Reality check on your welding

[Uncle Stretch]

Lots of people are welding things together. Some practicing their first welds on a bike they plan to ride. Welding is not hard, but takes a little doing it a few times to get pretty good at it.
If your in this group of just starting , you should check and see what it will hold ,before putting together something and sitting on it going 20mph. As others here can attest , you can be hurt really bad if your going 20 and the neck tube falls off.
Get a few scrap pieces of bike frame tube and weld one sideways to another . Its called a but weld. Do your fitment right where there are no big gaps to fill in and weld it up. Now stick it in a vise and hit it with a big hammer real hard. If the whole thing pops off with the weld stuck to only one side , then it time for more practice. I'm the first person to tell you that you can build anything , But at least test your weld before you jump on that big frame build, so it won't come back to bite you. :wink:

 

[Spokeshave]

Great point, Stretch.

 

[dogdart]

Sound advice

 

[scrumblero]

and READ!! there is so much you can learn the easy way without having to melt everything first..

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Even seasoned welders will tell you , that pipe welding is the hardest to do. Stacking a bunch of weld on metal will only be as strong as the first weld under the bottom. Just be careful. :lol:

 

[cashman]

Most of the broken frames I remember seeing usually weren't broke at the welds unless it was where the rear dropouts were spot welded to the rear stays and they came loose. They were usually broke at the rear bottom stays about an inch from the BB bracket next to where the kick stand attached. Or on the seat tube about an inch above the BB or on top where the top tube attached. I always look for cracks in these areas when ever looking to buy an old bike or frame.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Cashman , this is mainly about home built frames. If you think your welding is good and its not , the results are extremely dangerous .

 

[cashman]

Could not agree with you more Unc. Any weld that fails could be harmful! I never arc welded in any form on cracked or broken frames, but have done a lot of oxy/acet brazing to repair them. Always preferred to use paste type flux. Never trusted flux coated rods as they tended to get old and the flux fell off. I recently found a new in the box vintage Victor combination torch and two stage regulator set at a yard sale. Been thinking about getting some chromoly from aircraft supply and trying my hand at a frame. Just have to sign my life away to rent a set of tanks. Thanks!!!

 

[Highridah]

im not the worlds greatest welder i think im the worst here. i go by the solid "if it sounds like its cracking it is cracking". ive only had one frame break and 2 that broke from the factory welds

 

[Uncle Stretch]

This was not to rank on anybody's welding skills , because I would be the last person to say I'm a welder. I just wanted the ones that are just starting , to at least test what they are doing and make sure its strong enough to hold , before building something and getting hurt.

 

[Meeba]

That is some very good advice. I myself am new to welding. I went out and bought a hobby mig and a arc welder so that I can learn without damaging someone else's equipment. The maitinance guy at my yob is showing me how to weld at werk and then i go home and practice. I took a bike frame and chopped it up and got some scraps of metal and basically made a tree (for lack of better words) of metal just welded together wherever i found an open spot just to practice my welds. I whack it with the hammer and some of the parts still come off, but that is part of the learning process. so far I am getting a little better, but i will not call myself a welder just yet or anytime soon.

 

[Philphine]

neck tubes scare me most. i try not to mess with them and use a whole front section if i can. if i can't i usually try to put a big gusset in.

 

[old school 64]

Great post Uncle Stetch, i have been a welder for the last 27 years and every day i still learn something new..and reading rocks too, i find old tech manuals from the seventies the best for going back over the basics..at 46 years of age, i just last week started welding aluminum..wow what a mind blower that stuff is..my advice..practice .. practice .. practice .. and when your so tired of it you can't function .. practice some more..

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I remember when I first welded something together. It was in the old days of CB radios and everybody had to have a 50' tower. I welded some pipe together and it didn't look real sturdy....lots of burn through and boogers. I figured if I kept stacking burnt rods one top of that mess ,that something would eventually hold......wrong. It snapped like a dry twig. Lucky I didn't get killed when it fell. It knocked a big dent in my barn. I got better . I was smart enough to take a couple welding courses at a local high school at night and it helped immensely. Clipped several Nova front ends on streetrods and drove them cross country , so I know my stuff will hold a big block screaming across bumpy roads without breaking. :wink:

 

[X-RAY]

exelent thread, i appreciate that you have enuf concern for the rest of us to start this. it may save someone from serious injury.
old school 64, my grandad drove truck all his life, he always told me "the day you stop learning something new you better get outta the seat". i thought he was crazy, after 30 some years, what could there possibly be left to learn? now that im older i see what he meant. and, like you, i discovered this applies to everything in life, not just driving.

 

[old school 64]

X-Ray, Isn't it amazing how your perspective changes once you reach a certain age..your grandad sounds like a very wise man...learned alot from my father..and miss him each and every day..he started me stick welding at the age of 11..

exelent thread, i appreciate that you have enuf concern for the rest of us to start this. it may save someone from serious injury.
old school 64, my grandad drove truck all his life, he always told me "the day you stop learning something new you better get outta the seat". i thought he was crazy, after 30 some years, what could there possibly be left to learn? now that im older i see what he meant. and, like you, i discovered this applies to everything in life, not just driving.

 

[cashman]

Heres pics of the Victor set I found at the yard sale.

I went the worlds longest yard sale held in August which starts about 3 blocks from my house. Got there early and some people were still setting up. I spotted the torch set in the back of an suv and asked if it was for sale? One of the ladies setting up said she didn't know for sure, that it belonged to her mother and she would go in the house and ask. In a little while an elderly lady came out and said it belonged to her late husband who had been a welder at the local steel mill. She told me her husband had won it as a door prize at a company Christmas party years ago. The conversation led on and I discovered her husband had worked with my dad at the steel plant. She told me she was having some health problems and was having to move to an assisted living facility and she had lot's of medical bills. She told someone told her the torch set should be worth about $75. I reached in my wallet and handed her $100 which was all I had to spend at the yard sale. She took the money and that was all of the yard sale for me that day.

Heres my old reliable set that I used back in the day.

These are Purox regulators with connected to an Oxweld burning torch. The combination torch that I used for brazing is a Purox as well. Thanks!!!

 

[Rat Rod]

That's a sweet looking set up....and the chance to help someone out like that was the sweetest part of the deal. :wink: