Man I hate being busy and have nothing to show for it except grey hair? Sorry for the late update..omg!
I literally didn't get to pulling the motor out and checking the counterweights till the sunday after Turkey day. I got out to my garage around 11 in the morn to start the tear down but It also didn't help when I turned the tv on in my garage, there was a street outlaws marathon playing. Finally get into it and I have to assume the vibration from the motor was so violent that several bolts I know for sure i tightened, were not so tight anymore, so after splitting the case I went over all the bolts to make sure they're not gonna cause a problem later. As suspected the counterweights were 180 out exact. The main bearings still looked exactly how they did when I had the motor completely torn down. So all said and done, fired her up and....ahhhh just beautiful. Idled nice and the bike didn't move while on the kickstand. Oh and this was at 930pm now. Too tired to go for a test ride and still had to clean up my mess a bit plus I was cold too!
Ride to work in he morn, and the bike runs fucking beautiful!!! The exhaust sounds great at part throttle, between shifts, full throttle and down shifting. When you twist the throttle, the revs follow as they should, no flat spot or hiccup. Rides fantastic the whole week, Friday had rain in the forecast. I was ok with that, wasn't scared of getting a little wet except that someone forgot to mention a FREAK downpour is imminent? about 4 miles into my way to work was dry, then I could see the haze of rain in the near distance. Finally got under it and I swear it was hailing!? I never got so wet in less than a mile, I was dryer during a 3 mile ride in rain on an LA freeway heading to Laguna seca many years ago. The rain came down so hard that it made its way into my carbs. SMH..so that's what I'm fixing at this very moment..
DoctoRot wrote: nice exhaust! im gearing up to make a stainless 2 into 2 for my 750twin. What settings are you using on your tig? amps? gas? do you purge? any tips for the process of cutting and fixturing pieces to be welded? i have been practicing on stainless and can get some nice beads but generally running a little too hot.
Doc, sorry so late, my settings are as followed using a Thermal Arc 185.
Amps start 20 max 90
Not sure if your welder has a pulse setting? (it's new to me also being that this welder is new/used to replace my old maxstar 140, so I'd probably end up giving you shit settings for that atm
)
100% argon with the reg set to about 12cfh.
I build off of too many different jigs to be able to not slice, crush, pinch, squish or tangle any hoses then finish fabbing anything in a timely manner with the worry of babying the hoses to back purge any welding. So instead I use solar flux type B for all the 304 stainless. Id really only back purge 321 ss and Ti.
Best tips to get ready to weld would be,
1. keep your amps low. Set your machines max to 55 maybe lower. You'll have better control of your puddle, less chance of burning and stil have sufficient penetration. Adjust your "puddle push" accordingly with the amount of amps you're using to keep the beads consistent with each other. Hold the torch in a way that is the most comfortable to you (as you get more practice, you'll figure out your optimum grip thatll also allow you to follow a line as long as possible without feeling like your arm is getting tangled)
I use to have to hold my breathe just before welding so my hand sold be as steady as I can get it. now a days, I have conversations with people behind me or on my Bluetooth.
As far as prep goes...
Make sure your material(stainless you're gonna weld) is clean. Wipe away all the oil and dust before welding.
cut your pipes however you like, before a weld though, square up the cut on a belt sander, then deburr the inside and outside with a round file or grinding bit on a Dremel or air grinder. The inside edges of two pipes to be welded together is where you'd wanna apply that solar flux I mentioned above.
when cutting in the radius of a U-bend, one side will be out of round, just squish the widest part in a vice the best you can before sanding and welding so the joints are uniformed to each other. When judging how much to cut, add extra! just like they say for wood except it starts getting tricky when those cuts are from a Ubend.
hold the bend up to a straight you have and aim it towards the direction you need, then make a few sharpie marks across both pipes so you'll have a rough idea. Get your torch ready, hold the bend up again with the marks and zap a few spots opposite of eachother to hold it I place so you can move onto the next piece.
Hope this helps you out.
Any more questions in regards to tig welding, I'll be more than happy to answer!!
ed