Frame welding?

never did see what part of the frame was being worked on, kind of sounded like he was adding bracing to it since he talked about tubing.
What are the frames really made out of, I would be more concerened about mixing metals.

Just a thought

theyre wire welded from the factory,i did a lot of stickwelding on them with less amperage than that in my early days

BSKZ650 wrote:

What are the frames really made out of, I would be more concerned about mixing metals.

I believe KZ frames are of mild steel.

Here's a review on a 1980 KZ750 (found frame type in the specs):

motorbikearchives.com/Bike-Tests/Road-an...KZ750-Four-1980.html

Pretty cool!

Mild steel is cheaper yet similar to chromoly (4130), only with a lower ultimate tensile strength. Fine for our applications (or mine, don't know about some guys here), but not for highly, constantly stressed racing bikes... Mild steel racing chassis's would require more metal (heavier) to have comparable strength to a 4130 spaceframe. That would make a vehicle cheaper, yet fat and uncompetitive.

I have no idea what happened to my last post above? Weird.

Thanks much for the welding advice!! How about using heat to bend tubes? I have two 14" long rear vertical frame tubes (1-1/4" .125 wall mild steel) that I want to cut at one end, bend down about 4" and reweld. I was thinking maybe heat the still welded end and just push it down. Here's a rough drawing of what I'm talking about....



There's no room to use a bender this way and I don't want to kink the tubes, but if I use heat, will it weaken the bend area? This is part of a partial "konging" I'm doing to my KZ750.

as long as you heat/bend it evenly you should be fine,maybe throw a couple gussets in there

I am a professional welder and the best advice I can give you if you don't have enough experience is to farm out the work to a experienced motorcycle frame welder. On something like this where your butt depends on a strong proper weld, the last thing you need is a bad case of road rash or worse. I know that you want to do all the work yourself, but when it comes to structural work like this, I'd farm it out.

ive seen lots of shops doing frames here locally for dragbikes that i wouldnt trust to weld a hinge on a mailbox,let alone a motorcycle frame! :S its gonna come down to if you feel confident in your own welding abilitys,if ya dont then farm that part out.but if you feel confident enough to do the actual fabrication part and tack the parts together for somebody else to finish welding that can save ya lot of money,not to mention its fun.id definately suggest a good flat/level solid welding table to stap frame onto while working and a collection of levels and good tape measure to keep your work straight as you go

No toes stepped on here Rex. Rock, I never meant to imply 90amps was short of doing good job, just said a 90amp max welder was short of doing a good job. Hope I didn't step on your toes. As for Plummen advice, I totally agree. Every one of us that weld be it for a living or hobbie had to start somewhere, Just be careful, like I said earlier, do you want this going thru your mind at while buzzing up a snaky road. A life it potentially in your hands

Naw, never take it that way here Les...

Just trying to save the guy from blowing a hole in his frame tubing.... That wire feeder he has is more than enough for the thin walled frame tubing...

It's actually thinner than 1/8th" so be careful....
Obtain some test material ~ the same thickness and test your welder current and speed settings first...

In my project, my little 110Vac Lincoln Wire-Feed welder was more than enough for that little baby can weld up to 5/16ths of an inch plating with no problems...

As can be reviewed in my project images, I welded up all my supports for the Mono shock mounts, rear sets, electrical components etc... and she's strong as ever...

Hell, If I got run over by an 18 wheeler, the welds would be the only thing that would survive.... :woohoo:

OMR

Thanks Rock, you are right in that the welder is sufficient but I'm one person who tends to overdue things. The frames on these things are less than an 1/8 thick and rule of thumb is 1 amp per .001 mat'l thickness. The pic I'm posting is from a gentleman close to Indy, it's sporting a swingarm I built for him. If memory serves me right its 8" over with shocks. It's been a while since I did that one.
Les

thats a lot of swingarm past the shock mounts,if hes running a lot of motor id suggest underbracing the arm.