im at the final stages for building the cage for the bed.
dont know whether to flush mount the mesh or make it ez and keep it on the outside.
outisde: stronger due to more weldable area.would pnly take 5 minutes.
flush: looks slllllick. Probably take 10 per hole so 40 mins..

wat to do?

 

I welded something similar recently. I decided to split the difference. If you do it on the outer edge your welds dont look as clean. inside like your second pic would be pretty weak.

 

well, she is a dirty ugly toygh work truck, might as well keep the theme up

 

Looks awesome!!!

 

i'd go for the stronger way, so outside

 

or you could recess it with some sort of backing strip and have the best of both worlds.

 

i would have it at the center of the frame bar, halfway between your two pics. that gives you the full strength without the awkward rough edges on the outside where it might tear someone's clothes or whatever

if you really want the flush mount image, mount some kind of bar inside the frame to support the grating

 

I like the last two suggestions. It looks a lot cleaner mounted inside. Maybe weld some angle or flat bar around the inside and weld the mesh to that...