Balaclava wrote:
unless you live in the boonies i don't understand how you would be having a hard time getting this stuff...i live in Canada and i know of like three to four metals shops that carry the stuff...and like hundreds of feet of it...Do you not have metals shops where you live? get on the phone man and make some calls...i have never had any problem finding material...
i have sent 6 or 7 mails to co's in the UK , one replied and wont sell that small quanity i want , and that was avaition materials supplier , i can get 6063 , 6082 without any hassle or off the shelf here , i dont understand it myself either to be honest , i thought this was the easy part of the frame build , i got word back from online metals and they confirmed shipping is 78 dollars for 16 dollars worth of material , so it looks like i will have to go with it , no biggy really just did not intend on spending that much money for 12" of square bar and 12" of flat stock , someone told me yesterday 6082 is the euro version of 6061 ... but when i cross ref properties it is not smiliar enough
Well roostius is the man for sure...didn't mean to break your balls over it...pictures!!
he sure is dude , he has sent some material to me , top hoon( see my build threads last post) , u did not bust my balls at all , i was thinking the exact way u were ...
unless you live in the boonies i don't understand how you would be having a hard time getting this stuff...i live in Canada and i know of like three to four metals shops that carry the stuff...and like hundreds of feet of it...Do you not have metals shops where you live? get on the phone man and make some calls...i have never had any problem finding material...[/quote]
Boonies ??? Ok,Australia must be boonies too then ! I made dozens of calls tring to find the stuff here and even Singapore.I would have had to order like 200KG of it to get the stuff.Good thing some fellow hoons are willing to help out.
holy shit...i honestly can walk down the street and pick some up...haha it's expensive but it's there...listen guys if you ever need more of any type of material shoot me a pm and i might be able to put my metal finding skills to work for my fellow hoons...roostius' is a frickin prince though...
Balaclava wrote:holy shit...i honestly can walk down the street and pick some up...haha it's expensive but it's there...listen guys if you ever need more of any type of material shoot me a pm and i might be able to put my metal finding skills to work for my fellow hoons...roostius' is a frickin prince though...
Ideally, you want to cut and machine on a harder (say T4 or T6 for the alloy 6061) temper of aluminum so that it doesn't "gum up" your cutting/machining tools. Bending should be performed after an annealing heat treatment (softening). Heat treatment back to T6 should be performed after welding on a heat treatable alloy (6061). Hope that helps.
As far as what mixture of Helium to Argon on AC you only need to listen. Too much Helium will cause sputtering resulting in a crappy looking weld, so you back it down to where you're getting a nice puddle yet no fluttering which makes lots of ripples and an irregular weld profile. If the aluminum is thick enough and you're having problems with AC like kicking breakers and such try DCEN (straight polarity) and pure helium for an instant puttle. Make sure the weld area is very clean as you get no cathode cleaning action like you do with AC and Argon. DC is a handful on 50 series aluminum, but I've made class 1 welds 100% x-ray with DC on them. A little practice goes a long way.
Craigus
Last edited by cryzsurfer on March 2nd, 2009, 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
WTF ??? I have never heard of Alloy being welded with DC current before !!! Can this be done on any AC/DC tig machine ? Although I dont have straight helium anyway.And why would you anyway ?
In the Aerospace field it's been done for decades. By straight Helium I'm meaning pure helium unmixed with Argon. I can weld a small piece like say a bracket to a 10" piece of square stock with .062" Thoriated Tungsten and not even pre-heat the slab (try this on AC ). It takes a little practice but not a lot. When you're welding stainless or regular steel just switch your gas over to Helium and run a bead on a piece of scrap. Start on a thicker piece and you'll love it. Wire brush it or scrape the oxide off it with a carbide scraper for better results. I'll try in the next few days to run a sample and upload it to me Photobucket. Any AC/DC TIG Welder can do it. If you can weld steel with TIG you can weld Aluminum as long as you use Helium. I tacked my AF project with DC TIG at home because that's all I have at home is a nice Miller XMT 304 Series DC Inverter with foot control and seperate high frequency. Took it to a friend's place who has a Miller Syncrowave to weld it with AC for a better look. All of the early External Tanks for the space Shuttles were done with DC TIG till they went with VPPAW (variable polarity plasma welding) then when they switched to 2195 (lithium) aluminum they went with friction stir welding. Time to do work. I have a vacuum furnace reaching 2100F about now, so I'd better check it out.
Craigus
There is a broken tap in the hole on the frame where the top gas tank bolt should go. It has been there since I received the bike in 2003. (2002 CR250R Frame). The well respected KTM shop owner said something like useing heat (torch) and possibly "popping it out". Assuming he doesnt melt anything, is there any problem applying heat in this area? Any other ideas?
I am tired of the tank rubbing on the cylinder head.
rickyrcf wrote:There is a broken tap in the hole on the frame where the top gas tank bolt should go. It has been there since I received the bike in 2003. (2002 CR250R Frame). The well respected KTM shop owner said something like useing heat (torch) and possibly "popping it out". Assuming he doesnt melt anything, is there any problem applying heat in this area? Any other ideas?
I am tired of the tank rubbing on the cylinder head.
Thanks, Rick
guessing he means heat the area to soften it and punch the tap through ?? , i would not heat the area personally , ur best bet is buy a 6mm soild carbide drill and take ur time drilling , it will take a while , make sure to lock ur drill on full speed , dont use a battery drill they dont have the rpm either does a cord drill but u have a better chance . i done this a ew times on broken taps , but its pain staking
Hey crzysurfer,asked a few boilermakers at work today and noone had heard of it ! Im on a construction site at an iron ore mine though not an aero place so no ally here.If I had some helium Id give it a shot myself,but Im sure helium would be much more expensive than argon,even though my neighbour works for BOC gases.... Yeah Im interested to see your results for sure.
Rick,with carbon steel you can heat around the broken tap expanding the material and sometimes freeing it up to extract it.Aluminium though is a great heat conductor so difficult to keep the heat concentrated enough to do it that way.
I've had good luck removing broken taps and bolts by using a small tungsten electrode and puddling the top of the tap and adding some 308 stainless filler to above surface . You let it cool a bit and try turning it out with some vice grips using slight tightening and loosening tries till it comes out. The expansion of it when you TIG it and the subsequent cooling seems to allow it to break loose. Up here Helium is about twice the cost of Argon plus I use .999 purity grade.
Craigus
Hey cryz, I think that is what he was talking about Thank You.
Now can anyone post or PM me , I tried to click and drag on cryzsurfers post so I could print it. Under Edit I did not have a paste option only copy.
I would like to print it and take it to the welder.
Just highlite the part you want to print, right click, copy then open or already have Wordpad, Word or notepad open and right click in the new area and click on paste. You can then print it.
Craigus
, i got word back from online metals and they confirmed shipping is 78 dollars for 16 dollars worth of material , so it looks like i will have to go with it , no biggy really just did not intend on spending that much money for 12" of square bar and 12" of flat stock , someone told me yesterday 6082 is the euro version of 6061 ... but when i cross ref properties it is not smiliar enough
). It takes a little practice but not a lot. When you're welding stainless or regular steel just switch your gas over to Helium and run a bead on a piece of scrap. Start on a thicker piece and you'll love it. Wire brush it or scrape the oxide off it with a carbide scraper for better results. I'll try in the next few days to run a sample and upload it to me Photobucket. Any AC/DC TIG Welder can do it. If you can weld steel with TIG you can weld Aluminum as long as you use Helium. I tacked my AF project with DC TIG at home because that's all I have at home is a nice Miller XMT 304 Series DC Inverter with foot control and seperate high frequency. Took it to a friend's place who has a Miller Syncrowave to weld it with AC for a better look. All of the early External Tanks for the space Shuttles were done with DC TIG till they went with VPPAW (variable polarity plasma welding) then when they switched to 2195 (lithium) aluminum they went with friction stir welding. Time to do work. I have a vacuum furnace reaching 2100F about now, so I'd better check it out.
is there any problem applying heat in this area? Any other ideas?