Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Stations of the Frame :: Welding

This is the land of the TIG torch slinger.

Whether it's steel, stainless steel or titanium it is welded here. Within this station is everything needed to weld up a frame.

This is the welding stand. It is centrally located within the welding station. It is grounded to the welder via the ground-clamp seen at the bottom. The pedal on the floor next to it controls the amperage.

The electrical current has to jump from the stand to the frame in order to bypass the rubber grips holding the frame. It does so via a special grounding clamp and cable. The cable and clamp rotate with the frame as it spins through its welding sequence.

Yes, that is the chuck off of a huge lathe bolted to the floor functioning as the base for the stand.

This is Bertha, she is a Lincoln Electric Squarewave 300 TIG Welder. This older model is great because of its super low starting amperage, this makes for better control of the arc when welding.

Above is the TIG torch draped over the tungsten electrode holder, sharp ones on top, used ones on the bottom. The tungsten in the torch has to be replaced every so often so having pre-sharpened ones within reach saves time.

Also within reach are the various welding wires used to weld the frames. Different alloys and diameters for different bikes and joints.

Also handy are all of the various fixtures, purging units, heatsinks, spacers, measuring devices and hand tools needed to work on the frame.

8 comments:

Dave said...

T,
How about some videos of you cats in action?

Post those tools in the moment bay-bee!

Indy Fab said...

We are working on getting a camera that does HD video... When that happens all hell is gonna break loose on the blog and the rest of the site... we have plans, big plans. T

Unknown said...

It is nice to see where my lovely frame was hand crafted. Please keep em' coming

Carl S said...

Very cool Tyler. I love checking out other set-ups. You got it dialed.

Anonymous said...

I recall seeing my frame being welded with the welder sitting in a chair--the stand part of the process is new, I take it. Curious when this was implemented.
Jim

Carl said...

Your welding skill is excellent! How did you manage to weld two steels so cleanly? Maybe you can do stainless steel banding strap without any melt marks. I am pretty sure that you are capable of perfecting stainless steel wing seal and anything about steel craft. I am an instant fan of yours. And maybe I can use your blog as my guideline on assembling my all-steel bicycle model.

National Welding said...

excellent welding skill....

Jade said...

Excellent skill to manage two weld steels cleanly. Can you share video on how you manged it?