welding strengths?

instinctscooter

instinctscooter

Silver Member
basically ive started a welding course and am learning a few different types of welding, mainly mig/mag, arc welding/MMA and gas welding, and i will hopefully do a bit of tig later on. which is best for scooters (i am guessing tig but i cant do that yet) so please tell me in order from best to worst if you know.

my guess would be tig,MMA/ARC,GAS,MIG (from best to worst). also how much better each type is as if i am better at say arc would it be more worth while than tig (i wont be doing tig at first so also say what is best for now assuming tig is the best)

also hopefully i will be able to weld parts later on in the course and also fix snapped parts, what do you recomend to start. also what materials are good as i dont think 4130 cromo is available, its mainly basic mild steel and some stainless stuff, do you think it would be hard to get hold of better metals like 4130chromo and also is stainless steel generally strong enough?

also please list the neccecary parts to make most parts (eg, reccomended crossbar thickness, forktube thickness)
 
Grant Schofield

Grant Schofield

Silver Member
Yeah i was talking about stick. And i i thought tig stands for turban insert gas. So how would that use an electric arc? And also with stick i was told you can only weld steel with it because its too hot it would melt aluminium
 
B

Broccoli1

Bronze member
Scooter Bar Specs

Aluminum bars-
Inside diameter of 1-1/8 inch and outside diameter of 1-3/8 inch.
Fit threaded forks with 1-1/8 inch steerer, thread-less forks with ICS
and Oversized 1-3/8 inch clamp or thread-less forks with full size SCS compression.
Do NOT fit HIC compression.

Oversized (HIC) bars-
Oversized bars have an inside diameter of 1-1/4 inch and an outside diameter of 1-3/8 inch. They fit on thread-less forks with HIC or full size SCS compression only.

Standard Size bars
These bars have a standard inside diameter of 1-1/8 inch and an outside diameter of 1-1/4 inch. They fit threaded and thread-less forks with a steerer diameter of 1-1/8 inch and require a 1-1/4 inch clamp or SCS compression clamp.


OS BARS 1-3/8” X .065 STEER TUBE 7/8” X .065 CROSSBAR
STANDARD BARS 1-1/4” X .065 STEER TUBE
CROSS BAR 7/8” X .065
** SOME USE .083 FOR THE CROSSBAR

You can order 4130 from On Line Metals.


Mild Steel is not strong enough for Bars so don't actually make any bars out of Mild Steel- you can certainly practice on Mild Steel tube, which I highly recommend , to get the hang of welding Tubing.
You can Mig (GMAW, Gas Metal Arc Welding) 4130 but the appearance isn't the
best but it will work.
[You can also Mig weld aluminum but that's another discussion]

Tig (GTAW, Gas Tunsten Arc Welding) is ideal as it allows more control of the process and works well on thin Tubing- Steel or Aluminum.

Just stick to bars for now* after several hours under the hood

Everything else on the Scooter
is pretty damn tricky.
 
B

Broccoli1

Bronze member
Grant Schofield said:
Yeah i was talking about stick. And i i thought tig stands for turban insert gas. So how would that use an electric arc? And also with stick i was told you can only weld steel with it because its too hot it would melt aluminium
Click to expand...

Tig- proper name= GTAW Gas Tungsten ARC welding
*Tig comes from Tungsten Inert Gas
Mig: Proper Name= GMAW Gas metal Arc Welding
*Mig comes from Metal Inert Gas BUT not all of the Shielding gasses used in Mig welding is Inert so not really a correct name. Also called Mag welding: Metal Active gas

Stick/Arc: proper name= SMAW Shielded metal arc welding
* Stick comes from the fact you use a welding Rod in a holder, which looks like a stick in the holder. Arc comes from the fact that they were pretty much the first type of machines available for electric welding so the name just stuck with that process. "Lincoln Electric Arc welder" as an example used in early advertising.
Buzz Box is also another name because the transformer inside buzzed.
Tombstone is another because the shape of the machine looked like a Tombstone.

All of the above use electricity to weld so technically they are all ARC welders :)

Aluminum welding is tricky because it doesn't take as much heat to melt it BUT it is a great conductor so it wicks away heat quickly. You actually need more power to weld aluminum in the same thickness as steel BUT BUT once it gets hot it wants to melt much quicker than steel. So you really have to work fast once it starts or you end up with a pile of worthless melted Aluminum.

Aluminum doesn't turn cherry red either once it reaches temp so there isn't an easy reference for welding temps. The Puddle will turn bright silver almost like Mercury and then it's on like donkey kong.
 
S

Snow Patrol

Member
Nice Broccoli!

I was going to jump on here and explain some but you got it covered haha.

I can tell you guys that he's 100% accurate =)


For beginners at TIG, I suggest starting on mild steel and just working on welding overlapping pieces to get used to your torch control.

When you can keep consistent control of your heat and distance from the metal, then start getting into welding with some small filler rod and work on making consistent beads on small plate or by welding overlapping, butt joints and T joints and inspecting your penetration on the opposite side when you finish the pass.

Take as many basic welding classes as you can and get as much access to any machines and material as possible, practice as much as possible.

Commit as much as you can to memory, and never be afraid to ask questions.

Also, try and learn the parts of the machine and how it operates so you can learn to setup and dial in your machine according to what you are welding, its not as hard as you may think.

Good luck, and feel free to ask me any welding questions on Facebook! @johnradtke

Or you can ask Broccoli, he's got you covered also =)
 
G

Grifin

Member
welding is really a very reliable and considerable task. if you are just the beginners then you need to keep consistence control over heat and distance from metal.
 
Grant Schofield

Grant Schofield

Silver Member
Yeah i took a stick welding class over the summer and kinda got the hang of it. But i think im going to try to take a tig welding class, also my grandpa had oxy and settler and i tried to mess around on that and it was very hard haha
 
Blake

Blake

Steel Member
Grant Schofield said:
Yeah i took a stick welding class over the summer and kinda got the hang of it. But i think im going to try to take a tig welding class, also my grandpa had oxy and settler and i tried to mess around on that and it was very hard haha
Click to expand...

I think you mean oxyacetylene. Using that is so much more awkward than stick and mig IMO haha.
 
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