ARC welding pitting

[devino246]

so what rod and setting would you recomend for welding bicycle frame tube?

With an arc welder? 6013 will let you get the amperage pretty low, thin metal is the only time Id ever use them. If you can though, wire feed would be better.

 

[machinist@large]

so what rod and setting would you recomend for welding bicycle frame tube?

For ease of use, I personally would recommend 6013 for stick welding. The smaller the diameter the rod the better. How thin is the material you need to weld? The only time I've welded on a bike frame I used my tig welder. I can give some best practices type recommendations, but I won't lie, I've never messed with one.

1) Clean metal. The old saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" also is #1 in welding.

2) Do you have any spare matl. you can practice on? It's always nice to have every thing dialed in before you have to go live.

3) Don't get the wrong impression about 6013 from my earlier comments; used appropriately its an excellent rod. It's just not "The end all, Be all" rod for everything.

4)Put aside your grinding disks. On thin matl. use a sanding pad/ flap wheel; I'd say 50 grit on up. Grinding wheels will take to much metal; it's really hard to put it back.

5) Do you have access to a gas welding rig? Most older Bike frames were gas welded from the factory. You can also see what's going on better because you have a lot more time to react. Just an idea.

Sorry I don't have more concrete answers for you. Hopefully what I did have helps you out. Pat H.

 

[devino246]

And fit up is key to a good quality weld

 

[sexyvicta]

yeh its a stick arc welder thing. Normal thinkness steel bike frame.

I've cut two bikes into many pieces and building one out of the two.


I do have an oxy acetylene set and realise that brazing it or gas welding would be most ideal however it needs new hoses, has no flashback arestor, i dont realy know how to use it, it hasn't been inspected/filled for 15 years and im unkeen on blowing up my house lol.


once i have more cash i'll get the gas set serviced and get my gasfitter friend to teach me how to use it properly

 

[fowler]

just kept turning up the heat till somthing happens

thats what i do
but im cutting not brazing

 

[ryf]

you may want to make sure if you're joining frames of bicycles, your doing it away from the other joints, depending on the bike alot of them are brazed and you'll be in a heap of pooh if you try and weld over brazing as the joints may start melting before your eyes, I would offer more help on the settings but for stuff that thin I get lazy and use the mig lool.

 

[sexyvicta]

Both bikes are fairly modern made in china crap. They arn't brazed. I already cut all the factory joints off haha. Been making new joins with angle grinder to cut approx shape then puting sandpaper on the pipe it joins to and rubbing until its a perfect fit. Watched a youtube vid and a guy mitred the joints the proper way with a holesaw and a lathe...had to invent a more cost effective method

 

[machinist@large]

Watched a youtube vid and a guy mitred the joints the proper way with a holesaw and a lathe...had to invent a more cost effective method

In a perfect world, we would all have that dream shop. I still cope pipe and round tube with my angle grinder. I learned how for work ( speed #1, Fill the rest with the welder). The lightest stuff I've dealt with was 3/16 wall. You can cover a fair amount of sins when welding that thick. I'll have to keep your method in mind for the next time I need to fit & weld round tube. Thank You for the idea!!!

 

[JosephC]

I am going to voice my opinion. I would either TIG, Braze or Gas Weld. I would more likely TIG weld the more I think about it as that is what I had to do last fall for one of the guys that I work with. His son broke his frame on his HIGH DOLLAR mountain bike and did not want to replace the frame because of what he does with that bike. The next item is 6013 rod, I do not do much of that rod but I use a lot of 6011DC for root and rusty,crud welds along with 7018DC 1/8" and 5/32". I only weld DC stick,I feel AC is to messy and somewhat a waste of time.

 

[landuse]

So I did some practice welding with the 6013 on some spare pieces of tubing and after 10 passes with all different settings, I finally found that I need to have a higher voltage with a longer arc and the welds look great with good heat penetration. ( I will post a picture later today hopefully)

I am probably going to weld up some gussets to the corners using some angle steel. Thanks for the info.

Anyone know where to find a good seat? I don't want to buy a new seat, I kinda want to make this a full diy kart. If I could find a jeep seat, would it fit? Open to any options.

I made a seat for my bike with a bit of chipboard, foam and fake leather material. Here are some pics. You can pretty much makeany shape you want.

 

[Old Kart]

That's a Crater

To prevent or minimize craters you can...(Alace a small tack weld where you intend to finish before you start your main weld, just to pre-fill the area where you know the crater will form... (B: Always work towards the beginning of the last weld you did, so you end up welding into the high spot where the last weld started. (C:When you get to the end of your weld stop for just a second then add another dab of weld before the weld cools just to fill the crater....( D:Let your part cool a bit, between welds, so you don't add too much preheat to the part.