i was just curious if anyone else has made a shortshifter. just made this one yesterday so im just seeing if anyone else has some other designs. its 7075

 

no pics butt i like

 

your saying its 7075 aluminum? If so 7075 is considered a non weldable alloy and it sure looks a though the bushing is welded on.

 

you can weld any aluminum. its just not going to have the same quallities as the weldeblle one.

 

yes and if he did weld 7075 and doesn't realize it and it breaks pulling out into traffic and causes a crash then what just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. You can jump off a bridge but you shouldn't. It doesn't work well and we are not talking about fixing a pit mark in a tail light bezel.

I'll be honest I have been welding since the early 70's and have never wasted my time trying to weld 7075 or 2024 as it was always understood that it doesn't work


here is a little more info on the subject taken from a welding document

ANSWER: In response to the second question, the reason you are having difficulty finding information on welding 2024 and 7075 is that both of these materials belong to a small group of aluminum alloys that are generally considered as being unweldable by the arc welding process. These materials are often found on aircraft, sporting equipment and other types of high-performance, safety-critical equipment and are not usually arc welded on the original component. Probably, the two most commonly found aluminum alloys within this category are 2024, which is an aluminum, copper, magnesium alloy, and 7075, which is an aluminum, zinc, copper, magnesium alloy. Both of these materials can become susceptible to stress corrosion cracking after welding. This phenomenon is particularly dangerous because it is not detectable immediately after welding, and usually develops at a later date when the component is in service. The completed weld joint can appear to be of excellent quality immediately after welding. However, changes which occur within the base material adjacent to the weld during the welding process, can produce a metallurgical condition within these materials which can result in intergranular micro cracking, which may be susceptible to propagation and eventual failure of the welded component. The probability of failure can be high, and the time to failure is generally unpredictable and dependent on variables such as tensile stress applied to the joint, environmental conditions, and the period of time which the component is subjected to these variables.

It is strongly recommended that great care be taken when considering the repair of components made from these materials. It must be stressed that if there is any possibility of a weld failure becoming the cause of damage or injury to person or property, do not perform repair work by arc welding on these alloys and then return them to service.

 

7075 is not weldable. If you do actually get penetration, it is highly likely that the weld will crack as it cools or ages.

 

i do unsertand 7075 is not desireable to be welded as i do work in a machine shop and such. i just personally liked the way 7075 machines and this is more of a test project but i do appreciate you guys for looking out.

 

Have no problem agreeing with you on the machining of 7075 it is a really nice alloy for that along with 2024. It chips real nice unlike the stringyness of 6061.
I will sometimes spend the extra $'s for 2024 if I think I am going to have a machining problem with 6061.

The shifter by the way looks nice and I just wanted to make sure you and others that may not know about the Dont do it welding of 7075 and 2024.

 

no problem...i probably dont have anywhere near your experience of welding or machining if your since the 70's and the fact im only 21 but either way we agree on the machining aspect of it. thanks again

 

The new Skunk2 rear LCA are made of this stuff. Does this mean there week or just unweldable?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CBURKE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The new Skunk2 rear LCA are made of this stuff. Does this mean there week or just unweldable?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Read the thread.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 3 posts up &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">In response to the second question, the reason you are having difficulty finding information on welding 2024 and 7075 is that both of these materials belong to a small group of aluminum alloys that are generally considered as being unweldable by the arc welding process. These materials are often found on aircraft, sporting equipment and other types of high-performance, safety-critical equipment and are not usually arc welded on the original component. Probably, the two most commonly found aluminum alloys within this category are 2024, which is an aluminum, copper, magnesium alloy, and 7075, which is an aluminum, zinc, copper, magnesium alloy. Both of these materials can become susceptible to stress corrosion cracking after welding. This phenomenon is particularly dangerous because it is not detectable immediately after welding, and usually develops at a later date when the component is in service. The completed weld joint can appear to be of excellent quality immediately after welding. However, changes which occur within the base material adjacent to the weld during the welding process, can produce a metallurgical condition within these materials which can result in intergranular micro cracking, which may be susceptible to propagation and eventual failure of the welded component. The probability of failure can be high, and the time to failure is generally unpredictable and dependent on variables such as tensile stress applied to the joint, environmental conditions, and the period of time which the component is subjected to these variables.</TD></TR></TABLE>
7075 is very strong, and most importantly for Skunk, easier to machine than 6xxx alloys. The fact that it isn't weldable doesn't figure in for them, as there are no welds necessary on the LCA's they designed.

OP, Take it off, and remachine it out of 6061 or something else. The back-and-forth pressure exerted on that bushing during shifting is sure to crack it off. Nothing like losing your ability to shift!

 

show off your machining skills and do it from one piece

 

^ +1

 

I posted my shifter project in crx forum and will just link it here:

http://crx.honda-perf.org/foru...=9970

Basically its a modified neuspeed unit.

 

your skunk2 control arms will be find if they are 7075..thats pretty much as good as its gonna get with aluminum. aircraft parts that are aluminum are made with 7075. 7075 is a very hard aluminum and the reason basiclly why its "unweldable" is well duh what happens when you heat something up thats very hard....hardness starts to turn into brittleness. rc53 i believe is where tensile strength turns into brittleness. it was mostly as just a prop or example of me messing around. now doing it in 1 part...i may take that challange just need the time to do it basiclly which i think may come up again shortly.

JamesS: need idea

 

if you need help on how to setup it to do it in one piece I can give you some ideas but its will be a few setups unless your lathe has live tooling with a c axis