First time Welding

[Mr Speirs]

Just spent the last two days getting in touch with my masculine side.
Wanted to build something to strap my bike down to when travelling in the works van. It has no tie down points as such so needed to get something free standing that would secure the bike then I could just strap the whole thing to stop it moving...sort of like a crude Motolugger.

Welding scares me a lot but I got reasonable after a wee while. A mate started a lot of it for me.

Any way two days and this is the abominations I have created:

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg488/MrSpeirs/40d985be.jpg
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg488/MrSpeirs/539574f3.jpg

[Bibio]

good job there. did you use a stick welder?

[Mr Speirs]

Na I used a gasless MIG that belongs to a friend.
Bought 12 metres of box section and managed to reuse a few eyelets left over from work. Total cost...£40

[Owenski]

Did my first welding the other day too, bloody unnerving aint it at first fun though once you get it all set up nice.

How do these work then, are you just strapping the bikes to the frames and the frames being loose in the back or at the frames held down by something?

[Mr Speirs]

It's scary!! When I first started doing it I couldn't see so was all over the place. Yesterday I was cack today got so much better...still cack but at least it can't be bashed apart by a slight tap with a hammer.

Bike strap to the frame. Dunno what I'm going to do with the frame yet. Moto luggers seem to be free standing and people use matting underneath to stop any sliding. I'm probably going to use matting and use the limited tie down points to strap the frame to the bulk head. If it was my van I'd weld some tabs on and bolt the frame down. Would be easy enough to do but I can't go drilling holes into the floor of the van.

[Owenski]

Yeah lol I found I closed my eyes when it made contact then when I opened em my hand would move and it would spark again lol.

Whats the vertical piece for?

[Mr Speirs]

Vertical piece is for the front wheel to butt up against.

I have a tyre down you see so have designed the frame so that I could if I wanted just use that, if the vertical piece wasn't there it would push the bike forward and off the frame.

[Teejayexc]

Looks ok, plenty of angle grinding to get rid of the bird **** I notice ;-)

If you gonna get serious about welding, get yourself one of those auto darkening helmets, amazing bit of kit.

[Fallout]

I've wanted to learn to weld for ages. Seems like a very handy skill to have. You may have inspired me to have a bash.

[Mr Speirs]

You know it. Although some of that was to take it back to bare metal to get a better grounding point.

[Mr Speirs]

I've wanted to learn to weld for ages. Seems like a very handy skill to have. You may have inspired me to have a bash.

Have a go, it's actually really simple...well the principal is...in practice it's definately an art form. It's so satisfying when you get a good weld though.

[Fallout]

I've always been rubbish at soldering though mate. When the soldier iron is new, I seem to be ok, but after a few uses, no matter how much I clean it or whatever, I seem to ruin it. I know it's not the same, but I wonder if someone who is rubbish at soldering could be good at welding?

I need this skill for when I go on Scrapheap Challenge. :D

[Specialone]

Yep ive done quite a lot in my working life, stick and mig mainly.

Most important thing is you weld it enough so it dont come apart ;)

Word of advice, if you are gonna grind down the welds to neaten them up, grind a good chamfer on the edges before welding so you still have a good chunk of weld in there when its ground flat, or they will crack.

Its very difficult to get a really good weld with a diy welder, if you used an industrial one set up right its so much easier.

Im fairly decent at welding (albeit its like playing golf, you get rusty if you dont play) and i cant get nowhere near as good a finish with a diy welder compared to a industrial one.

So the moral of the story, if you wanna take it up, buy a bloody good welder and it will pay for its self.

[Mr Speirs]

I've always been rubbish at soldering though mate. When the soldier iron is new, I seem to be ok, but after a few uses, no matter how much I clean it or whatever, I seem to ruin it. I know it's not the same, but I wonder if someone who is rubbish at soldering could be good at welding?

I need this skill for when I go on Scrapheap Challenge. :D

You shouldn't clean solder iron tips. Once you do it's difficult to get the solder to stay on the tips anymore.

[Specialone]

Soldering tips are supposed to be tinned, if the tips or the materials you're gonna solder are not clean or tinned it wont flow very well.

Same goes for welding, brazing etc, the work area has to be free from dirt etc as not to react with the weld.

[Mr Speirs]

Soldering tips are supposed to be tinned, if the tips or the materials you're gonna solder are not clean or tinned it wont flow very well.

Same goes for welding, brazing etc, the work area has to be free from dirt etc as not to react with the weld.

That's what I meant not that they were full of dirt but not clean of anything. I once cleaned the tip of a soldering iron with wire wool and that 'untinned' the tip and therefore wouldn't hold any solder on the tip or let it flow onto anything else.

Spent ages applying tin back onto the tip.

[Amadeus]

I think if I was in control of a welder I'd just be incinerating whatever I could find. I'm a bit of a pyromaniac at heart.
Looks like you've done a good job tho.