new owner says hi and has stupid questions

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:55 pm

Just picked up on this thread, SILLY. Like to make a few comments:

Firstly- Welcome, you have started from zero and got to welding and stub manufacture, and a good grasp of sizing in a very short time, it seems!

Congratulations on the welding- looks fine. When you mentioned gas leaks and tape I cringed, thinking you were using an oxy-acetylene kit! Shows how easy it is to make wrong assumptions!

Yes, BMC I agree 3mm much too thin for a caliper mounting "plate", but the one JLH has graciously shown us is far from a piece of flat, which is what I had pictured in my head!

We have to read what this chap is doing in the context of his location- as he says, shipping costs for cheap parts become prohibitively expensive. Also, if there are loads of these early Moggies in NZ then what he is doing is not as heretical as it may seem to some!

Stub axles at $70 (£23?) each sounds good, like JLH's £25 ones. Can't see any of my local engineering shops doing it for that, L/H thread cutting and all!! That would equate to about half an hour each at £50 an hour, without material costs. Perhaps I should emigrate to NZ, with a container or two of Moggy parts to start a new life!

As regards the offset question, obviously the more offset the greater your potential problems, but the odd 5mm is unlikely to break anything!

Keep up the good work, SILLY, and keep on with the questions!

Post by **bmcecosse** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:23 pm

Yes - I acknowledged Jonos picture of his bracket design - which looks fine. Most are just flat plate. I hope indeed they have remembered the LH thread on the LH stub - I did mention it earlier.

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:37 pm

bmcecosse wrote:Yes - I acknowledged Jonos picture of his bracket design - which looks fine. Most are just flat plate. I hope indeed they have remembered the LH thread on the LH stub - I did mention it earlier.

Sorry about the crossed reply, by the time I had worded it (in between arguing with 11 year old daughter about homework

) I missed your post!!

Post by **bmcecosse** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:41 pm

Was the 11 year old correct ? They usually are!

Post by **jonathon** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:41 pm

The stub axles do not require a left hand thread. There are several stub axles with both right hand threads which all work perfectly.
The £25 per stub was speculative based upon CNC work we already have produced. Material would be EN16T which is pretty good value, and a set up CNC machine would only take minutes to turn a stub.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:45 pm

Originals are LH thread - I suppose if properly 'locked' - nothing should go wrong! Famous last words ??

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:46 pm

jonathon wrote:The stub axles do not require a left hand thread. There are several stub axles with both right hand threads which all work perfectly.
The £25 per stub was speculative based upon CNC work we already have produced. Material would be EN16T which is pretty good value, and a set up CNC machine would only take minutes to turn a stub.

How much to programme the CNC??

Post by **jonathon** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:52 pm

Fortunately we do not pay for programming, the assumption being that the number of items produced should cover this cost. One offs will attract higher unit prices, but even these are extremely cost effective over the one man and his lathe. Unfortunate for engineering and engineers, but great for the need to be competitive on costs.

Post by **silly** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:29 am

first of all thanks for encouragement. i really needed it. was starting to have doubts last night. there is just so much rust and when i ruined the kingpins i was getting really discouraged. i do have a spare kingpin in goodnick however and a trip to smash palace up the volcano should see me with a bunch of replacements. there must be at least 30 or 40 rotting away in that old paddock. ( no good for panels and rubber no doubt but suspension gear will ok).

sorry i cant find your stub axles on your site jonothon. are they listed? what sort of axle are they? can i buy them off you.

had a good afternoon. made a break through with welding . i figured to slow down the trigger and my welds were getting smoother. heres a pic of some work i did this afternoon. would be grateful of opinons and tips to improve on the other side there was nothing left of the original car so i am guessing how it all fits together

i know these welds are pretty ugly but im getting better everyday

Post by **bmcecosse** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:47 am

Looks ok - as long as it is penetrated into the metal, and not just lying on the surface. You should flat it down with angle grinder.
I like 'trip up the volcano'!!!!!!

Post by **Mick_Anik** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:07 am

.....the weld looks okay - I've welded quite a lot on cars, and still get lumpy welds. With a MIG, it's often partly because of contaminants in and on the metal burning as you go. Cleaning with a flap disc on the grinder just moves the muck around....it's better to tolerate the need for a bit of extra grinding than keep trying to clean it up and thereby removing too much of the steel.

After you've ground the weld down, you can go back along the weld with the MIG, doing a half-inch weld every couple of inches, just to make sure you do have enough weld penetration and thus sufficient strength. This is very quick to do - everything is cleaner by then after the first weld, and the short welds are easy to grind down.
I like to weld on the other side of a line of weld wherever possible - a kind of 'quickie' weld, mainly for aesthetic reasons. Looks better when the quickie has been ground.....a bit crazy really, as nobody ever sees this, under the paint and the carpets!

When you think you've finished the welding, have a day away, and maybe go back to spend just one more day on it - poking around for dodgy metal around the welds, looking for large pinholes using a lamp behind the weld, a bit more grinding....generally polishing off the job nicely.
You're almost certain to find something that not 100 per cent during this last day. I reckon, after all the hard work, that the quality of the job can be doubled with the extra day of attention!

Post by **jonathon** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:25 am

We do not produce the stub axles it was just a suggestion, and guesstimated cost.
You need more amps with the welder by the look of it as the weld doesn't look as if its penetrating enough.

Post by **Mick_Anik** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:11 pm

It may also be a question of technique - as I understand it, once the spark is firing regularly, one should move in a 'spiral' fashion, a little forwards on one side of the join, then over to the other side, then a little bit backwards, back over to the other side, and so on.....

I personally weld in a slightly different way, but not too far removed from the technique outlined above. I start the weld on one side, and do a kind of semi-circular 'flick' over to the other side and back.

Do we have any good welders here? Some pointers and opinions are always interesting. I think if I entered a welding competition in which one were judged on technique, I would end up rather near bottom position:).

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:27 pm

Never thought much about it before- I guess I'm a spiral welder, anticlockwise right to left as much as possible!

Yes, a bit more current would flatten the weld pool/ give greater penetration. You may then want to increase the feed rate a bit again to stop it sputting as it uses the wire quicker than it can deliver it. Simple enough stuff when you think what is going on!

I love the sound of NZ more all the time! Mountains of Moggies!!

Post by **bmcecosse** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:33 pm

I find the 'shake' in my hand is enough!

Post by **Mick_Anik** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:46 pm

I believe the idea is to keep a molten pool going, as you do in oxy-acetylene welding, and push it around. With oxy, you can pull the pistol away if it looks like the pool is going to fall. MIG seems to be more 'aggressive' in many ways.

The problem with welding cars is the thinness of the metal, so care is needed to control the molten pool. Several factors, too - wire feed speed, amps level, wire thickness, gas flow......but at least it's much less dangerous than oxy welding.

My problem is, I'll do a load of welding with the MIG, and thus become better as I go, then I might not do any for a couple of years.

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:54 pm

Admission time! I still sometimes go for the stick welder, around 80 amps and 2.5mm rods on car body stuff. Not fussy about rust as MIG is, and you can get into corners easier (sometimes)!
Thee- I feel better now

Post by **bmcecosse** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:59 pm

Interesting to hear that works!

Post by **silly** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:27 pm

smash palace under mt ruapehu

Post by **silly** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:35 pm

i think id like to try use a stick on overhead surfaces at the corners/edges where you have panel folds. i will try and increase the amps. i have a very basic welder and the amperage only is switchable . not a dial so i cant increase gently . it seems to step up. it seemed i was blowing holes with the increased amperage but at that time i probably wasnt cutting enough rust out and the blow throughs were basically already holes of rust.
the welder is very quirky i know why the guy sold it for 100$ BUT i did discover all its noorty bits and dont have any problems with gas or feed anymore