GS(X)-250E Motarding.

[mike-s]

Have no fear, one will be certainly coming shortly.

 

[Guest]

Have no fear, one will be certainly coming shortly.

Just as well

 

[mike-s]

Still not done the final tweak of the forks, though i AM trying to start getting some form of a technique for welding so i can get the knack of laying a half acceptable bead, let alone a smooth one.

Thus far my skill level consists of trying to tap an arc and just generally running a rod against metal and figuring out the whole voltage vs rod width vs spatter & sticking rods. Thus far the sticking rods/spatter are winning.

I really need to find a local metal recycling depot and get a few sheets of steel to practice with. I also have a choice of two things for my wife to get me for christmas, a front paddock stand, or an auto tinting welding helmet. I can see myself going and doing a lot more of this in the future if i get a half decent helmet as it will be easier to get the hang of it if i don't have to worry about flicking a filter up and down with one hand and working with the other.

 

[Guest]

I feel your pain!

With the limited welding I've done to do the tail piece and fix my pillion peg, I also found the sticking and spattering winning more than me...

The only face shield I have is what came with the welder which is one you hold with your left hand, so everything has to be stable and lined up correctly then hold the shield with the left hand while supposedly welding with the right... gets real interesting real fast

I'd get your wife to get you the mask

 

[mike-s]

Have a look here, Bob has about 50% of the stuff in stock himself, and everything else he gets drop shipped directly to your address.

I got 2x rod packs, these are apparently excellent rods to start learning with, not great penetration, but certainly some of the easier rods to handle.

1x helmet, though im taking a fancy to this despite it being a low-end auto-darkener.

1x apron

1x curtain to string up if it starts getting busy around my work area so i can be nice to my neighbours eyes & kids.

I already have gauntlet gloves, as well as some other bits & pieces. I make it a habit of wearing a old/ugly but reasonably well made leather jacket that is an 80's reject as well as thick cotton pants & button-to-the-top polo shirt and leather shoes when doing this. I should probably consider getting slip on work boots to make sure i don't get slag between my toes too.

 

[Guest]

Nice!

I got my rods from Supercheap, and the rest of it was part of the pack with the welder that my house mate got.

If I'm going to do more welding (which I think I will, I keep having ideas), then I should look at some of that stuff for sure, in particular that helmet and those rods.

The welding trolley looks handy as well, would love not to have to carry it everywhere.

 

[Woodsy]

get your rods from gasweld stores, i got 2.5kg of rods for like $12 and ive had no problems with them.

 

[mike-s]

I've had two sessions playing with my gasless mig which i bought from Supercheap Auto for $159 the other day as a Christmas present to myself.

The first yesterday was shameful as I decided to foolishly keep the feed rate too slow so I could try and ease into it, All it did was manage to spit and spatter as the arc ate the wire faster than it was being fed out, I wouldn't even class that attempt as welding.

This afternoon i dragged it out again and had a second shot at it after reading up more about what to do & what to look for (this gave a good idea about what i was doing right and wrong in all aspects of the task.)

I eventually figured out the two things I was doing wrong, Firstly I could just not get the feed rate right as I hadn't been aware of what to look for, I think I've come close to figuring this out. Secondly I was not doing the job slowly enough, and thusly was not letting the metal pool sufficiently to be able to work it's magic. Sure I've got some spatter, but i think that's quite possibly part & parcel with using a gasless mig.


Click for higher res picture

I know it's not that fantastic, i know i need to work on keeping a bit more of a steady hand, these 5 were quickly done after i ground off my abhorrent old welds so that i could put these new ones on without showing the shame of my spattery disgusting first attempts. Any suggestions for improvement, I'm all ears.

I also bought an auto-darkening helmet for a very cheap price from a guy on ebay whom has a warehouse only 25km from my place, Worth every cent i paid for it and more.

 

[Guest]

Mate that's about 100000% better than any I've managed to acheive with the stick welder! Nice

That's bloody cheap for a MIG welder too! Wish I had've known the house mate was buying one when he bought the stick one and I would've told him to get a MIG... oh well beggars can't be choosers right?

By the way, neither you nor Josh seem to have picked up the little subtle differences in my avatar and sig. over the last week or so...

 

[mike-s]

Ta, I'm quite happy with that, as i said four hours of practice .

As to stick, yeah I had a go working with it and got fed up with it after burning through 3/4 a stick as it was just not working for me. The beauty of using mig is you just keep the torch about 10-15mm from the job and you only have to worry about keeping that distance, not having to continually adjust how far away you hold your hand from the job. It is simply one less thing to have to worry about, especially when you have enough things on your plate trying to figure out how to do it, learning about adjusting feed speed and amperage is enough to keep you confused (p.s. if you get one, a feed speed of 5-5.5 seems pretty spot on).

Then again, you can always buy the mig and have both, just use the stick when you feel like spattering stuff or if you just want to try and perfect the technique. .
Seriously i would recommend either getting this one, or the weldpro one from bunnings, which at $199 includes a mini trolley too and is a lot smaller than the SCA one.

As to differences, care to elaborate? I must confess that I've not been on this forum much of late as ashamedly I've had little positive progress to boast about.

Also, I did go and buy a new pair of progressive fork springs and am awaiting their delivery. I am just going to throw them in "stock" with a bit of extra preload to account for the bike being about 20-25kg heavier than the bike they originated from and will see if that is enough as i think I cut my springs too short. The ride on the front is too roadbike & not enough dirtbike, even though i can take speedbumps at 50km/h and not be thrown off, it still feels too harsh for my liking.

 

[Guest]

Ta, I'm quite happy with that, as i said four hours of practice .

As to stick, yeah I had a go working with it and got fed up with it after burning through 3/4 a stick as it was just not working for me. The beauty of using mig is you just keep the torch about 10-15mm from the job and you only have to worry about keeping that distance, not having to continually adjust how far away you hold your hand from the job. It is simply one less thing to have to worry about, especially when you have enough things on your plate trying to figure out how to do it, learning about adjusting feed speed and amperage is enough to keep you confused (p.s. if you get one, a feed speed of 5-5.5 seems pretty spot on).

Then again, you can always buy the mig and have both, just use the stick when you feel like spattering stuff or if you just want to try and perfect the technique. .
Seriously i would recommend either getting this one, or the weldpro one from bunnings, which at $199 includes a mini trolley too and is a lot smaller than the SCA one.

I'll see how I go next year... budget for this sort of stuff is all gone this year, mainly from what I'm about to type below

I'm thinking of making a replica of the stock sports rack seeing as I can't find one anywhere, so if I do that I'll need to source a stock grab rail and weld on the rear part of some random luggage rack, so that'll be somewhat interesting...

As to differences, care to elaborate? I must confess that I've not been on this forum much of late as ashamedly I've had little positive progress to boast about.

Slack, just plain slack Kiddin'... I understand

Basically, she's on the road, registered, and is getting km's on the tyres :dancing:

See here...

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=185864

Also, I did go and buy a new pair of progressive fork springs and am awaiting their delivery. I am just going to throw them in "stock" with a bit of extra preload to account for the bike being about 20-25kg heavier than the bike they originated from and will see if that is enough as i think I cut my springs too short. The ride on the front is too roadbike & not enough dirtbike, even though i can take speedbumps at 50km/h and not be thrown off, it still feels too harsh for my liking.

Sounds like a plan! Definitely let us know how that goes...

 

[mike-s]

Welding, you no longer are limited to opening new doors, you can build them.

 

[Guest]

Welding, you no longer are limited to opening new doors, you can build them.

Very true!

 

[mike-s]

It's a bit ugly, but that's mostly because I've welded, ground down to a mostly smooth finish to check my work and make sure there weren't any massive mistakes, and then ran another bead over the top to make sure.

I also put a piece of steel plate on the bottom of the sidestand as that was as old as the bike and had worn down considerably with 25+ years of (ab)use. The welding at the bottom of that is to plug the hole in the middle, the slight "bubble" of metal is going to be mostly ground flat though.

In the prep photo you can see the foot of the sidestand had curved up quite a lot with use, I tacked the foot down at both sides at the base and then used the pointy end on a welding hammer to beat the end of it down flat. I then put an ugly coat of bead on top of that I'm nowhere near proud of (that was due to me rushing to finish off for the day ), something I intend to fix tomorrow morning.

This is what I'm aiming for.

Nearly got it right on the first go, minor touching up to happen tomorrow.

All up it's not too bad for a first attempt at "making" something and the third time using my mig.

 

[Guest]

Nice work Mike! That oughta do the job for ya and looks like those welds aren't bad at all. Wish mine were that good

If my carry rack idea is doable fancy doing some extra welding?

 

[mike-s]

Thanks, It's honestly the mig that makes this a lot better, I'm just the schmuck holding the torch. If you are willing to put it together and tack weld the major components together and bring it down here, sure i can't see why not.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, It's honestly the mig that makes this a lot better, I'm just the schmuck holding the torch. If you are willing to put it together and tack weld the major components together and bring it down here, sure i can't see why not.

Oh cool! I was just bein' silly! Haha

I'll see how I go with it first, would really like to get a bit better at it so I can do it reasonably neatly... that's all providing I can do it like I think of course...

 

[mike-s]

Let me know how you go, I don't go back to work until the second.

 

[Guest]

Let me know how you go, I don't go back to work until the second.

That's cool, this is probably a month away or more, need to source another grab rail and no budget til after the new year...

 

[mike-s]

Sure thing, If/when you can get to that point we can work something out.