Did my first Stainless Tig Welding on my new upper IC pipe.







My old BOV upper IC pipe setup:



This is a duplicate battery cradle that i have, its for another member here:

Nice work Terry.

Looks great. You're getting in some good practice it looks like.

so if i send you my BOV for fitment, how much to reproduce this work of art? :)
and i dont need it before shootout, you can take a few weeks lol
(don't worry, my battery fitment is taken care of, although your cage is a better idea :P)

Damn Terry :thumbsup

I wish my welds looked a quarter that good. (at least they hold)

that battery cradle is sweet, if I don't go rear mount I may have you make me one of those.

AWESOME work Terry.

Absolutely amazing.

Originally posted by foggy45
so if i send you my BOV for fitment, how much to reproduce this work of art? :) and i dont need it before shootout, you can take a few weeks lol (don't worry, my battery fitment is taken care of, although your cage is a better idea :P)

Oh i dont know. Lets see there is 1 180 degree stainless bend there and I think i paid 25.00 for it. I have about 2 days into the fabication but that includes trying to get an acceptable finish on it. You would be doing that. Argon is 53.00 a tank so labor would be 4000.00


Seriously how about 75.00 to recreate the pipe. The thing is it has to match your lower pipe. I cant guarentee that and at that price its kinda not worth it. Its really close to the lower Star pipe but its not 100% exact and its 2.5" pipe.



The battery cradle i dont know if i will make another. I tend to keep my parts very limited }(


Terry

Originally posted by Star Turbo Talon
The battery cradle i dont know if i will make another. I tend to keep my parts very limited }( Terry

I think I could make something like that. I think I'll just stick to a red top in the trunk though. I like the idea of having better weight balance.

They are not hard to make, keeping it from warping can be tricky. Since the welds are so small and tedious its not difficult.

pmd ya

as for finishes, can SS be heat treated to do the color gradations like Ti can?
btw is that battery the AMS Evo one that is fairly popular these days?

Originally posted by foggy45
pmd ya as for finishes, can SS be heat treated to do the color gradations like Ti can?

SS headers do it all the time

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G

Originally posted by foggy45 pmd ya as for finishes, can SS be heat treated to do the color gradations like Ti can?

SS headers do it all the time

ive never been able to control it enough to get the gradation i want. i usually end up with uneven color or an all gold piece.
/shrug

Beautiful work Terry! I was going to say at first not to forget about that sharpie on the shock tower, but it looks like you saw it :p

As for your limited production runs, I still have one of your custom fuel rails in the packaging waiting for install when I get back stateside :)

That is the 680cc oddysee battery that AMS rebadges. Its been around before the EVO 8, AMS just made a bracket to put it in the EVO too. I have been running the smaller battery for almost 4 years now. I had to replace the first one, they do not do good sitting in the car all winter, if you put a Battery Tender on it, then it will last.

Originally posted by Star Turbo Talon
they do not do good sitting in the car all winter

most batterys don't. the temperature change + inconsistent charging kills batterys very easily

cool man. welding tube can be tricky. The trick is, not to use rod on the thin stuff and have a perfect fit-up.

did you purge the inside or use solarflux?

Originally posted by turbo8u
cool man. welding tube can be tricky. The trick is, not to use rod on the thin stuff and have a perfect fit-up. did you purge the inside or use solarflux?

Excellent job, thats indentical to manufac. welds or better. You could make a career from your welding.

Welders are in high demand here in Canton or Crackron" Akron" Ohio.

9 times out of 10, you need a cert to weld professionally.

I've been looking for a welding job for a while now.

I'm good with a mig, decent at flat stick (vert and overhead can s my d) and i rule with a tig. I LOVE tig welding with every fiber of my being. They say it's harder than stick/mig. I beg to differ.

When i weld pipe, i tack on 6 spots (atleast) and keep the root gap even all the way around, i use very little filler, keep a small puddle and keyhole and crank the gas. I always weld from tack to tack alternating sides and direction. I blow argon through both the pipe and the gun nozzle. Keeps shit super clean. AL is a bit harder but i always set the machine using scraps first to make sure whatever i'm doing comes out the way it should.

Hopefully, i can get cert'd shortly after i move to boston next year.

Nice work terry. I love your engine bay. Hardline vac. Hell yeah.

I did back purge the IC PIPE Josh. I think on IC pipe i am going to try to use the solarflux next time and see its thats a little more cost effective.

shit, if ur looking for a welding job, move to portland or vancouver... shit is plentiful out here. i walked into a welding shop with only my high school metal shop experience and got hired on the spot yo!!

No i make much more doing what i do now. I just take on my own personal projects.

Originally posted by Star Turbo Talon

something top secret eh? damn censoring ha. nice pipe btw. i may be looking for a new upper some time soon. Ill pm ya to see whats up.

I think I know what that censored part was }(

}( Cant show everything now can I?


That pipe is my old one.

A few tips from someone who is in the trade of exotic metals:

Originally posted by Star Turbo Talon
I did back purge the IC PIPE Josh. I think on IC pipe i am going to try to use the solarflux next time and see its thats a little more cost effective.

I would suggest not using the solarflux on I/C piping, you have to use the "type B" for stainless, and all I have to say is good luck getting all the slag off from inside the pipe or tube. Maybe its just a matter of personal opinion, but the slag that forms inside from the weld has a consistency similiar to glass, and I'm not comfortable with allowing that to pass through my motor. As it eventually will. I use it on custom exhausts all the time, no probs there as it will just be blown out the tailpipe.

Originally posted by turbo8u
cool man. welding tube can be tricky. The trick is, not to use rod on the thin stuff and have a perfect fit-up. did you purge the inside or use solarflux?

I've heard this one before... but you should always use some sort of filler of the correct composition for the base metal you are welding. There are other alloying metals in the filler that have deoxidizing effects and also help replenish certian alloys that burn out in the welding procces. If you fuse stainless steel together with too much heat you can literaly end up with a high nickel content steel that will be magnetic(not supposed to be) and will rust. The trick is controlling your heat, especailly in the heat affected zone around the weld, and especailly with stainless steel.


Some of you may dissagree with some or all of this, but I've been doing Pharm. and Dairy for quite a few years now. And the 14 different certs I have can stand up for what I do know.

Aside from that thats some nice work there terry. I enjoy following your projects as there are only a few out there like us. What kind of welder do you have? And what where your weld/gas settings for those welds?

Good information, thanks

The SS i was trying to get a weld that looked like an orbital did it and as I am sure already know, that cant be done. I tried anyway and ended up going back over it to even out the pass since there were a couple spots that looked like there wasnt enough penetration.

The Material used is 304L stainless and I am using a 308 filler rod. According to info I found, 308 is suitable filler. If there is a better please share.

The welder I am using is a Miller Dynasty 200DX. Air cooled torch with foot control. For setting I am using Millers weld calculator since I really dont have any school to go off of. That weld had a max amperage of 100amps and I think i spent most of my time in the 40-50 amp range. I move pretty slow so its a good start i think, as I get faster I am sure i will use more amperage and more speed. For gas flow, i am using 12CFH. Being slow I am using a lot of gas so the next project I have going needs to be done with more amperage and a more consistant and efficient speed.

Keep the advise coming. The current project i have going is made of 304L Schedule 10. I have not begun full welding yet.

Terry

I usually use 308L for most 300 series grades of stainless, except 316, and 321, those require specialized filler rods. Or if in doubt about the exact type of stainless you can use 309L, that rod will weld just about anything ferrous. I used .065 wall tube for my I/C pipes, and when I weld it I generally put a slight chamfer on the mating edges, about 50% of the thickness through. I then run about 15 CFH argon through the pipe, and weld at about 35 amps using a forward-back motion, dipping an .035 filler rod in the puddle while the arc in near the back of it. The key is the heat control. For that sch 10 I would weld it at about 170 amps, but since you move slower you could prob get away with 125-135 for single pass welding, otherwise use 2 passes, first just fusing it at about 85 amps, second at about 70 after it has cooled. If you do this and purge it with complete penetration you will have a weld that could pass for industrial hydraulic lines. But don't forget the 30* bevel!

Thats also a very nice welder, I use that exact one for traveling, setup with a 25 foot 200 amp flex torch and fingertip control- I've come to dispise the pedal doing what I do- but love the control the welder has of the arc charecteristics. Experiment with the initial and final slopes, you can taylor it to eliminate that pesky pin hole that developes at the end of purge welds.

Originally posted by quicksilver99
nickel content steel that will be magnetic(not supposed to be) and will rust. The trick is controlling your heat, especailly in the heat affected zone around the weld, and especailly with stainless steel. Some of you may dissagree with some or all of this, but I've been doing Pharm. and Dairy for quite a few years now. And the 14 different certs I have can stand up for what I do know. Aside from that thats some nice work there terry. I enjoy following your projects as there are only a few out there like us. What kind of welder do you have? And what where your weld/gas settings for those welds?

first off - if you apply solarflux the right way and get a perfect weld, the glasslike residue on the back wont come off into your motor. A strong pickeling compound can be used to get it off, too which is what I do depending on the application. Its cheaper than purging and its infinitely better than not doing anything. I purge 99% of things though at my shop because I have hugeeeee tanks, endless argon lol.

whoever said stainless wasnt supposed to be magnetic?... depends on the stainless man. 400 series stainless is magnetic, for example...as is about a thousand other grades. Actually, go ahead and work some 304L a lot or beat it with a hammer, bend it, etc etc it will become magnetic. Dont use 300 series anyway, its not the best choice for cars like 321 or 347. Use inconel.

14 certs wow, of like what the 14 million TIG certs? How many years have you been professionally TIG welding to where EVERYTHING is xrayed? Trust me, stainless can and IS fused a LOT in the real world, as is a lot of alloys. A perfect TIG weld isnt overheated, duh. To much heat will also spray tungsten into the weld, etc etc. Dairy isnt real strict. Do you retest your "14 certs" every 2 weeks? If not, its not that strict.

Terry, get a big ass gas lens.

Come on guys....your both good at what you do and I will try both of your advise.

Josh, forgive my stupidity but what will the larger gas lense do for me?

Originally posted by dalesmitsu
Excellent job, thats indentical to manufac. welds or better. You could make a career from your welding. Welders are in high demand here in Canton or Crackron" Akron" Ohio.

its been payin the bills and buyin the toys for years! :thumbsup

Stainless and Titanium are my specialty. Incoloy, Monel, Inconel, etc etc etc so many alloys.

Originally posted by turbo8u

Originally posted by dalesmitsu Excellent job, thats indentical to manufac. welds or better. You could make a career from your welding. Welders are in high demand here in Canton or Crackron" Akron" Ohio.

its been payin the bills and buyin the toys for years! :thumbsup Stainless and Titanium are my specialty. Incoloy, Monel, Inconel, etc etc etc so many alloys.

How do you think I pay for my stuff? never mind that I have my own performance fab shop and have much experience with those alloys also... and 14 years of professional TIG with re-cert every 6 months, many more of types of welding before that. I dont really feel like starting any flame wars here, I also said above that I do phamacutical wich is very strict. I agree that solar flux is way more cost effective, and the other things you said are true also. I guess its all a matter of opinion in the end. The more we learn from eachother the better fabricators and welders we will be in the end. lets try to keep this to suggestions and constructive critisism.

Terry, a gas lens provides better gas coverage because its less turbulent. A LARGE gas lens will also shield the heat affected zone of a weld which is critical. Welding stainless or Ti especially, gas coverage is huge before during and AFTER the arc is extinguished. Also, when youre welding into like say a 10 degree mitered tube joint there is no way you can fit a tungsten down in there because of the cup. Better gas coverage, not always more gas pressure. Trick is running as LOW of a pressure as the weldment will allow. Youre wasting gas by turning it way up quicksilver. Unless youre trying to TIG in the wind...

Your tungsten can be WAY out of the cup and not get contaminated with a gas lens. Coverage will be much better. It feels a lot nicer in my opinion with the weight at the head (actually grab the head of my swivel torch and walk it around)

Im not arguing, just pointing out a few things I dont agree with. nuttin wrong with that.

htpweld.com get the pyrex cup and youll be stoked

Wow, those do look nice Josh. Thanks for the gas info, i was thinking just the opposite.

I generally don't crank the gas way up. Like you said, The less flow the better. Makes it less likely to pull any of the atmospheric gasses into the argon flow and eventually contaminating the weld. That recomendation for gas flow was for the purging gas, I use a high resolution pressure gauge at the gas outlet of the purged pipe and base my flow off of its reading. simply for ensuring proper support of the weld, as flow efficiency is always a large factor and of course I like the inside wall of the pipe to transition as smooth as possible. I'll try to be more clear next time.