'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build

[Greg72]

2015.08.05 - UPDATE! - STAINLESS MACARONIS......


The weather is finally drying-out.

We had a wave of hot weather and humid air, and everything was flash-rusting and as mentioned before, my garage floors were puddling with rusty, orange crud that was tracking all over the place.

Step 1 was getting that floor cleaned up well enough that I could at least start working again without constant worry about tracking messes around and contaminating all of my new work. I picked up a 5Lb bag of Oxalic Acid and started mixing small quantities with hot water.... and sprayed and scrubbed the floor for a few hours.


Here's the BEFORE:

Here's the AFTER:

It's not perfect, but it's good enough to let me get back to work without completely derailing this build and screaming "SQUIRREL!" while I installed $2700-worth of RaceDeck or SwissTrax tile flooring!

During the down-time in the garage, I found a source on eBay that sells 1.25" Aluminum spacers in the 8 x 6.5" pattern for only $65.

The only problems are that the center bore is about 1/4" too small, and the studs they supplied (and pressed-in) are some kind of metric size (1.5 x 14mm?) instead of the 9/16" SAE that I actually want. Apparently they do sell a version with the SAE hardware, so I'll be more careful next time I order. Opening up the center bore shouldn't be all that hard to do, and it will allow me to keep pressing forward on the steel wheel / hubcap project.

Boxes have been arriving steadily as well... and I've been storing them until I had the rusty floor issues resolved..... Last night, I declared a "Christmas Day" event and started cutting them open!!!

The smaller ones held TIG tungsten (chemical) sharpener, the 3/8" Stainless flanges, and a good assortment of both 308 and 309 filler rod in 1/16" and 0.030" sizes.

Also, some REALLY cool collectors, points & Vibrant clamps.

The largest boxes contained all of the exhaust tubing... 1-7/8 and 3" stuff. I didn't bother getting the 45* and 90* bends this time around, since they were pretty useless during my mild-steel mock-up work. So I just focused my order on the 180* U-Bends which I like to call my "Stainless Macaronis"

It turned out to be an expensive plate of pasta... but at least the materials are all here now. Hopefully tonight I can find my TIG machine and set it up for a quiet practice session, and see if I'm going to have any luck gluing all of this this tubing together in a believable way....


-G

 

[Greg Ducato]

That is a big pile of goodness right there

 

[Greg72]

That is a big pile of goodness right there

Yeah, it's sort of intimidating. Like it's saying: "Hey, you'd better know what the heck you're doing with us!!!"

I always hate making mistakes with 1.75" DOM tubing because it's so expensive to throw away... but 304SS takes it to a whole new level!!!


-G

 

[GWeakland620]

Wow, looks awesome.

 

[folkenheath]

2015.08.05 - UPDATE! - STAINLESS MACARONIS......

-G

That looks like a good recipe right there Greg!

 

[AJs72K5]

That's lots of shiney goodness right there.

 

[NorCal69]

Very excited to see you move forward on both of these projects.

 

[Greg72]

2015.08.06 - UPDATE! - MY FIRST TIG WELDS..!!!!


It's official!!

As of last night, I have laid-down my first TIG welds on stainless...

I promised you that I'd show the good, bad & ugly as I started learning a new welding process... so here goes:


In addition to all of the stainless tubing and material, I picked up a couple extra tanks of Argon, and some clear plastic tubing and a pipe plug from the local Home Depot. I wanted to come up with a simple "purge kit" setup so I could be more professional (and ultimately successful) as I started practicing my TIG welding.

To get a "baseline", I decided to just start out with a couple of lengths of straight tubing and no purge gas, just to get a feel for the machine and how I needed to position myself to actually lay down some beads.

Some basic info on the setup:

- 20CFH of Argon for the welder, no pulse.
- 45A and 60A settings for comparison
- Shade 9 on my auto-darkening helmet.
- .030" 308 filler wire

Here are the results of my first couple of experiments.

Some advice online said to use 1A per .010" of material thickness. For my 16GA tubing (.065") that would be around 65A.... but as you can see, it looks REALLY undercut compared to the 45A setting. I have a feeling that this is a function of using the thinner filler wire. Normally I'd expect to use a 1/16" wire (.0625") which would probably fill-in those deep spots better.

However, all things being equal I suspect that the weld that uses lower amperage is probably better since it heats the surrounding material less.

Here is a closeup shot of the 60A weld to give a better perspective on the undercut and overall finish quality (remember: this does NOT have purge gas behind it!)

Here is a closeup of the 45A weld, also with no purge gas. (BTW: I got the 45A recommendation from a YouTube video by StainlessHeaders.com)

I wanted to experiment with the purge gas to see if it would really make a noticeable difference. From what I read online, it is supposed to not only prevent contamination on the backside of the weld, but it is supposed to allow for a "wetter" puddle that is easier to manipulate and add filler rod to...

Here's the setup for the purge test:

I set the purge tank to 3CFH and let it do it's thing for maybe 1 minute so that I'd be sure that all the oxygen had been displaced. Since I'd already decided that 60A seemed excessive, I only did my welding at the lower 45A setting.

....and another view of the same weld:

I really like TIG welding!!! It's a lot more complicated to get into position and to STAY in position when welding around a tube. The torch angle needs to "curve" around the weld seam as you move, and knowing when to dip the rod in isn't always easy to see. I don't know if my helmet is too light (Shade 9) to see the details of the puddle. It doesn't look as nice as the YouTube videos where it's obvious where the tungsten is, where the puddle is...and where the filler needs to go. It seems just really BRIGHT and hard to decipher at times.

It also seems like I can only weld about 1" around the circumference of the tube before I have to stop and reposition myself. I just can't get the right torch angle if I keep going.

Anyway..... that was DAY 1 of TIG practice. I'm sure I'll get better at it, but if any of you guys have ideas that will help me improve please don't be shy about commenting here.


-G

 

[bigblock72]

Your welds look pretty good for a first time.

I would recommend that you get some sheet metal and practice the mechanics of welding and develop a good rhythm on something flat. Mild steel welds quite similar to SS so the technique will transfer over. Youtube is a great source for teaching, watch how they move-dip-move-dip-move-dip. I wish Youtube existed when I was learning how to TIG.

You may want to brain-storm on a fixture to hold your pieces while welding to make it easier to reposition.

Have fun while you learn, you'll go through a couple of bottles of argon and a whole stack of welding rod but you'll be well rewarded in the end.

 

[Greg72]

Your welds look pretty good for a first time.

I would recommend that you get some sheet metal and practice the mechanics of welding and develop a good rhythm on something flat. Mild steel welds quite similar to SS so the technique will transfer over. Youtube is a great source for teaching, watch how they move-dip-move-dip-move-dip. I wish Youtube existed when I was learning how to TIG.

You may want to brain-storm on a fixture to hold your pieces while welding to make it easier to reposition.

Have fun while you learn, you'll go through a couple of bottles of argon and a whole stack of welding rod but you'll be well rewarded in the end.

Thanks!

Do you think my welding lens is too light? I'm really having trouble seeing the puddle clearly.... it's more of a bright glowing orb, and I really can't make out the seam where I'm trying to dip the rod.


-G

 

[bigblock72]

Thanks!

Do you think my welding lens is too light? I'm really having trouble seeing the puddle clearly.... it's more of a bright glowing orb, and I really can't make out the seam where I'm trying to dip the rod.


-G

It may be, I have an adjustable lens and I think I have it around 10. May want to turn the current down 5 amps or so and see how it welds. Stainless is a poor conductor of heat and takes less current than mild steel, so don't feel like you're doing anything wrong if your settings are quite low.

 

[BARRAZA]

One of the stainless tube suppliers / header manufactures used to sell left over random bends. Very reasonably priced. I got a set when I started TIG'ing several years ago and used them for practice. That way you can do lots of practice putting a dozen or so bends together with slightly different machine settings without stopping to cut it all up. Also a reasonable chance you might end up with bends you will need.

 

[Greg72]

One of the stainless tube suppliers / header manufactures used to sell left over random bends. Very reasonably priced. I got a set when I started TIG'ing several years ago and used them for practice. That way you can do lots of practice putting a dozen or so bends together with slightly different machine settings without stopping to cut it all up. Also a reasonable chance you might end up with bends you will need.

The local supplier said he can shear me a bunch of 16GA scrap stainless for practice coupons... and he will just charge me by the pound. That should keep me busy for a while!!


-G

 

[BARRAZA]

That would be good too, but nothing beats using tube to get the hang of going around a tube. I have found the hardest part of TIG is keeping the arc length consistent, and dipping rod while moving around odd shapes.

 

[Cili]

I've noticed with TIG welding the position of your face mask in relation to the weld makes a lot of difference on the brightness, for whatever reason.

 

[blazinzuk]

I have only Tigged a couple times. So someone please verify this.

I think your still too hot. When I was doing it my weld bead had the same hard gray color. My buddy said that's an indication the welder is too hot. Or I'm not going fast enough so concentrating heat too much.

Now until someone verifys what I say is true please disregard lol.

 

[bigblock72]

I have only Tigged a couple times. So someone please verify this.

I think your still too hot. When I was doing it my weld bead had the same hard gray color. My buddy said that's an indication the welder is too hot. Or I'm not going fast enough so concentrating heat too much.

Now until someone verifys what I say is true please disregard lol.

You are correct, and can also be an indication of contamination.

 

[Stein]

I think your still too hot.

And probably holding the tungsten too far from the workpiece, thus needing more amperage to span the gap. That was my biggest learning experience when I took an official class at the community college last year after being self-taught 15 years ago. No matter what I did I had sugary grey welds. Dropped amperage and held closer to the workpiece and they got better. The risk is you will dip your tungsten. A lot. Especially when you are just learning. Then you have to stop and re-sharpen.

 

[shady]

if you cant see true definition in the puddle then you do need to go darker.

also I know it sounds oddly low or you made a type O. but your 1 amp per .010 of thickness calculation puts you at 6.5 amps not 65....

 

[Greg72]

if you cant see true definition in the puddle then you do need to go darker.

also I know it sounds oddly low or you made a type O. but your 1 amp per .010 of thickness calculation puts you at 6.5 amps not 65....

Right you are!

.040" is 40A
.050" is 50A
.060" is 60A
Etc.

Though honestly that sounds a bit high based on the results I was getting.


-G