If you're using either a flux core or MIG welder, you can make really attractive welds by doing short bursts, essentially stitching the weld seam together and creating something close to the mythical "Stacked Dimes" weld
The Rustacean
- Thread starter BartRidesEternal
- Start date
Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:
Nice fit-up work.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2019
- Messages
- 1,931
- Reaction score
- 5,380
most excellent sacrifice!!!!!Thanks Cap!
I read somewhere that the Basman cruiser frame had issues with the single bb plate.
Thanks Pondo!
I appreciate your input mr Hatter! Maybe I will try that. Haven't thought about it. If I find some mesh I will try that.
Little update
The tubes are cut by hacksaw and notched with an file! Took some time, measuring, marking, checking, cutting and file-notching. Continuously checking the progress by fitting it onto the frame.
Tuesday first welding session. I'm scared, since welding isnt my strongest point. I will try and clean the welds afterwards.
View attachment 233360
View attachment 233361
View attachment 233362
After cutting.
View attachment 233363
Blood sacrifice
View attachment 233364
Checking if its straight before notching by file!
View attachment 233365
View attachment 233366
Pretty clean! Some more paint will be removed before welding.
View attachment 233367
Cleaning the hole, by tapping m8 thread in there. Then use a drastically shortened screw to put in there and weld + clean it.
June is the month for faux-patina and paint!
I got my first blood on the proper rat rod last weekend: I put some lube in the SA rear hub and thought I’d be smart and just use my index finger and reverse pedal the bike as it leaned against a chair with no kickstand
as there is no chain guard on the bike, I quickly reversed pedaled my index finger between the chainring and chain, splitting the tip of my fingernail and ripping off the very tip of my finger!
yowch!
-your project is coming together quite nicely!
Last edited:
Thanks mr Hatter! I have some tryout pieces for this evening to test and learn first.
Ouch, ratrod building is a harsh lifestyle!
Appreciate it, thanks!
This evening I'm heading to the 'car hobby club' for some welding.
Its a club where you can maintain your vehicle for a few bucks. They have an old MIG/MAG welding machine.
I am certain that I can firmly fix the tubes, but probably far from stacked dimes, more like stuck splatters for ratters
I do have some testpieces to practice first.
Cut pieces to fill the frames holes. There are two holes, but made some spares.
Filed to fit!
Properly aligned and clamped.
We'll see if I can finish the welding this evening. I have about two hours for closing. Not going to rush too much.
Strategy:
Clean and degrease.
Align first parts.
First tack and weld the top tube.
Then tack the bottom bracket plates.
Tack the plates for the holes.
Fix the frame and burst-weld (thanks @LeMad Hatter ) these parts.
Then the lower tube
Finish or make a new appointment.
Its a club where you can maintain your vehicle for a few bucks. They have an old MIG/MAG welding machine.
I am certain that I can firmly fix the tubes, but probably far from stacked dimes, more like stuck splatters for ratters
I do have some testpieces to practice first.
Cut pieces to fill the frames holes. There are two holes, but made some spares.
Filed to fit!
Properly aligned and clamped.
We'll see if I can finish the welding this evening. I have about two hours for closing. Not going to rush too much.
Strategy:
Clean and degrease.
Align first parts.
First tack and weld the top tube.
Then tack the bottom bracket plates.
Tack the plates for the holes.
Fix the frame and burst-weld (thanks @LeMad Hatter ) these parts.
Then the lower tube
Finish or make a new appointment.
Are you going to remove any more of the paint before you weld? Cuz if you leave it like that you're going to remove a lot of it WHEN you weld...
I did here and there, thank you for the advice! I'll probably sandblast the entire thing in the coming weeks.
Welding went good. Not the most beautiful welds, but they are pretty tough.
I even managed to weld another project frame part and the seat tube.
Some pictures:
Seems ok. In hindsight I got the feeling I had a bit too much wire feed.
Very happy with the result!
As a true internet surfer I only showed the best welds. I learned that from social media models
Last edited:
And I read somewhere you guys like sparks!
Slo-Mo sparks for slackers
Slo-Mo sparks for slackers
Looking Good! 
BRE you are the master of ingenious ways to find solutions to problems!
If you are going RaT-ina look on this (OJ approved!) I would personally leave the 'Franken-welds' and the bluing of the metal around them. Has a really cool look! In fact, maybe ..... just heat some other portions of the frame or extend those 'blued' portions a bit to over accentuate that look. And then use some kind of a coating to preserve it.
If you are going RaT-ina look on this (OJ approved!) I would personally leave the 'Franken-welds' and the bluing of the metal around them. Has a really cool look! In fact, maybe ..... just heat some other portions of the frame or extend those 'blued' portions a bit to over accentuate that look. And then use some kind of a coating to preserve it.
Thank you OJ, I did already touch the frankenwelds and cleaned them with a dremel.
So far the welds are technically very good, no holes or dirt underneath the surface.
I do like your idea regarding the 'blueing' effect. Thanks for that idea. You can really see that on stainless steel. I used that trick with my lamp at the dining table, I'll post a picture when I walk past it and think about it
Two welds left to finish and then the frame goes to the sandblaster.
After that its painting + ratina time!
Not finished, but a lot better! Needs a little sanding.
Just a little bit more cleaning.
Milled two bushes for the front fork. Now the load is spread over all holes at the link-arm. Plus there is a little thread left to assemble the fenders / fender brackets.
Not much going on, could not find the time to do a lot more work.
I finished cleaning the welds this week and right now I am learning and reading about "Faux Tina" or Fake patina paints effects.
I see that there are many many ways to do this. You can just paint your bike, (wet) sand it and add rust effect spray.
I love the mustard and layered trick of @OddJob ! Lots of inspiration from him!
Don't know the paint colour yet.
I am seriously considering to leave the yellow on, since sandblasting is very expensive right now. Paint stripper had no effect on the yellow powdercoat.
So degreasing, sanding and paint is the thought here.
Thinking about white/grey/creme headtube with chevrons. Same colour as the fork right now.
Then a bright colour for the rest of the frame. Offcourse with patina.
One thought is to give the Bottom Bracket the white/grey (fork) colour as well or "cast aluminum" grey for a boardtracker look.
The bike will most likely have fenders and a cool rear rack/carrier. Not going full on boardtracker.
Inspiration and idea pictures.
Let me know what you think!
Colour 1
Colour 2
Oddjobs process.
Another mustard (Rustard ) project:
Flying Merkel. Brown will be white/grey.
Love that colour.
Orange fits in with the "Dutch" base of the bike, the Project 346 frame.
I see that there are many many ways to do this. You can just paint your bike, (wet) sand it and add rust effect spray.
I love the mustard and layered trick of @OddJob ! Lots of inspiration from him!
Don't know the paint colour yet.
I am seriously considering to leave the yellow on, since sandblasting is very expensive right now. Paint stripper had no effect on the yellow powdercoat.
So degreasing, sanding and paint is the thought here.
Thinking about white/grey/creme headtube with chevrons. Same colour as the fork right now.
Then a bright colour for the rest of the frame. Offcourse with patina.
One thought is to give the Bottom Bracket the white/grey (fork) colour as well or "cast aluminum" grey for a boardtracker look.
The bike will most likely have fenders and a cool rear rack/carrier. Not going full on boardtracker.
Inspiration and idea pictures.
Let me know what you think!
Colour 1
Colour 2
Oddjobs process.
Another mustard (Rustard
) project:
Flying Merkel. Brown will be white/grey.
Love that colour.
Orange fits in with the "Dutch" base of the bike, the Project 346 frame.
Attachments
Last edited:
You are on the right track, BRE. Don't skip the light sanding step, that will take the gloss finish down on your yellow and make your RaT-ina paint stick better.
I'm tuned in! RaT-ina oN~!
I'm tuned in! RaT-ina oN~!
MattiThundrrr
Rattus All Terrainus
Grit 320 is on the menu sir!
Colour me impressed Matti. I have a Dutch metal band shirt. Thats it
I cleaned the frame yesterday and cleaned a few rough spots with aircraft fuel tank sealant that is paintable.
I ordered the spray cans! Mustard is in my fridge.
The frame will be RAL2003.
She's patiently waiting...
More inspiration for orange patina, since the light rust won't pop out as much:
Since we are talking Dutch, for those interested, a friend spotted an Fokker D21 plane and decided to boldly email the airport. He got a tour and soon we can come with him, awesome! That radial engine sound
No other forum on the internet contains this phrase:
"I ordered the spray cans! Mustard is in my fridge".
"I ordered the spray cans! Mustard is in my fridge".
This is most likely true.
Paint is here tomorrow. Only thing left is tape that does not stick too much. I think I used the 3M blue tape before.
Right now I painted a first thin matte black layer. After degreasing, sanding 320 grit and degreasing again.
Did some small things. Repaired the kickstand and pressed a new pin in.
Removed paint from the crank. I did not like it in black.
I stopped at chrome/black dirty look. Can always remove more later.
Before
Later, with a little lin seed oil you can get that old oily look.
Right now I painted a first thin matte black layer. After degreasing, sanding 320 grit and degreasing again.
Did some small things. Repaired the kickstand and pressed a new pin in.
Removed paint from the crank. I did not like it in black.
I stopped at chrome/black dirty look. Can always remove more later.
Before
Later, with a little lin seed oil you can get that old oily look.
Last edited:
Spray cans, tape, check!
Did some practising on a frame.
It is not super hard, but the way and amount of mustard is very important! Harder than making a hotdog sammich wth mustard, thats for sure!
Testframe. Degreased.
Rust spray.
Added sand for effect.
Chemical Brothers - Here we go!
Mustard!
Spray and pray
Pretty neat for a first try!
To much mustard will be ugly, like this. Then a bit of grit or sand will help the effect I guess.
Now the real deal!
I didn't cover it all too thick in rust colour.
I grabbed the rusty fork for a comparison when dipping mustard.
See if I can finish this first orange coat this evening.
The front headtube with a point or chevron will be white/grey.
Did some practising on a frame.
It is not super hard, but the way and amount of mustard is very important! Harder than making a hotdog sammich wth mustard, thats for sure!
Testframe. Degreased.
Rust spray.
Added sand for effect.
Chemical Brothers - Here we go!
Mustard!
Spray and pray
Pretty neat for a first try!
To much mustard will be ugly, like this. Then a bit of grit or sand will help the effect I guess.
Now the real deal!
I didn't cover it all too thick in rust colour.
I grabbed the rusty fork for a comparison when dipping mustard.
See if I can finish this first orange coat this evening.
The front headtube with a point or chevron will be white/grey.
True grit:
