Rookie wanna-be weldor starting to make some cool things!

Not as cool as a racy brake, but my sunday morning project was a cast aluminum fix for the fuel take at the airport. This is one way to fix a bad union, guess it didnt rotate for years and they decided it was cheaper to get it welded then replace it. Not very pretty but also not easy to weld, actually the welding was not too bad it was getting a good clean weld that was a challenge.

Nice!

And nice welding table, too.

Funny title change!



Jim

This one I am going to let rust up as it is going on a buddy's old original bike. If I chrome any I will have to spend a few hours buffing it for the plater.

Thanks, I think so too. Just got an order to do a larger one for a guy's rat rod.

I have thought about this and I think maybe it would be better to start a new thread " The fabrication thread-rookies welcome" . Then we can still follow Kirk's progress separately ? Of course it would be mandatory that kirk participate in the new thread too Just a thought, I have been on a couple interesting projects lately and I enjoy seeing what others on this site are up to. Any thoughts on this ?

There's already the "Show us something you MADE" thread, but it's not welding / metal specific...


(oh, an yeah, I've been following along for a lonnng while. Wishing my aluminum welds looked half as good as those on this thread... But I don't think they're too bad for what I have to work with). Great thread!

Caught that first thing when I logged on tonight...awesome!

Wookie Weld. WW. New company name.

Well, he said a title change was OK - and since no one else came up with anything, I took my suggestion til something better comes along.

Well, this rookie got in a bit over his head this weekend. The wife left town and I tried to convert a plie of scrap metal into a moto carrier.

Tough puzzle on the cheap.
All materials and hardware were repurposed.
Had to buy new drill bits, welding wire, paint (for later), and a new welding helmet (on sale- impulse).

Caught a nice big spark in my eye (around my specs) while grinding. Luckily my ninja blink reflexes protected my cornea as my eyelids snapped shut, burning both top and bottom eyelid. Scared me a bit.:eek1

Not satisfied with it yet. Too flexy for my portly machine on bumpy roads. Have some other materials to re-do and strengthen part of it. More details later.

Not bad! How about some photos of how it is attached at the hitch. I have an idea on how you could stiffen it up significantly.

Jim

Nice repair work!!

Nice work! I'm diggin' the KLR, too!

I hope your eye is okay. I have a permanent burn mark below my left eye from MIGging. I have no idea how, but those sparks can find the smallest gaps to get into.

Glad your eye is OK. I have a cheapo face shield from Home Depot that works well when grinding.

There is some amount of bounce you are going to get, especially when hauling a KLR on the back. Even the commercial ones do it.

One way to take some wobble out is to use a bolt as a hitch pin. Drill your carrier mounting hole smaller than the hitch hole.

Then when you mount it, put a sleeve or bushing on the bolt - it needs to be small enough to fit inside the hitch hole, and large enough to push against the carrier wall.

Use a nylok nut, or double nut, and washer on the opposite side.

When you tighten the bolt, it cranks the carrier against the inside of the hitch. It works well to take movement out of the mount.

The other thing I was thinking about when I wanted to carry a KTM 950 ADV on the back of a trailer was to mount one or two more receiver tubes (fairly cheap at Harbor freight). My plan was to insert a couple pieces of tube out from the trailer and under the platform. That way, there was no way for it to bounce around as it would be carried by three points. One extra tube would probably work fine for a KLR's weight.

Yeah, a face shield is on the supply list. I've been wearing my corrective lenses because all the metal dust irritates my contacts when I have a long day in the garage. The specs don't provide as much coverage as I'd like.

It's tough to see from that angle in the pic above, but I actually installed a second class I hitch on the driver side and it is supporting the front of the bike. It's barely viewable through the front wheel spokes. I have another class I receiver that I could install on the passenger side for uber-support, but I'd have to buy some 1 1/4" stock. That conflicts with my self-imposed "budget", but we'll see if it's needed.

Good tip on the anti-wobble bolt/pin, Dave. I haven't drilled the carrier tube yet, so I'll employ that tactic.

It's not a "wobble" I'm worried about at the moment. It is the bowing effect that I'm seeing when I really crank down on the straps. In the pic you might be able to discern that the part under the rear tire is bending a bit under the stress. This makes me think it needs to be stronger before a test drive.

I have some 1x2" tubing that I'm gonna replace the two 1x1" pieces saddling the bike platform. This will go full-length and add a lot of strength while giving me some tire loading bumpers. Wishing that I had these pieces when I designed it. (Coincidentally, my mom brought me some home-baked rolls and scrap metal yesterday.)



I'll share more pics when it's finished. No close-ups of my amateur welds will likely be shared.

You could just replace all that stuff with some steel channel. That's what I made my hitch hauler from. Originally I had the hauler "tilt" but that was stupid so I drilled a 5/8" bolt all the way through. Flexing it ain't

My commercial made model is two pieces, right and left, that join over the center support tube. There are metal straps that pass over and under the main tube and act like road bridge supports. They help to pick up the load at the ends of the span holding up the bike.

Or - you could do like Sailah did

And you are one step ahead of me on the extra tube. I saw it in your pics, but I thought it was a piece of extra metal on the ground. You need to take 3D pics!

Wookie update.

So I try to be slick and pre cut a new pannier. I also decide to bend rear, outer, front in one piece instead of outer, bottom, inner in one piece. I figure it will save 20" or so of welding.

And as you can see here, you can't simply pre-shear it. Only the outer corners can be sheared ahead of time. A corner notcher wouldn't even work on the beveled bottom, because it isn't a 90 degree angle. Soooo.... it has to be manually cut like I thought. No worries. Moving ahead...







Back and bottom bent and ready to go...



No worky... I exploit the box/pan for all it's worth, but it won't close the gap w/o getting it it's own way. I can hand bend it over a hard corner, but that would leave a crummy looking bend instead of a crisp one. $100 learning experience, there. I won't scrap them, but I won't sell them either. I will buy a slapping hammer and hand form them when I have time and just keep 'em for myself.



Back to the drawing board. I do the usual outside, bottom, inside bend in one shot, and shear and bend the front and rear pieces to weld in place. I really like this look and it's not much more difficult to do than just one outer bevel. It probably adds to the strength of the pannier as well.

Still getting all the kinks out of learning the ins and outs of new tools.

No word from the powder coater yet. Hopefully something to see soon.

You're clearly pretty good freehanding that angle grinder, but could you speed up your mass produced straight cuts with something like this?:

edit: Christ that's a big image. sorry.

Ohhhhh, I like that. Looks like I could make one for my HF grinder easily enough!

Thanks!

Jim