Bending Steel on a Carry Rack - Heat or no Heat?

[7981GS]

Building your own rack? Impressed.


Eric

[pete]

Building your own rack? Impressed.


Eric

Haha cheers Eric, you know I can never take the easy way out and just put something on don't you? Haha

If this works out I'll be a happy camper...

[pete]

So according to USPS tracking, my grab rail still hasn't arrived at the sorting facility in Portland Oregon yet... except that I got this in the mail today:



I guess they forgot to scan it on the way through...

I put it up against the one on the bike now and it's all in good shape, no twisting or warping which is excellent.

It's missing the end caps but who cares, I knew it needed some TLC when I bought it (that's why it was cheap) but it's going to have a carry rack welded on so no skin off my nose...

Anyway, I did finish up the bends tonight.

Both sides pretty much the same:



Checking it against the tail piece to determine where to do the second bend to bring them back inline with the grab rail:



Confirmed with the "new" grab rail that it should be the right spot:



Both lower rails bent back in and seem to line up just right:



And I've now marked where to trim the top rails back so they'll be even and then once they're trimmed I can work out where to cut the bottom rails:

[Suzuki_Don]

Well done Pete, watching with interest. Usually when I try this type of thing the tube kinks instead of bending.

[pete]

Well done Pete, watching with interest. Usually when I try this type of thing the tube kinks instead of bending.

Cheers Don! Fortunately the bottom rails are solid steel rather than hollow, so that shouldn't be an issue, and with Johnny's tips it seems to have gone well so far.

I won't get a chance to get it to John for welding for a few weeks unfortunately as we're off on holidays at the end of next week and I still have to do the trimming of the ends yet...

[Johnny Drummond]

Glad to have been able to help mate.Johnny

[pete]

Glad to have been able to help mate.Johnny

Cheers Johnny, lots of help! With this and the paint... awesome stuff

[pete]

Bit more progress tonight, almost at the point of needing welding done, and I found one situation where heat will definitely help

First off, trimmed the ends up on the top and bottom rails to get it sitting right against the grab rail:



Then I stuck it on with some masking tape for mock up to test the fitting:



Sorry for the crappy photos, the camera wasn't playing well in the garage lighting tonight.

Basically it's good except the lower rails are in about 5mm too far each side, so I bent them out a little and it's almost perfect now from what I can see. Once it's to the point of tacking on then welding it should work out pretty much spot on.

My house mate brought home to lengths of 10mm steel rod on the weekend too.



One so I can add a cross brace behind the tail piece where I've bent the lower rails to give it a bit more strength.



The other I want to bend and put on top of the grab rail itself so that I have an anchor point at the front of the carry rack to tie things off to and stop them sliding forward. This way I can theoretically put a back pack or something on there and have something to anchor it too.

And this is where I found the point at which heat will help... bending 10mm solid steel rod in a bench vice requires a lot of my strength and ends up separating the bench vice jaws so this was the best bend I could get:



I need it to go close to 90 degrees, so will need some heat to get it further.

No rush though, will be another few weeks before I'll get a chance to get a time organised with John anyway... holidays at the end of this week

[pete]

Got some time after work this avo to get the angle grinder out and I cut the cross beam to size:



It's a bit larger diameter than the bottom rails, but once it's welded I can grind the joins back a bit and blend it in a little better. It's about 10mm diameter whereas the bottom rails appear to be about 8mm diameter.

Now I just need to get a time when I can apply the heat to the other piece of rod so I can bend it and it'll be ready for welding.

[pete]

Update time at last!

Got down to see John today who very kindly offered to do the welding for me given how lame my welding is, so we got it done today.



John had a thinner piece of rod to use as the cross brace which worked well also.

Thanks again John!

So now it's time to strip it bare and get that chrome really scrubbed back, then etch primer.

I haven't decided on paint yet except I want it black. I can use the satin black I used on the dash and battery box cover, but I'm just not sure if it will be tough enough. I'll see what else is available before making my final decision... at least with that one I know how it goes on now.

[pete]

Got a bit of time after work to tidy up a couple of the welds with a grinding wheel on the dremel, and then tonight I spent an hour and a half with 60 grit paper sanding it back for the etch primer.



I reckon I'm about 95% there.

I'll pick up a bit more 60 grit paper on the way home tomorrow as well as some wax and grease remover and paint, then if I get into it again tomorrow night I should be able to get it primed.

I was worried about the chrome and getting the paint to stick, but according to the etch primer chrome is an ideal surface for it along with bare metal, so I think it'll be fine. There's a couple more spots of rust on the carry rack to remove and a touch more paint on the grab rail part, so probably another 15 minutes of sanding and it'll be right to prime.

[7981GS]

That is quite the Professional build.






If you could produce several like that for a 1100E,
I am certain that several of the members here would be all over them.

Eric

[pete]

Cheers Eric, I've got John to thank for that. I don't quite have the tools...

John actually held it up against his 750 popup seat and it would fit quite nicely... hahaha... he didn't have the 1100G there to try though...

Is that a new little 'un in your avatar there?

[landshark]

Ive got a rack for a 1000G, if we ever meet up you can check the sizes and then start your new business Pete!

[pete]

Ive got a rack for a 1000G, if we ever meet up you can check the sizes and then start your new business Pete!

Sounds like a plan! Except the new business part... I'd need to learn to weld for that to happen, can't have John doing it all! Hahaha