Bruce
Yes Dear
- Messages
- 157
Complete Noob to this malarkey. Need a mentor, or a slap. Depends which side of the fence you're on ...and I've never welded before, but I've seen it done on tv.
Well first off, let me say hello to everyone. I'm a computer jockey, hate the things, and live to play in my garage. I'm a right Fred in his Shed type fella.
me now
Anyway. Thing is, I like long distance touring on a bike, you know the type, Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGreggor wannabe, only I was dreaming long before they were so I'm not a complete w@nker. So there I am, 20 year old yammie Tenere in one hand and no luggage system in the other. Thieving aftermarket b@stids who have had a major windfall thanks to the two afore mentioned bottle brushes now wont let their product go for less than what you can buy a cheap AC/DC inverter and a few sheets of 5251 ali. Getting them made by a proffessional overlander support artist is even more expensive. So some Chinaman got my dosh instead. But hey, they are a developing country and if I can bullsh1t the taxman that it was a charitable contribution and should be seen as a write off, I'll be well chuffed.
Well Fred and his Shed here got off to a blistering start. Literally! Within 30 minutes of being fleeced by BOC I had melted some ali and had two huge slag burns on my beer belly. Talk about discouraging. Time to read the manual and look up this Miller website.
oh!
uh huh!
Well 3 sheets later and BOC now writing to me about how they can support my business...cheeky so an so's... while rubbing their sweaty palms at all the dosh leaking out of my pockets their way in much the same manner as their gas I finally got the hang of bodging together two bits of ali hung together by copious amounts of filler though I'm sure some kind fella here will show me how wrong I am in this belief.
My first question is...
Why do my pannier boxes look home made?
Ok, seriously, I'm eating humble pie here. The boys on the biker forums are legless for laughing at me ...
Why when I do a weld, and please forgive me as I do not know any terminology... as in the photo below where I have attempted to join two halves of the box... does one side warp out and the other warp in like an S either side the seam. Actually forget the why, I would rather know how to avoid it. It's not a ?lap? joint, just two bits pushed together. I had a length of scrap ali underneath acting as a heatsink and extending out a bit so the end edge didn't melt through but still the warpage.
My second set of questions is am I using too much filler? And doing an arc only rerun of the seam hot and fast to loose the fish scales....I know you boys like it but it looks ugly...will it cause the weld joint to deteriorate?
My third set of questions is how do I get a weld pool going on a ?butt? [90 degree jobbie] on both sides close enough together that I dont end up running two disparate weld pools and stitching them together with filler as on that lip thingy with holes in up top (below image) (I dont have pulse and the arc always bends to the weld pool rather than moving up to the second material piece so I have to keep a fairly large distance between two pools.)
and finally. How do I get that brushed ali look? A wire brush on a angle grider.... whoo...serious overkill as is a wire brush on a leccy drill. Hand brushing with a scratch brush left me love lorne for a week and looked horrible anyway and scotch pad on a orbital mouse thingy ... well that I havent tried, but my orbital mouse thingy is still mad at me after trying my hand at some automotive body filler work when I dropped my pillar drill onto the bike tank. Maybe if I ask it nicely....
Thanks in advance for any help....if no help is forthcoming... is anyone interested in a 160 amp inverter Tig/MMA/Plasma-cutter combo unit sold to defray expenses against getting some aftermarket panniers which when all is said and done is what I should have done in the first place.
Well first off, let me say hello to everyone. I'm a computer jockey, hate the things, and live to play in my garage. I'm a right Fred in his Shed type fella.
me now
Anyway. Thing is, I like long distance touring on a bike, you know the type, Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGreggor wannabe, only I was dreaming long before they were so I'm not a complete w@nker. So there I am, 20 year old yammie Tenere in one hand and no luggage system in the other. Thieving aftermarket b@stids who have had a major windfall thanks to the two afore mentioned bottle brushes now wont let their product go for less than what you can buy a cheap AC/DC inverter and a few sheets of 5251 ali. Getting them made by a proffessional overlander support artist is even more expensive. So some Chinaman got my dosh instead. But hey, they are a developing country and if I can bullsh1t the taxman that it was a charitable contribution and should be seen as a write off, I'll be well chuffed.
Well Fred and his Shed here got off to a blistering start. Literally! Within 30 minutes of being fleeced by BOC I had melted some ali and had two huge slag burns on my beer belly. Talk about discouraging. Time to read the manual and look up this Miller website.
oh!
uh huh!
Well 3 sheets later and BOC now writing to me about how they can support my business...cheeky so an so's... while rubbing their sweaty palms at all the dosh leaking out of my pockets their way in much the same manner as their gas I finally got the hang of bodging together two bits of ali hung together by copious amounts of filler though I'm sure some kind fella here will show me how wrong I am in this belief.
My first question is...
Why do my pannier boxes look home made?
Ok, seriously, I'm eating humble pie here. The boys on the biker forums are legless for laughing at me ...
Why when I do a weld, and please forgive me as I do not know any terminology... as in the photo below where I have attempted to join two halves of the box... does one side warp out and the other warp in like an S either side the seam. Actually forget the why, I would rather know how to avoid it. It's not a ?lap? joint, just two bits pushed together. I had a length of scrap ali underneath acting as a heatsink and extending out a bit so the end edge didn't melt through but still the warpage.
My second set of questions is am I using too much filler? And doing an arc only rerun of the seam hot and fast to loose the fish scales....I know you boys like it but it looks ugly...will it cause the weld joint to deteriorate?
My third set of questions is how do I get a weld pool going on a ?butt? [90 degree jobbie] on both sides close enough together that I dont end up running two disparate weld pools and stitching them together with filler as on that lip thingy with holes in up top (below image) (I dont have pulse and the arc always bends to the weld pool rather than moving up to the second material piece so I have to keep a fairly large distance between two pools.)
and finally. How do I get that brushed ali look? A wire brush on a angle grider.... whoo...serious overkill as is a wire brush on a leccy drill. Hand brushing with a scratch brush left me love lorne for a week and looked horrible anyway and scotch pad on a orbital mouse thingy ... well that I havent tried, but my orbital mouse thingy is still mad at me after trying my hand at some automotive body filler work when I dropped my pillar drill onto the bike tank. Maybe if I ask it nicely....
Thanks in advance for any help....if no help is forthcoming... is anyone interested in a 160 amp inverter Tig/MMA/Plasma-cutter combo unit sold to defray expenses against getting some aftermarket panniers which when all is said and done is what I should have done in the first place.