MUTT

[Bike from the Dead]

Ah the joy of learning! I'm not even on your level, looking good
When MIG welding, do you move your MIG nozzle in a straigth line or do you wobble it a bit left/right?
When my welding JIG is finished, I am taking welding classes too.

Can you bring your own piece of steel to weld in the class? (like a bicycle)? Asking for a friend.

No kidding! I was having so much fun laying down beads that the 3 hours went by much faster than anticipated! Thanks!

I moved it in small circular patterns, sort of like the scribble line on the side-stripes of a Plymouth Roadrunner. That's why it looks like (or is at least supposed to look like) stacked coins. You can wobble it left to right, but since i noticed my teacher moving the nozzle in small circles, I just did it that way. Felt more natural to me that way.

I'm sure you can! Probably won't happen until after a couple classes at least though, but I'll find out during tonight's class.

 

[curtisfox]

I thought myself just by watching other, had welding in school be that was way before mig's come to home owners. Yours looks good.......Curt

 

[ingola]

Life update: I just started taking a welding class last night alongside my dad! We're taking a "hobbyist's welding class" for the next 4 weeks, twice a week. We're both learning about MIG and TIG welding, which I hope will come in handy for future bike builds.

We thought the first class last night would be more about discussing the class itself, going over basic welding terminology, but nope! It was hands-on from the start! I was expecting to do poorly my first time in class, but surprisingly, my first tries of laying down beads while MIG-welding turned out better than expected! Turns out, as long as I can sit down, brace one of my arms on the table, and overall just get comfortable, I can actually do alright! Teacher told me I was already at a point where some of his students would need at least a few weeks to get where I was!

Obviously, I still have a lot to learn, but now I feel WAY more confident that I could learn how to weld up some custom bikes! Looking forward to the next class!
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Think that's awesome and even cooler that your doing it with your dad.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Think that's awesome and even cooler that your doing it with your dad.

Yeah, it is. He's learning it for small repairs or to make fun little things for his shop, while my whole reason revolves around bikes. Neither one of use wants to make a career out of it; we're just doing it for fun!

 

[Ulu]

Good job to both you and your dad.

It was my dad that encouraged me to learn welding. I was 16, when I took welding in highschool, but I had done some pirate welding on bikes when I was 14.

The real key, to me, is not only what motions to make, how much and when, but . . . Watch the puddle.

When you can focus on the puddle and still hold arc distance, you can see the puddle shape, and push it wherever it needs to go to make the weld shape you need to make.

All the practice with basic circles, weaves or zigzags is getting you prepared to do them while in unusual or out-of-position situations. Like bicycle tube.

With O/A welding, gas pressure from the torch nozzle pushes the puddle about like a tiny hose. Electric welding depends more on you to move the puddle. Gas flow is gentle and unfocussed, by comparison.

I learned stick welding first, but I enjoy TIG welding the most. I do best with Oxy- acetylene torch, but the torch is much less convenient sometimes.

Explore. Have fun. Protect Your Eyes!

 

[GeePig]

Yes, welding is fun, and with all my engineering courses there always seemed to be some welding to be learned - gas, stick, MIG etc. I would have loved to try some TIG, but I have been away from engineering for over 25 years now. I always loved the brazing kit I had for my my arc welder, it let me replace many body panels on my cars.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Well, my month-long break from working on bikes did NOT go as I had hoped. Instead of focusing on my coloring book project, I could hardly bring myself to focus on ANYTHING AT ALL. It didn't help that a lot more happened in February than I had anticipated, with family visiting from out-of-state, house-cleaning, car trouble, joining a welding class on short notice (which I DO NOT regret,) and a bunch of other life stuff on top of it all. Overall, the past month has been very exhausting and over-stimulating, especially since I spent a sizeable chunk of it spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.

With that said, I feel like working on my bikes again might restore the creative drive I need to make progress on my commercial art. Also, the weather these past few weeks has been unseasonably warm, and I'd like to have at least one more bike to ride while the weather feels this good outside.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can finish both of my ORBO bikes by the March 31st deadline, which means that Mutt is going to have to sit on the backburner for now. If I hadn't paused my work on this bike, I would've likely had enough time to finish this bike before the end of March, but now there's just not enough time given what's left to do. I still plan to finish this bike this year, but I'm going to slow down and take my time with it. No sense rushing things now.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

On a side, note, here are a few more highlights from my welding class. I still have a ways to go, (and there are a bunch of mistakes I didn't photograph,) but I've been improving a great deal in the few classes I've had so far! (Photos are in chronological order.)

My last 2 classes are this week, so I'll share pictures of my best welds from those classes later.

 

[Lowe Beau]

I’m really liking the inspirations for this build…

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I’m really liking the inspirations for this build…

Thank you!

 

[GeePig]

I always enjoyed welding, and I had a ton of lessons as every engineering course I did seemed to involve some.

Practice, practice, practice, and never worry that you might fail and have to redo it. Just one thing - always wire brush off all the slag, as welding over slag can lead to inclusions, which can produce cracks etc.

One day I would like to buy another welder, it has been nearly 30 years since I last did some.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I always enjoyed welding, and I had a ton of lessons as every engineering course I did seemed to involve some.

Practice, practice, practice, and never worry that you might fail and have to redo it. Just one thing - always wire brush off all the slag, as welding over slag can lead to inclusions, which can produce cracks etc.

One day I would like to buy another welder, it has been nearly 30 years since I last did some.

Thanks! I'm admittedly pretty hard on myself, so I regularly have to step back and remember that I'm only getting started and that even my teacher, who's been welding for as long as I've been alive, makes mistakes every now and then. I've already had a few instances where I shot sparks because of slag, so lesson learned there.

It's been a ton of fun learning how to MIG weld! Maybe later on I can take a class on TIG welding to see if I have what it takes to do that. I know TIG is preferred for welding bike frames, but maybe my first custom bikes could be MIG-welded, just to try it out. That's why I took this class to begin with: I want to cut up some bike frames and weld them into something that's all my own.

 

[GeePig]

Yes, I would not mind trying out a bit of TIG, I have only briefly played with it.

I have just remembered that I actually used to have a MIG welder, but I used an arc welder with a brazing attachment to weld most of the panels on my cars, which was cheap and fun, but I have not done any oxy-acetylene welding, brazing, or cutting since I was at college. Nor any soldering...

I keep looking at the welders when I go shopping...

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Yes, I would not mind trying out a bit of TIG, I have only briefly played with it.

I have just remembered that I actually used to have a MIG welder, but I used an arc welder with a brazing attachment to weld most of the panels on my cars, which was cheap and fun, but I have not done any oxy-acetylene welding, brazing, or cutting since I was at college. Nor any soldering...

I keep looking at the welders when I go shopping...

So far, I've only learned MIG and a little bit of brazing, but that's it. I want to learn more, but I may be limited by how steady I can keep my hands while I work. I hear TIG is particularly hard because it requires two steady hands doing two separate tasks.

 

[GeePig]

Yes, learning to do two different tasks without actually seeing your hands can be tricky, but it is an adventure and after a while it becomes automatic. The tricky part is when you have to weld something too bulky to fit neatly on your bench, like a three-wheeled bike frame. I used to watch the guys at the garage where I was an apprentice while they welded up the underside of a car, they always seemed to find a way to slump into it.

Well, I was the lad in the car, up on a lift, with a fire extinguisher in hand, while they welded new sills on

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Small belated update:

Back in April, I picked up the perfect loaf seat for MUTT at the Haysville, KS bicycle swap meet for $5! It's in great shape, and it fits the whole '70s early BMX vibe I'm going for!

I also snapped some better photos of the custom gussets Allan and I fabricated a while back. I still want to find a good powder coat-safe filler to clean things up, but we'll see.

It'll probably be a while before I continue working on this bike again, but I hope to have it done later this year.

 

[Pondo]

That saddle is perfect, looks great on there!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

That saddle is perfect, looks great on there!

Thanks Pondo!