Big G's pipe corner, Fig weld

[Creepy]

If I may critique Darren's saddle.....don't have the (exaust pipe)seam laying in the bottom of the roller saddles.

The pipe needs to slide a bit thru there as you bend. The seam has potential to mark the pipe, or worse - bind it up and contribute to the stretching at the curve. If it binds there, the material will have to stretch in length during bending, and you'll lose cross-section diameter and get a thinner wall.

Maybe getting a little overboard for what it is, but I thought its worth mentioning.

Now for the welding -

Let's assume its cast steel since the other guys MIG welded it and it stuck. Someone would have had the welds fall off by now if it was cast iron.

You can localize some heat in the cast with a propane torch before welding. You don't really need to for this application once you get the welding technique.

Make a puddle in the cast, get it a bit big and keep the heat to the cast. Just flick a bit of puddle to the thin sheet metal as you concentrate on keeping a hot puddle in the cast. Let the puddle grab the thin stuff from the thick hot area. Don't actually feed wire to the thin stuff, just flick the puddle to grab it and work your way along.

Hope this helps.

[Big G]

I scrounged up another piece of 1 1/4 pipe and some 0.08" sheetmetal from work.

Tried another 90 (I won't bother with pics, it's all the same) and found some interesting results!

The elbow went out of round the other way! Instead of squishing down along the outer edge it bulged out.

The test piece was 1.66" unmolested. Inner endge to outer edge went to 1.70" and width became 1.58"

Not ideal results, but this tells me I can fine tune this with shim thickness until I get near perfect results! I think for the amount of bends I'll be making I'll stick to using shims. It literally took me 5 min to make a set. Grinder, jigsaw, LFH, and vice.

[Big G]

Sooo, if I sarted with 1.66 and 0.16" worth of shims squeezed me down to 1.58" that means I went 0.08" too much shim.

Therefore, I should try 0.04" shims. I think I have just enough pipe left for another bend.... I'll try doubling up my original shim material and report back!

Giggity! ;D

[Big G]

Ok, the original shim material is 0.028", so I used two on one side and one on the other... not ideal, but this is just for practice.

Again, 1.66" base... but this time 1.658 squish out!... and 1.62" inner edge to outer edge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very happy with this.

After a quick search, it appears I have 23 gage and need 19 gage to get 0.042" shims.

[Cherokee Chief]

Feb 15, 2012 7:29:30 GMT -4 Creepy said:

If I may critique Darren's saddle.....don't have the (exaust pipe)seam laying in the bottom of the roller saddles.

The pipe needs to slide a bit thru there as you bend. The seam has potential to mark the pipe, or worse - bind it up and contribute to the stretching at the curve. If it binds there, the material will have to stretch in length during bending, and you'll lose cross-section diameter and get a thinner wall.

Maybe getting a little overboard for what it is, but I thought its worth mentioning.

Now for the welding -

Let's assume its cast steel since the other guys MIG welded it and it stuck. Someone would have had the welds fall off by now if it was cast iron.

You can localize some heat in the cast with a propane torch before welding. You don't really need to for this application once you get the welding technique.

Make a puddle in the cast, get it a bit big and keep the heat to the cast. Just flick a bit of puddle to the thin sheet metal as you concentrate on keeping a hot puddle in the cast. Let the puddle grab the thin stuff from the thick hot area. Don't actually feed wire to the thin stuff, just flick the puddle to grab it and work your way along.

Hope this helps.

As for the saddles, the seam didn't effect or hinder in any way. But I agree with Jan and if I had of noticed it I would of not used it due to it doesn't look good.

And far as the welding process that is how I did it and it stuck fine.

Darren

[Big G]

After posting on Evolution Machine, Clay suggested moving the saddles out to prevent dimpling... I tried it this morning and it worked perfect! I made a 90deg bend in 1" pipe and just had to stop and reset to the before last saddle setting to get the last couple degs. as the jack ran outta stroke.

May not work with larger sized pipe as the pressure applied increases... but 1" is all good!

[Big G]

Got a little practice copeing and welding some of that 1 1/4" pipe. I went down a notch on the wire speed when I did the 45deg.

[ronin]

looks good Big G

[Big G]

Thanks! You sure can tell where I start and stop. LOL

[Creepy]

Run it! looks great man.

Do more pre-cleaning when you aren't just playing around.

the control looks really good, practice going longer and changing position in a continuous weld around the tube. (very rarely can you get all the way around unless you are really trying. two beads around a tube is usually what you wind up with, or 3 in a funny spot. as long as the ends are melted together well.)

I'd expect to see more blue heat marks out past the bead with that much wire going in.

[Big G]

Yeah, I thought that too, but the machine's cranked as high as it'll go.

I'll do another or two tomorrow, and try to remember taking pics of the copes before weld. LOL

[Big G]

Feb 21, 2012 20:05:11 GMT -4 Big G said:

I'll do another or two tomorrow, and try to remember taking pics of the copes before weld. LOL

I'm between night shifts... I slept more instead. LOL

[Big G]

More practice today...

butt weld





I coulda filled the little spots, but it's just for practice.

Tried one of dem fancy print out thingys. Worked pretty darn good!

I didn't cut it close enough... so when I had the shape close to the line I just went with it. LOL




Not sure what happened here... I think I was having a hard time seeing... and I sped up the wire speed 1/2 a notch


Other side turned out better


Decided to try something fancy to see if I could




Crotch shot! ;D


Not 100%, but not too bad


I finally bolted my vice down. Made using the bender a hell of alot easier when it's not wobbling around everywhere


bent a 90... same as before... fawked it. I'm kinda puzzled.

[Hawkes]

Your welds look really good. It's hard to get around the back side of that pipe especially if you have to do it upside down.

[Creepy]

looks good, hot crotch. ;D