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hey guys, I've been a reader in this fabrication forum and now I think it's time to step up to the plate...

here's a look at what needs to be done


as you can see there's a pretty intercooler waiting for plumming. first time building a motor myself, and putting together a custom turbo setup... so I figure hell why not make it my first time welding also

here's the stuff I have to get the job done


so I did some practice welds last night (first time with gas) and I think I'm ready to start on the pipes...

first question, I have .23 solid wire because they were out of .25 and they said .30 might be to big... the pipes are .60" mild steel, will .23 wire work?

2) I hear its a good idea to back purge, but I'm not setup for that. can, or should I weld without back purge? plus as you can see I have the smallest tank and i don't want to make 10 trips to refill it.

3) do you think the radius of the bends are too big for what I want to do? should I get a few smaller ones or mabe a 90deg? or can I make this work with the bends I have? radius is 6" I believe...

thanks for any input I can get

other then that wish me luck and I'll post pics of my progress... I'm sure you guys
can steer me in the right direction

[b] finished! I stayed in the garage all sat night until 3am and just went at it...




I had to grind the hell out of the visable welds because those happen to be my first ones... lets just say I got good at patching up holes, lol.


I made due with the big radius bends it didn't seem to be that much of a problem. now I have to find something else to weld

let me know what you think of the outcome?
thanks for all the help!


Modified by turbosi03 at 10:56 PM 2/13/2005

 

The radius of the bends do look a little big. Might work not sure though if they dont just pick some up from tunertoys theyre perfect for charge pipes. I would try your though first since you already got the bends. -Nick

 

Youre just going to have to cut and weld yours more than if they had a little radius. Oh-well gives you more practice with the grinder and welder. Now get to it.

 

You don't need to purge mild steel.

I'd reccomend a lot of practice prior to starting. Optimal is to melt the inside of the pipe on the welds, but not push metal into the inside....and definitely not leave wires hanging in there.

 

I'm assume that's a mig, there is no need to purge on a mig, especially on mild steel. It's gonna be a breeze once you got the learning curve.

 

from my experience you will easily be able to blow through regardless of the wire size, so yes one pass is more than enough. Engloid could you give us some info about wire size? I use .023 for my sch40 manifolds, should I go bigger? if so why?

if thats a 135 lincoln try setting it to C-5 and just keep moving but not too fast and you should lay a nice flat bead with good penetration if you fit the pipe with minimal gaps. That tank will last for probably 3 complete turbo kits including making manifolds and DPs so dont worry about running out if its even half full.

that big radius will be hard to make work. i use 3.75" radius bends from summit. they are good quality, inexpensive and ship fast.

http://store.summitracing.com/...&y=12

 

well, I have a problem with cutting the pipes nice and flat... I used a right angle grinder with cutoff wheel.




here's some practice welds since I could not do any real welding until I get something better to cut with...



let me know if I'm on the right track with my welds

and what do you guys use for cutting? or do I just suck with the angle grinder

ps: yes it's a lincoln 135 plus

 

get a chop saw , they cut pritty straight

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C1CYA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">get a chop saw , they cut pritty straight </TD></TR></TABLE>

yup and dont cost much. a sawzall works fine too but it can tricky on thin wall stuff, kinda violent. Ide jsut get a few hacksaw blades and go at it. thin pipe like that is easy to cut with one.


Once you make your crooked cut with the grinder/hacksaw whatever, just grind it flat so the gaps arent as big and uneven.

 

[QUOTE=Bailhatch]from my experience you will easily be able to blow through regardless of the wire size, so yes one pass is more than enough. Engloid could you give us some info about wire size? I use .023 for my sch40 manifolds, should I go bigger? if so why?[/quote.]
The thinner wire will allow you to weld at lower amperage...giving you the ability to weld thinner material. If you swap to a larger wire, you will need more amperage to burn it (at the same wire speed). In other words, if you're able to ut down a weld as big as necessary with the wire you have, don't bother going bigger. I've welded things 3/4" thick, and multiple pass welds, spray transfer...and with .035" wire...just at a really fast wirespeed.

Advice on the welding posted:
I understand that cutting with a grinder isn't the easiest thing, but take the time to grind it straighter after cutting. Those gaps will really give you fits when you weld it. A gap like that will possibly cause your wire to shoot through the gap, unmelted. This will leave wires hanging on the inside like whiskers. They can later break off and wind up in your engine or turbo. Fit is very important on thin materials.

The welding doesn't look too bad. Notice the weld on the left and the one next to it...the narrow places indicate that you went faster there, then slowed down, allowing the weld to spread out a bit more. You can kinda use the bead width as an indicator of speed, in order to help keep your speed pretty consistent. In other words, go the speed needed and change as needed. Don't just try to go a steady speed, reguardless of what the puddle does.

 

ahhh! thanks for the tip Engloid, yeah those welds your looking at are my 2nd and third bead I've ever done since I got the welding gas (and first time on a pipe). I realize my speed is way off when I start, they flatten out because I get a chance after starting the bead to look at the puddle and adjust the speed.
I was trying to do exactly what you said not to... constant speed regardless of puddle. damn what you said makes sooo much sense, I can't wait to go home tonight and try again

anymore tips anyone?

 

Those are some pretty nice welds. I'm planing on starting to weld up my intercooler stuff.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turbosi03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anymore tips anyone?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yeah, I forgot one...
On that stuff, try running downhill. Go from about 1 oclock down to 3, then roll the pipe and repeat it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Yeah, I forgot one...
On that stuff, try running downhill. Go from about 1 oclock down to 3, then roll the pipe and repeat it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

this is a good one

 

if you want to clean up your cuts that you did with the zipcut you can always face the pipe with a grinding disk.

to face the pipe first switch to a grinding disk
clamp the pipe into a vise or something so it won't go running away on you or whatever. make sure you can see into the pipe.
now run the grinder into the end of the pipe so that the entire face of the disk contacts the end of the pipe. should straighten it out enough that you can work with it.

 

yep, I went out and bought a chop saw works great!



I posted the finished pics up top... but here's a pic showing that I learned not to keep flamable things near where I'm welding

 

hey good job! im surprised the radius was small enough to do the turbo to IC one. The big radius stuff is actually better for flow so good for you. you should have made a few little beads on the end of the pipe before you painted it. keeps the silicon from slipping off, but usually it kinda sticks to the paint to youll be fine anyway i think.

 

im going to have to be doing this in the spring as well,what is all this talk about the radius of the bends?

 

Dustin,
good job on the welding. Something I've meant to get into by haven't had the time. Please pressure test everything so we dont have pipes blowing apart when you come for tuning. I've had that happen before.

 

looks good for your first time

 

good job man. Nice to see people stepping up to the plate. Before you know evey Honda is going to be driving around turbod with everything done by thereselves. Pretty cool!

 

hell yeah man, thanks! this HT support helps a LOT for someone like me that has never done this before... btw this whole car is a step up to the plate, I never did anything with engines before I got this car. I just put together this entire engine (blueprint block, etc...) and turbo setup myself. it is a great learning experience and I get to top it off with learning how to weld.

this **** is so much fun! Gruvytune, I will see you shortly (thats my tuner)... I will be sure to have the pipes pressure tested, along with extra silicon couplers just in case.

 

looks fun.


notta grinder.. lol i did the saammmme thing on my exhust like 3 different times... pipe cutter is a need.