GraemeVW
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- Messages
- 1,657
- Location
- Chesterfield
I've bit off a bit more than I can chew with this really. I thought it wpuld be easy, but it's not.
Making a chain guard for my bike. It's some random 6.5mm steel wire with some 1.8mm steel infill.
I bent the wire to shape, cut the infill, and thought I'd tack it in from underneath and then braze from above so it's nice and neat. The infill sits in the middle of the wire so the cross section is like a dumbell.
The wire is like piano wire though. Snaps if bent cold. Tack to it, then put any pressure on it, and it pops the surface off the steel rod. It took ages, but it's all tacked now. Not as neat as if hoped as it was being a real pain. It's ok, but if I twisted it or not it woth a hammer, the tacks would pop taking the wire surface with it.
I figured once it's all brazed the tacks won't matter. The gaps are a bit bigger than id hoped though. Mostly close to 0.5mm, but some areas are 1 or 1.5mm. Not sure if I will successfully graze all that so am now thinking I might seam weld from underneath so the graze doesn't want to just fall through the gap.
That may warp it all to help though. Will look rough underneath with my welding, but not too bothered about that.
In my mind I just thought, bend up the rod, cut the plate, tack them together tweaking the rod as I went. Neat a little here, beat a little there, get the joint nice as I go. But every time I try and manipulate the piece, the tacks start to pop. I Was going to give up, but managed to get this far so may as well carry on.
Why won't this rod weld nicely? It's like it's hardened.
Any thoughts/advice?
I ground the millscale finish off the rod on the insides, and the plate was galv which I've flap wheeled the galv off, neither of which is ideal, but neither of those seem to be causing my issues.
Making a chain guard for my bike. It's some random 6.5mm steel wire with some 1.8mm steel infill.
I bent the wire to shape, cut the infill, and thought I'd tack it in from underneath and then braze from above so it's nice and neat. The infill sits in the middle of the wire so the cross section is like a dumbell.
The wire is like piano wire though. Snaps if bent cold. Tack to it, then put any pressure on it, and it pops the surface off the steel rod. It took ages, but it's all tacked now. Not as neat as if hoped as it was being a real pain. It's ok, but if I twisted it or not it woth a hammer, the tacks would pop taking the wire surface with it.
I figured once it's all brazed the tacks won't matter. The gaps are a bit bigger than id hoped though. Mostly close to 0.5mm, but some areas are 1 or 1.5mm. Not sure if I will successfully graze all that so am now thinking I might seam weld from underneath so the graze doesn't want to just fall through the gap.
That may warp it all to help though. Will look rough underneath with my welding, but not too bothered about that.
In my mind I just thought, bend up the rod, cut the plate, tack them together tweaking the rod as I went. Neat a little here, beat a little there, get the joint nice as I go. But every time I try and manipulate the piece, the tacks start to pop. I Was going to give up, but managed to get this far so may as well carry on.
Why won't this rod weld nicely? It's like it's hardened.
Any thoughts/advice?
I ground the millscale finish off the rod on the insides, and the plate was galv which I've flap wheeled the galv off, neither of which is ideal, but neither of those seem to be causing my issues.