My first shot at making a go kart and beginning welding

[doesgo]

Awesome job for your first kart! One question, though. Isn't it awfully low to the ground under the seat? Looks like it has about one inch of clearance. Low is good for pavement operation, but no doubt you'll need to get into a driveway or something, and you'll bottom out. Also, the frame will flex slightly (and the tires will give a little) when you're in it, further lowering the chassis. Maybe you've already thought about it, but I had to mention it.

 

[napalmfire]

wheels like these tires will probably keep it high enough. :-D haha

and heres a closer shot of the spindle. dont mind the spattery welds..

 

[kibble]

That looks awesome and the PS2 steering wheel is a funny but nice touch! I often thought about using a game controller as a steering wheel but never actually seen it done. Good job!

edit: Wait a minute! Is the steering column from one of those adjustable, stackable racks that you put together?

 

[napalmfire]

lol yes it is, has the numbers and everything.. told you this was to be as cheap as possible, rofl.

 

[jetlag]

I would add another piece of metal to the top of the spindle to give it a little more support.

 

[ZnsaneRyder]

Nice job on the homemade kart! I like the steering wheel too.

 

[napalmfire]

I cant add another or the spindle wont be removable. The additional side piece holds the spindle bracket on perfectly. the most i could do would be to weld weld weld a big blob of metal around the bolt and all areas where it is bonded to the frame, but that doesn't necessarily mean it would be stronger anyway. if it breaks, I'll improve the design.

 

[woodmandan2]

What if you just drilled a couple of holes in a short bar of metal and put it on top of the spindles??? Then you could always take the bolts off and the spindle would still be removable.

 

[theo]

I have to hand it to you, your kart was cheap to build but the front end is very dangerous. You have a ton of slop in your linkage, which will go into a shimmy a speed.Also using I bolts for linkage ends no good, you haven't even welded the I bolt closed, these under any stress will open up. Hope you have medical insurance.

theo

 

[napalmfire]

yea there is quite a deal of play. I also was slightly disappointed in the degree of steering that it has but I was going to wait until the thing moved to see if I needed to fix it. I suppose for the extra $30-$40, i should get a real set of tie rods and an arm.

note to self: fix steering.. lol..

 

[theo]

If you want more angle at the tire shorten up on the arm at the spindle, also your spindle arms should be facing the tire not angling away from them. About 30 deg. is about all you need the tire to turn, the kart will just push if you have anymore then this.

theo

 

[napalmfire]

I followed the example picture in the tutorial on the home page and it gave me this picture which says the angle should be 105* from axle to spindle arm, pointing away from the wheel. You are saying turn it the other way towards the wheel?

 

[theo]

Yes, the pic shown is for a rear steer yours is front steer. It might work if you flip the spindles upside down.

theo

 

[napalmfire]

ah i gotcha now! I'll most likely completely restart on the steering, cut the bolt off of the bracket, weld it into a square enclosure, and make some good spindle brackets and spindles. Thanks for the tips!

 

[napalmfire]

revised the spindles, correcting the tilt of the spindle arms, but I used the same design where it is welded from the bottom to a bolt. I used some swivvel wheel axle bolts as pivots so the sleeve and the bolt fit perfectly, and theres even a place to squeeze in oil/grease. I'm going to make a 'bolt on the top' support to act as how the rest of a normal spindle should be.

going to attach a true set of tie rods/ball pivot joints and an arm on the steering column to run a bolt through to two more pivot joints.

pics tomorrow

 

[napalmfire]

wowowow i fixed the spindles and attached make shift temporary tie rods. the steering is so much better. I have more steering range now. No pics today, it was a blah day and I couldn't get any decent shots.

Added an actual arm where I can run a bolt through and I need to get pivot joints and it'll be set. does anyone know if I can get pivot joints at home depot or harbor freight?

 

[napalmfire]

Ok so today was a bit of an odd day. I had a suprise (the best kind, right?) root canal done and during it I was thinking what I could change on my engine. I went home, cut some more intakes in the airbox, cleaned the exhaust valve(full of carbon.. no idea how since the engine is rather new), ported the exhaust, removed the rickety muffler cover on the exhaust, installed the bearings which arrived while doing the above, and rigged a newer, more sturdy throttle linkage.

again, the spindles look like crap and look pretty weak but I was doing my tests on it, which consist of jumping on it, hitting the area around it with a hammer, and trying to rip it off, none of which moved anything. I'm not too concerned about it but this area is easily still the weakest of the entire kart. I really should do it properly.. I'll have a bolt-over-the-top support on there soon. oh yea.. and SPATTER all over the place.. any way to minimize that? I'm welding at about 1/2" away from the piece.. now I see why tig is so nice.. lol no flux to spatter crap all over.

Pics!

 

[BigBlockRanger]

Spatter-> What kind of welder are you using? Flux core wire needs straight polarity (electrode-negative) or you will get a tons of nasty splatter. Also clean your surfaces good before welding. Bare metal welds much better than rusty/painted.

 

[doesgo]

See if you can afford to upgrade to true MIG welder rather than the flux-core stuff. Quite a bit cleaner, and all around better! Some low-end wire-feeds can't be converted, though.

 

[napalmfire]

I'm using the basic 90amp HF welder. I used my friends fathers lincoln weldpak flux core mig welder and I found it quite easy to use so I picked up the HF one as I read it got a pretty nice rep. The lincoln works about the same as this but I did get less spatter with it versus the HF. I just bought this welder so i'm not going to upgrade to a gas mig welder just yet. I'm also a little short on money now due to the recent root canal procedure.