Thanks guys, I haven't seen Adam for quite a while but one day I'll make the trip overseas
Just cleaned up my little shed over the weekend to clear some bench space to do a small job for a chromer who Adam used to do some jobs for.
It's a bumper over rider off an old plymouth I'm told that had been damaged, which eventually caused the panel to rust. The chromer had tried to mig up the rust holes causing 4 5-10mm holes in the damaged end.
I made a patch panel and began welding it in at work on their OA set up with a no.6 tip but the tip had been filed out to resemble a no. 10 tip and even though I'd asked the boss for permission to do the job out of hours he was giving me a bit of stick about using the appliance.
Thus I bought the TIG. It's a weldskill 200 Amp AC/DC power source same as I have used at work and loved.
I've done some practice welds on a scrap bit of 1.2mm mild steel to prepare myself for this as it needs a patch made (rather than weld up each individual hole) as it is very thin and trying to find decent metal to weld to is quite the task! Metal finishing it is a bit of a challenge as the metal is so thin in places it cracks as soon as you try to dress it up, also as it's due to be rechromed there can be no pitting at all. Fun!
Practice welds the day I got the tig:
No Pulse, starting bottom right and playing with the settings to get some bead consistency with no undercut (feels just like oxy welding)
With Pulse, produces a smoother looking weld but the penetration was quite patchy in places, without pulse produced more consistent penetration.
My messy little bench/work area which in time is to be upgraded but for now should do the trick:
I'll grab a trolley for the TIG soon but for now it will get the job done.
Plenty of fun to be had with this panel, it's like welding tissue paper with all the pitted/rusty areas and certainly is testing my skills.
I can only spend 1-2 hours a night on it before the wife asks what I'm doing
I'll post up some progress pics once it's finished.
As for my bike:
It's a 2012 WR450F that I've converted to a Motard for Road Racing. I'm also the President of a club called Atujara in South Australia which is trying to get the sport of Supermoto off the ground but it has it's ups and downs.
I enjoy giving it some welly but as the story usually goes I don't get to ride as often as I would like!
Blatant hooning:
I've had a quick look around and I can see that I'm in for a treat as I delve deeper, hopefully my contributions can be worthy! I'll be doing a pretty comprehensive write up on my trailer once I crack into that and also any other jobs I end up doing.
I'll be starting to modify a tank off an RD250LC (One of Straussy's, Adam) once I finish this job for the chromer.
Cheers,
Clayton