Alex L.

Closest I've had to a perfect butt weld:

v8killaz

looks damn near perfect. did you run that on a single pass.

Alex L.

Yep single pass on my positioner. There's some things I absolutely hate about it, but I have ideas on how to remedy them. Endless pursuit of an unattainable perfection.

v8killaz

thats sick, we got one of those positioners at work. Ive used it for mig welding never thought of using it for tig though.

what bevel do you use. Ive been messing with some sch10 2.5" at work and I cant make a long pass with full penetration without overheating the stuff. I make a small bevel knife edge but dont get 100% penetration

Alex L.

On schedule 10, my bevel's just wide enough to comfortably fit a piece of 1/16" filler in the chamfer. You shouldn't have to throw a ton of heat at it to get through the whole way. I take it you're purging it, what's your purge flow set at? How much amperage are you using when welding the 2.5" 10 pipe?

v8killaz

Im not purging right now just practicing. but usually when purging I fill it first then set at about 10cfh.

But now Im not purging just practicing. once I see sugar or a bulge I know ive got decent penetration and probably have better penetration purging.

Im welding 100 amps at machine. So id say im at 80 amps most of the time. my bevel is about 1/4 of a inch. Im using 1/16 filler and basically having to push the rod into the puddle.

Ill try to weld some stuff at lunch tomorrow and see what happens.

Alex L.

That's a pretty wide bevel, try to narrow it up a little bit and see what happens. I don't use 1/16" much for 10 pipe anymore, but when I do, I give a slight push into the puddle and it works great. I think I typically only set my machine at 75-80A for schedule 10 work.

v8killaz

what filler rod do you run.

Alex L.

0.045" for 10 pipe, 1/16" for 40 pipe typically.

Alex L.

Schedule 40 butt weld:




Quick boost leak tester I threw together for my car:

FabChild

Looks dope alex!

Alex L.

Thanks bro!

Alex L.

Got my car on the dyno yesterday for some final tuning and manifold testing between two styles I offer. On the production manifold, we made 841/661 @ 35psi. On the stepped primary manifold with no other changes, we made 874/688 @ 35psi.

Dyno with production manifold:



Swapping manifolds:




Dyno after manifold swap:



Graph overlay:




The stepped manifold did exactly what I wanted and more. I'm absolutely stoked that my theories and research provided tangible power gains. I'll be reworking my manifold offerings with this new found data.

rvs51

Nice!

Alex L.

Thanks bro, I was beyond floored to see gains like that!

RSWEPN

Very nice fab/welding, inspiring

Good gains in the manifold swap. Im guessing the top manifold is 1.25 inch vs the second manifold is 1.25 inch stepping upto 1.5 inch ? Have you tried 1.25 vs 1.5 without the step up ?

Alex L.

Thank you! You're correct in your guess, 1.25" schedule 10 on top, 1.25" to 1.5" schedule 10 on bottom. I had a straight 1.5" manifold on it in 2012, but the wastegate placement wasn't good and, with the car being as lazy as it is, I wanted to try smaller primaries to see if they spooled a little faster.

The other consideration is that the 2JZ head flanges really aren't designed for anything over 1.25" pipe, as they have the worst bolt placement I've ever seen on any head flange I've worked with lol

that-guy

yet they make more power than pretty much any other V/Straight 6 out there

Alex L.

They seem to operate under the principle of velocity versus volume. The heads, for example, flow like absolute **** on a bench (I was lucky to break 200cfm @ 0.390" [max lift I could achieve on factory components] with the GE head I ported at school), but when you put pressure to them, they really shine.

Caoboy

Seeing pie cut tubing like this is what made me want to weld...I'm only taking a beginner's Arc/Mig class to learn the basics but once I learn how to Tig and weld on stainless I'm going to make my own custom exhausts.

You've only been welding for 5 years and were self taught? How did you go about it? Pick up a book and a welder and just start sticking pieces of metal together?

(I just realized that bottom right pic might not be a pie cut bent tubing. But I think I made my point )

Alex L.

I bought a TIG and started learning to use it out of necessity. I just did it, never read any books or anything in the beginning, just played around and got used to it over time. Over the past two years I really started giving a **** about getting better with it and focused all my attention to getting to be as good as I can.

neonkid

what machine did you start off with if you dont mind me asking.

Alex L.

I started with a Diversion 165, I loved that little welder.

Alex L.

Working on some Supra collectors:

Alex L.

Some 3-1 collector work from today for one of my 2JZ-GTE Gen II twin scroll manifolds. These circular 3-1s are a blast to build: