BannedCR500Riders.com

You got some A+ welding skills. nice

63MARKS63 wrote:You got some A+ welding skills. nice

A+++

Looks like you work well under pressure. Sounds like some people I know, sneaking minutes of bike building in between actual work.

looks great!
How much $ for a titanium tank?
that would be super cool!

ya, seeing as how titanium sheet is about 60$ a square foot by scrap, that tank'd be unreal $

Today was pretty laid back with the big Christmas lunch and a lot of people gone, so I jumped into the tank with relish. I welded in the machined mount for the outlet and even cut loose the thin piece of sheet on the front bottom of the tank and replaced it with an thicker piece. I thought that part looked like shit and wouldn't have been hurt if someone told me so.There's also a plug relief in there which is only a split piece of 1.25 tube with the ends welded up. After I get it cleaned up next week I'll get the mounts and start on the shroud mounting points. She's getting closer to being alive.
Craigus

Finished the closeout welds on the tank after getting it flushed out real good and have the front mount tacked. Hopefully I can start the drilling and tapping for the seat mount and tank strap tonight. I'm hoping to dig up the fallen leaves in the back yard this weekend and I'll try to get a video of the maiden voyage. I do want to re route the throttle cable to add a little slack and mount the blaxk box with wire routing.
Craigus

Looks like a bunch of Sweeet work you are doing there!! And some awesome projects you've got going on.

Love to see a few more pics of the trailer if possible....

Are you doing some aluminum welding using dc tig? How well does that work?

Once again sweet work!

DC works great on stuff from ~.150" thick on up. It's a handful with lower gauge stuff but is still doable if you heat sink it right. You're using pure helium also, so there's absolutely zero cathode cleaning action that you get when using AC and argon. With DC you can have a block of aluminum 12" thick square and throw a piece on top of it using a small TIG torch and .062" tungsten you can run a tight bead around it with no preheating. It's a handful on 50 series aluminum and of course magnesium, but I have made class 1 radiographed welds on these alloys when I had to. The trailer is pretty much done as I got the wiring and lights squared last weekend. It was welded in my back yard using DC and took a full bottle of UHP helium. I'll get a newer picture and upload it. Just got a nice set of Arrow carbon/kevlar silencers mounted on my RZ and took it for a spin. Talking about a motor with potential the RZ350s are great. Back to work. Most of the tank used AC except the top thick piece where the seat post threads in to it.
Craigus

Took the trailer on its maiden voyage with the little YZ and it did great. Closed out the tank as well. Don't like the hump on the bottom but I don't feel like cutting it right now. It won't show anyway. Getting primed for the live SX race. The hitch and all of the hardware up front is stainless.
Craigus

Nice work on both

Nice tank... how much does it hold ?

I'll fill it with water to check it for leaks and measure what comes out. Instead of drilling the rear of the tank for the tank strap mount I'm going to weld one on.
Craigus

Man that trailer is awesome! That is a sweet way to haul your bike with class!!

I had been told it was possible to weld aluminum with dc tig but everyone said it would be ugly welds. Obviously they had never seen someone who knew what they were doing!!

Learning to tig is my next challenge I want to take on. Luckily I've got a good friend with a lincoln precision 175 who offered to let me help myself to using it to learn. When I drop the money on my own unit ive been leaning towards the new miller diversion 180. The price point seems hard to beat.

Anyways once again sweet bikes and builds!!

that tank is wicked man. is there a reason you are building one and not using a plastic tank?

i would air pressure test for leaks. just remember you use a VERY low pressure for that.

the dude can weld better than all of us put together. i doubt he needs advice how to test it for leaks

If it has ANY leaks, I'll be shocked.

Beautiful work Hoon....

I appreciate the kudos guys. What's cool about this site is the shooting the shit with people all over the world who enjoy the same things I do. I've seen a lot of unreal stuff here much of which I've tried to emulate. I'm lucky to have a lot of neat equipment and friends like machinists, water jet operators....If I had it to do over on the tank I'd have left off the thin crap on the bottom and used at least .090 for ease in welding and less distortion. The thing about DC welding is cleanliness. It has to be very cleaned and in over 50% of the time balloon grade helium will not cut it and the weld will go in and look like shit. You pretty much need .999% purity (UHP) which is about $100 a bottle around here. The only DC on the tank are the two long welds on the thick flat part where the seat covers. It's snowing big time here so work tomorrow is questionable. This week I'll have it measured for capacity and start the shroud mounts.
Craigus

Someday, somewhere, sometime in the future someone will takes bits of pieces from everyones previously completed bike on this forum and compile it all into the perfect CR500A/F.

I think that day is closer than I think.

use glens variable port cylinder and scribble piston, ridereds tank, brits jb welded clutch cover , stoufers cracked s/h chassis

And then powdercoat it baby crap green with the skinniest tires you can find!

Actualy I was thinking the other way round....

We used to have chrome and gold plating before the tree hugging assholes (EPA) shut down that part of the surface treat area. I had gun magazines plated gold and all of my new pipes satin nickel plated. I can only dream of the possibilities my AF could have had. I hate environmental whackos. There's over 8" of global warming in my yard.
Craigus

I understand the EPA doing there job to fight polution. I dont understand them ruining viable businesses with safe practices.

Actually it was worse than that. It was a bunch of Liberal Arts or Business Majors who managed to land a Civil Service job in Environmental Safety and went to all extremes to shut down manufacturing. I can't even use a particle mask without driving miles to check out one and have to dispose of it properly. Of course I have to train to use and dispose of said mask. Christ! I've raised my blood pressure so I need to go out to the garage and mess with stuff.
Craigus

In Canada we'd just throw the old one on the tire fire

JK, we just hold a t-shirt over our face and work like that