Welding Tips and Tricks

Random stuff from last week, been swamped with repairs and haven't posted much.

rick
always interesting to see what you welded.
have you ever welded the same type of repair
twice...lol
craig

motox wrote:rick
always interesting to see what you welded.
have you ever welded the same type of repair
twice...lol
craig

Thanks Craig, yeah I do some repetitive repairs but what I like about my job is most days bring a new surprise.

Rupes wrote:Started practice on welding SS today. Cut about 30 strips to weld back together.

Between 0.55mm and 0.7mm

First ones looked pretty crap. But fiddled with the settings and got something good enough for the moment.

I'm planning on fabricating a 0.55mm inconel exhaust for my bike early next year. Far cheaper to practice on SS though.

As it turns out inconel welds better than SS ... well for me anyway.

https://goo.gl/photos/PNZvFcDA9E6Ftkao9

inco.jpg

Nice work.

The exhaust is for your TL, yes? (I seem to remember you'd also fabricated a custom frame for this one?)

Can I ask where you'll be sourcing your tubing? Where I am, the thin wall stuff is hard to find.


Kym

Y pipe for a BMW E30 with a 5 series V8 swap.

I have to do some control arms for a friend for his Dodge that I'll post some pics later this week

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

Looks good Sam

His dad being a machinist is a beautiful thing when he finds scrap 2.5" brass round stock in the scrap bin. R/L threads, as well as a set for the bigger rod end bushings I have to weld on the long arms.

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Did a little dentistry on a chipped lathe gear tooth this afternoon. A little pre-heat and then some silicon bronze filler. Let it cool down and then got after it with a file. Couldn't get a real good pic because of the flash washing everything out. Going to finish it up in the morning and add another pic.

Looks good! I've heard of drilling and tapping the tooth for a set screw to increase the strenth of the tooth.
It looks like we have the same gear damage.

I heard of that too but this was just a corner that got knocked off like someone dropped a chuck or something on it so I just cleaned it good and bronzed it. I want to get that sharp corner back but I had a few beers while I was filing and thought I might wait til tomorrow to finish it so I don't make it worse

removing a broken set screw by tig welding a tit on it
to grab with vice grips when its to small to weld
a nut to it.

motox wrote:removing a broken set screw by tig welding a tit on it
to grab with vice grips when its to small to weld
a nut to it.

Good job, always a good feeling when they back out, especially broken taps. When possible I weld a cap head bolt and use an allen wrench

Richard
yes but this was a #10 set screw to small to add to.
craig

I see an old Logan lathe back there in your shop. Tell me more!

jeff
finally got it back together. had to disassemble it to
get it from my house in NJ to its new home in Delaware.
its old but it works very nice. i have a small setup for
the tool post to mill small items.
hope your lathe is up and running.
craig

motox wrote:jeff
finally got it back together. had to disassemble it to
get it from my house in NJ to its new home in Delaware.
its old but it works very nice. i have a small setup for
the tool post to mill small items.
hope your lathe is up and running.
craig

Mine is up and running. I ordered a QCTP and some tool holders and spent the whole day yesterday tweaking it. Everything works good except for my damned 3 jaw chuck has a lot of runout. I know the nature of the beast that they aren't really accurate but it still bothers me. I am going to try switching the jaws into different holes and some other tricks to try to get it a little tighter but overall the lathe is good enough for what I intend to use it for. Now I wish I has mill....damn..I knew it

"Now I wish I has mill....damn..I knew it "
nice to have but anything good is three phase
and big.....
craig

The jaws are numbered to each slot otherwise the chuck will not close properly!
Have you checked the theads / cam lock for chips that would affect it?

Tom Osselton wrote:The jaws are numbered to each slot otherwise the chuck will not close properly!
Have you checked the theads / cam lock for chips that would affect it?

I dis-assembled the chuck and cleaned it out and oiled it.It was stuffed full of chips. Being a noob I didn't scribe my chuck as to where the jaws are supposed to go so I probably put the jaws in the wrong place. I switched things up today and she is running really good. .0004 runout on a 3 jaw that is 70 years old...I can live with that.

motox wrote:"Now I wish I has mill....damn..I knew it "
nice to have but anything good is three phase
and big.....
craig

NO 3 phase in my shop...dammit...I guess I'll have to piss away the 4 or 5 G's on alcohol then

exnailpounder wrote: NO 3 phase in my shop...dammit...

that's what VFD's are for!

dunkster wrote:

exnailpounder wrote: NO 3 phase in my shop...dammit...

that's what VFD's are for!

and cobbled up Rotary Phase converter, RPC build your own. Info all over the net,simple to elaborate.

all the phase convertors i have been around are very loud
when operating and its one more motor you have to find a home
for.
craig

Not all old three phase motors are freq drive compatible.

Well,

I’m still new to this forum, but wanted to make a contribution to the Recent Welding thread here as soon as possible, as I think that’s where the most significant stuff occurs on forums like this. I don’t do lots of welding like I once did, and I have a minimum of tools and equipment to use now, which I like, but I still have a lot of enthusiasm for new fabrication and modification of existing stuff.
Anyway, here’s a fun one that I’m doing by re-powering a zero-turn mower, from a 12hp Single to a 20hp Twin, since I put a bigger deck on it at the beginning of the mowing season and added a higher compression cylinder head to make it work OK with the 12hp motor. And it did, but now it burns oil and seems to be loosing a bit of torque too. So, it’s going bye-bye.
Surprisingly, I got the 20hp Twin for the price of a 18hp Single. But I didn’t like how the two-into-one exhaust protrudes out the back end and how it gets in the way of the throttling mechanism.
So, I decided to duck it down under the motor mount. And it’s going well, even though I didn’t recognize that the exhaust had an aluminized coating, as I only ground off what I though was some high temp silver paint.
But, no matter. The fit up was good. The new geometry was all good. The welding was nothing to be proud of or ashamed of. Besides, paint covers a multitude of welding sin.

I’ll probably delete that heat shroud so that the trailer hitch can shoehorn back where it was. And I’ll undoubtedly be doing more to it this winter, like fabrication an aluminum diamond plate gas tank and moving it up front under the footing area, while using an electric fuel pump. The existing gas tank had a bulletin or recall one it years ago, not that I'm worried about it. I just dig a brushed metal finish on aluminum diamond plate, and maybe the weight center being lowered and brought forward would be a good thing too.