ADVICE PLEASE oxford automig 171 for welding a quad bike frame

[JL7845]

hi guys

im fairly new to welding and have a sealey mightmig 100 amp and i'm wanting to modify the frame to fit a larger engine in to the bay on my road legal quad.. i think the sealey welder is not going to be great for this job due to the lack of amps and i seem to go through consumables more than i think i should be with this machine and would like to upgrade.. ive been welding for 2 years so i'm fairly new to welding as well but my friend on the course i was on 2 years ago dad has an oxford automig 171 and says this should be a good machine for the job and isn't a bad machine for jobs of this size is this correct??? and does anyone have any experience with the 171 and if so how is it with for small jobs like i want to do and is there any tips on welding up a larger bay on my quad???? I've added a photo if its any help.. thanks...

 

[secretsmoker]

I'm guessing the lack of replies on here may be due to the nature of your question.

If this is a road legal quad then YOU need to know that your skills and experience are up to the job. A badly modified quad with a huge power to weight ratio driving around on the road is a fairly terrifying prospect. You say you were on a course a few years ago but have you done much welding since?

A 100A mig would probably be powerful enough to weld tube successfully but if it is a gasless one then it will be more difficult to get strong tidy welds but definitely doable in the right hands. The automig 171 of which you speak will probably also be up to the job just don't expect to be able to do jobs like this with a couple of disposable gas bottles. Usually if a machine is working properly you should be able to play around on scrap for a while to figure out whether you are going to be able to make it work for the job in hand.

The point is that if you are asking the question then you should probably concentrate on practising on something made from similar material that isn't a potential fiery deathtrap should things go wrong. Technique for successfully welding tube is tricky so unless you have built up enough experience and got the technique mastered already I would certainly NOT advise jumping straight into modifying your quad frame.

I would suggest getting a scrap quad frame/bike frame, chopping it up then welding it back together. If you are unsure post up some decent closeup pics of the resultant welds and folks on here should be able to tell you fairly quickly whether or not you are ready to do the actual quad frame