material would give at least 3/4 depth of penetration. Also, *DON'T* weld on anything galvanized, zinc, or other type of plated metal. Completely remove any type of plating from at least a 1/2" around the area to be welded. Inhaling, even small amounts of zinc oxide fumes can cause Metal Fume Fever. A very nasty condition.

The ability Adam has to weave a story into a build and still start off exactly where he left off before the tangent started has to be admired.

Hi Adam, I had the same issue with squeaky bed. At first I thought that hardware was the source of sound, but it was not. The root cause of it were the wood parts sliding against each other where long side bar touches the front/back of bed. The solution was to put a piece of PET sheet between the two elements plus screwing well all the hardware parts to eliminate any clearance.

Adam has a tig welder right behind him in the welding shots. On this job, I would have clamped the ears between two blocks of copper, with the main bar tight against them, and melted the swaged tabs into the main bar till the puddle had almost full penetration, no filler added. Oh yeah, and knocked the plating off with a wire wheel before welding.

12:50 To your question: that type of rivet-like joining method is called "staking".

*stands next to vice and holds metal in bare had while grinding* adam please protect your hands, they make such wonderful things

Watching him hold the thing in his hand and use the grinder reminds me of the Mythbusters saying "Safety Third"

I`m surprised Adam didn`t mill them out of a block of steel

The “punch” (the male half of the die) is generally on the flat side of the part; the fillet artefact is (usually) the result of the initial distortion of the part into the female half of the die - prior to the stresses shifting entirely to sheer.

Curtis from the Cutting Edge Engineering channel frequently shows filling up welds when repairing/rebuilding things like hydraulic cylinders

I would never click on a video with this title if it wasn’t Adam. He could make a video about how to change a toilet paper roll interesting.

The rounded over edge is the top, and the sharp (burred) edge is the bottom. Half way down the edge you will see it goes from smooth to rough. The rough edge is also the bottom. (Former manufacturing engineer who studied this stuff.) Love your work Adam!

Our bed rails are bolted into the head and foot boards, two bolts at each corner. Over time it does loosen (probably from use and temperature changes through the seasons), but it’s easy enough to just get the Allen wrench and tighten it. (Yes, it’s an IKEA bed.)

Those parts look zinc plated, you want to be careful of fumes. Although it was just a few small parts and not a lot of welding

I thinks it's a bit funny that your chair are squeaking, while you explain why the bed is squeaking ^^ I love it!

Well this video is one of the reasons why I enjoy Adam’s presentations so much, you never know what road he will take us down. But I always learn something new. I have always said, “It is a bad day if you don’t learn something new”. Adam using this standard, when I watch your videos , it is another great day! Thanks so much.

The fact that she came up with that on the spot is epic

Every good grinder deserves a guard.

Adam, I love the story of you and Julia with the air quotes. That is so fun and awesome! I have a silly thing I said while riding BART from Pleasanton to SF with a friend. There are a couple places where the rails make an abrupt change in direction and I said "Jerks! This isn't third derivative continuous!"

I love the shout out to AVE, made me smile. Also, the grinder use at the end shows me that you've been using grinders for a LONG long time :D Thanks for the in depth reasoning behind the squeaks!

I feel like drilling a small hole half way at each end of the fillet (or even just the top) and spot welding there would have been more stable and less likely to compromise the bar.

Cutting edge engineering has weekly examples of great welding each week.

Longest introduction to a two minute weld job ever, and I LOVE IT!!

That airquote joke was amazing - it requires quite a few jumps in logic in one second. Smart lady.

Thanks so much, Adam!! We love you!!

I love the air quotes joke, but what's even funnier was Adam saying he will never be that funny. That part made me laugh out loud!

An alternative, Would have been to use your Tig setup (after cleaning off that plating breathing Zinc fumes is never fun) and Tig weld the tabs to the main bar, using the tabs themselves as your filling material. You'd basically be melting the two pieces together in a puddle and would probably see 1/3 to 1/2 penetration of that 1/8 steel plate if you run it hot enough. (Employed welder 10+ yrs experience, Stick/Mig) Granted, and I will admit, this would not be the strongest bond, (getting that would be all but removing the tab portions of the inserts and plug-welding the entire slot). But not everyone who can do this, has a Tig setup, or even a Mig setup. But there are hundreds of ways to tackle this type of modification/repair, and seeing Adam's chosen method, shows just how creative some people can be and still get the same end result.

You and your project videos are getting me through architecture school and building these models with more care. Thank you!

Oh god, seeing the bed hardware is giving me flashbacks to working in housekeeping at my college. We had to take apart and put together so... so many beds... omg

Adam fawning over his love, for his wife's hilarity, is the type of love I can only dream of either receiving or giving

Yeah, that clip was punched complete. It’s 3 operations, one for the countersunk holes, one for the tab holes, and one for the perimeter. Look up Turret Punches. They’re pretty awesome. The other way is to make them on a Laser/punch combo. We have a Strippit Turret punch and a Trumpf laser Punch at work. They’re fun to watch run.

The fact that you subtly shouted out AvE is just amazing to me.

CWI here, you did a good job explaining the basics in a straightforward manner that just about anyone who is unfamiliar with the subject will understand. I love that about you. Without going back to each example (I'm on mobile), here's some more information on what you explained: A weld which only fuses a portion of the joint as you depicted is called a partial joint penetration weld (PJP). PJP's can be made from one side (single sided) or both sides (double sided). Double sided PJP's are deceptively weak because the void in the middle (lack of fusion and/or penetration) provides a) no support, b) a place for the surrounding metal to flex, and c) sharp surface features which over time will likely be the start of a crack that could cause partial to complete failure of the joint. Complete joint penetration welds (CJP) are welds with 100% fusion to all surrounding metal in the joint. CJP's can be made from one side with certain considerations but are double sided for your example. They are also preferred for most structural joint designs where fillet welds or other niche designs are impractical, but PJP's also have their place. Adding bevels to any groove weld (a weld in which a void is designed to be completely filled) allows for deeper/easier penetration and usually greater strength with less heat input. Welding through a hole in one part and into another part & filling it is simply called a plug weld. Elongating said hole into a slot is called a slot weld.

This is great to know since I have all the tools to fix this problem if it ever comes up.

Adam, after some careful recollection to the process of some of the machine operators did at one place I worked, and then reading other comments confirmed my memories from +30 years ago,those tabs are “staked”. It would be interesting to do a sheer strength and a pull test on them for load capacity.

AVE is great. His grasp on the english language is spectacular!!!!

Everyone needs an Adam in their life.

I love that a joke told by your partner years ago still makes you snort with laughter.

What a treat it is to be invited into Adam's workshop almost every day. Nothing lasts forever, and this has to be something that makes every day that little bit sweeter, no matter your mood. Treasure it while it lasts. Thank you Sir.

If you are interested how metal parts are made, there are many good videos on YT from factory tours etc. As industrial designer I find it fascinating how the stamping machines work. We had to learn basics of the manufacturing from animations & cross-section engineering diagrams of basic machines - and it is f'ing amazing to think how someone came up with the machine... Take in spool of metal sheet and step by step punch holes, flanges, perfectly accurate bends etc. before punching the final piece off. Engineers and machinists who make the blanks/stencils/whatever you want to call the sequenced machine parts are work of art no one gets to see, imho. Gets even wilder with machines that make deep drawing parts where keeping material thickness to avoid tearing is closer to witchcraft. Just thought you guys might be interested, and even Adam in his infinite curiosity to learn. Gives you new appreciation for simples mass produced piece of metal.

"I'm not a welder, I own a welder" and that is because I forgot to turn on the gas" are related quotes that apply to me as well. The difference is having the honest confidence to admit it on camera. I still have a hard time admitting my failures instead of embracing the fact that I make use of a lot of different skills and experience to tackle projects rather than settling for a commercially produced compromise solution. I enjoy the process even when the result isn't as awesome as I imagined!

I am glad to see this that you are still able to weld somewhat in the cave. One thing I did not see on camera was turning the gas off...hopefully that was a step, or as on some of the other welding channels I watch, you might need a new tank next time :)

A hotter, slower weld will significantly increase your penetration (the depth to which you’re melting the parent metal). It should be perfectly possible to achieve a full penetration weld on that material without a significant weld-prep; (although keeping everything in tolerance is much more difficult in that case).

I believe the process which those tabs are fixed into the plates is called "staking", where metals are mechanically deformed to have an interference fit. We do a similar thing in firearms manufacturing with a hammer and punch.

The best part of the serif/sans-serif story was that it was told with a final snort-laugh. Could not have pleased me more. 😊

While I don’t doubt Adam in the lightest, I’d like to hear back if this 100% resolved the issue. Just out of curiosity

Eventually, Adam is going to release a video about watching paint dry. 😉

testing them out will be the best part

What an amazing wealth of knowledge conveyed over such a simple task! Thank you, sir, that was excellent.

That's what I love about you @AdamSavage ! You can go from total Tazmanian Devil style enthusiasm about building a giant spaceship one week, to "I'm fixing a bed for a mate, because late stage capitalism sucks, and people should help each other" without any jarring or dissonance. It's all just parts of who you are.

Watch out, the carbon content of bed frames can cause welding failures. Bed frames look like regular old angle iron but they don’t weld correctly and you’ll notice certain things are riveted together. Well I think that has to do with the carbon Contant of the steel not readily taking welds.

Adam, these videos are my joy. These are the things I care about.

Is it ironic that his chair is squeaking?

I fixed my bed from squeaking. I got married

This answers so many questions ive had about welding

I found it hilarious how much the chair and the camera stand squeaked while talking about something else squeaking

I actually have a story I think is relevant here. I recently bought a cheap Harbor Freight welder to weld some things which I had that needed welding. Included in that list was my Ikea bed frame center rail. The center rail was this rolled sheet metal that had two parts that fit together nicely. And the center of that rail was VERY strong! It was TWO layers of rolled sheet metal bent into a shape which nested within the other piece! VERY strong! Beyond that, you had just one piece of steel which was strong enough given it's shape. But beyond THAT, it tapered down to just 1 flat layer of metal without ANY bends which would have added any structural rigidity to the piece! This is where my center rail FAILED! This is an obvious weak spot in EVERY Ikea center rail! I hammered my rail into the shape I wanted, found a piece of strong metal to weld to this weak spot, and I reinforced this spot by welding to the new metal. So I repaired where my original bed frame tore. But my welding also heated the existing center rail which I believe strengthened it by tempering the metal! EVERYONE with one of these Ikea center rail bed frames should try this! Even if you don't have a welder, you should blast the ends of your bed rail with a blow torch or whatever to heat treat this weak point! (Don't forget to remove the plastic parts from the area first!)

I am also not a welder who owns a welder.... and I find it hillarious that you forgot to turn the gas on. Last week I did the exact same thing on a junk chair I pulled out of the trash. Only I thought, "That'll be good enough." I was so wrong.

Hahahaha I did not realise how much I would crack up about the air quote joke. 🤣 Thank you Adam, you made my day 😊

Nice explanation for the laymen. Just making a groove in the metal, you aren't getting overly complicated, but providing valuable knowledge.

19:10 Adam I respect your years of experience, but that's insane to me how you used the grinder there. It sure looked like your thumb was millimeters away from getting sliced

My bed doesn't squeek, it is a massively over engineered 2x4 and plywood monster I built probably capable of supporting several tons :-).

Hey Adam, always lovely to hear your wonderful voice! I'm a mechanical engineering student (emphasis on student). The joint you were wondering the name for at 12:57 is called an "interference fit" because, regardless of your tolerancing, the two surfaces will always interfere with each other, giving you a rather strong joint given that only friction and internal stress is holding it together (obviously not as good as a welded joint)

I love the random lego on the welding table.

............................................................................................. *Quality > Quantity*

I would be more interested in a wooden squeaky floor.

The almost riveted fastening style is called Peening. It's not great for this application but I own many knives that have peened scales on the handles and some have the tang peened at the butt to hold the handle to the blade. Just throwing more info at a thing about learning :P

Unrelated to welding, I make literally this bracket as a tool and die maker. Everything you said was right on! The holes and all are punched on a 3 step die!

Your description of a bed base that you say is how almost every bed in the world, does not match any bed I have ever known. Maybe it is just an American thing that beds are made that way.

For safety you should always wear thick gloves when welding, especially when you have influence and a lot of people watching your channel, because there is a moral imperative to set a good example.

I love my life as a nerd. Thank you Adam!!!✌️🤍

I work in a factory that makes packaging machines and adding automation to some of the machines that don't already have it. What I do is general labor but they have me mainly focused on operating and making programs for our CNC laser cutting machine. Originally I was a shear operator that sent things down to a turret punch. Your perception on which side the punch came down on to punch out the part was correct. The rounded side is basically the top of the part. Where the flat side is basically the bottom where it is punched out from the material. Those turret punches sound like a war is going on in the shop.

Hi guys. I don’t mean to be pedantic but there are some mistakes in this one. First: You dont need to remove the corners on a piece that small, evetything you said true, except it doesn't become an issue until you're up in around 1/4" thickness. Second: The piece you where working in is hardened steel and the heat from the weld has removed the hardening, so there is a good chance it's going to bend or break where you have welded. Third: Never weld in galvanized steel, it is toxic as H€LL, and the youtube police will arrest you! I really love the chanel and I dont intend to poop on our party, but it had to be said

It might be due to certain activities 😂😂

I would also recommend grinding off the galvanized coating. That will make you sick to the gills, and cause porosity. That connection of the tabs to the pill shaped pieces of metal, is more so staked.

As someone who does have "the institutional knowledge" about stamping, the rounded edge comes from the metal's surface moving before it shears. Meaning that dependent on the direction of movement, the slug and the form will have the rounds on opposite sides! Meaning that plate with the holes was likely a single stage where the holes and the body were stamped simultaneously.

This was the hard way to do it. The easy way would have been to use the TIG to run over the back joint, using the metal of the "rivet" to weld them together. No need to add metal with the MIG

Holding those pieces as Adam grinds an inch from his fingers is pretty unnerving knowing what those tools can do to a body.

Great video Adam! I've never understood why people throw away their old (basic) bed frames just to buy new ones. The older the frames are, the heavier the metal and the brackets were welded. I have been repurposing an old frame for decades (seriously heavy metal) and the only change I made was installing wider rollers at the corners.

My bed frame is bolted together. I haven’t seen a hanging style frame since my bed when I was a kid.

The "riveting" is called "staking". One reason to stake it rather than weld is that you don't mess up the galvanizing surface. You can stake two galvanized parts together, and they are still mostly galvanized. The rounded edge of the stamping is downwards, away from the punch and that stamped the bits out of the sheet and through the die.

This conversation was riveting in both the literal and descriptive way

3x3 custom Tamar has a great video on how to install this kind of hardware to ensure that it is very tight and secure. You have to inset it into the wood to make sure that it's not proud of the surface.

Adam, please do more welding videos!

Fun fact, the weld material created from filler material and base material is called the Admixture, which is a composition borrowed from both. The definition can probably be stretched to include both pieces of metal joined without filler material.

The joke about the air quotes is the best proof that 2 people are meant for each other I have ever heard.

I've been a full-time welder for 20 years now and some of my days still begin with grinding an inch of bubbly weld ;). I would have tried drilling the middle of that pressed tab as much as possible without weakening it and plug welded it I think. As for the main reason you want sufficient penetration (apart from having some material left if you grind the weld) would be to avoid cracks. Lack of penetration promote crack formation, and depending on the type of metal (like 5356 aluminium for example), the weld could literally completely crack apart AS you're making it. On mild steel it generally means a weaker weld. Fantastic job on finding the origin of the squeak and fixing it!

Could you imagine Mr. Savage, National Shop Teacher. Thank you Sir.

As a degreed welding engineer, I can confirm Adam's explanation is correct. Cheers!

If I remember correctly the rounded side of the stamped plate is the side face down on the punch die(flat side is where the force is applied) because the metal would stretch slightly on unsupported face of the piece but only around the edges before it starts to shear the metal and stretching stops.

So glad to see you. Its like back in 2006 on "discovery". I feel comfy

Adam Savage makes everything interesting

Love the shout-out to AvE !!