Gas welding aluminium and making a petrol tank

[Pete Williams]

I came across this site on Google, so I have registered and will post a link to my video on YouTube of how I make an aluminium motorcycle petrol-tank. I am retired now but used to do this work for a living back in the 1970's. However, I am not a sheet metal worker by trade, I am self-taught and did this work as a spin-off from my hobby of motorcycle sprinting and drag-racing, making most of my own parts. I am an electrician by trade. Although I am retired from work, I still compete in drag races funding it from my old-age pension! I am 71 now and have a few videos on YouTube of my drag racing under the name Two Faced. My original bike had two engines and was temperamental but third quickest in Europe back in the 60's. I hope you find the video of some use; cheers, Pete Williams:- http://youtu.be/rw5lYMmxSB0

 

[gordon stephenson]

Welcome Pete, I'm sure you will enjoy your time here,All about helping and learning, really good crowd.

 

[Jim_gsxr1000]

Welcome Pete

 

[Tigman]

Welcome to the forum Pete , great work there , give me right arm to be as good as that !

 

[Wallace]

Thank you so much for joining the forum Pete.

 

[stuvy]

Welcome Pete I think youl fit in just fine!

How was a two engined bike compared to a single? Weight versus power?

 

[whensparksfly]

welcome pete please put up pictures of the bike

 

[zx9]

Superb work Pete, the Hayabusa bodywork is stunning.

 

[SBK]

That is very impressive Pete.

 

[Shox Dr]

Hi Pete, welcome to the forum.

 

[monkeymark]

Hello and welcome. Some nice vids there.

 

[Pete Williams]

Thanks all, for the kind comments. Yes, I'm still learning too. I'll dig some pics out of my archives and post some of the double-engined bike soon. I can't really make a comment re: the comparison between a single-engined bike and double, coz I never rode a single on the track. I started off straight away with a double-engined Triumph in 1964 and just developed it from there. In 1968 I set a new course record at Topcliffe in Yorkshire (UK) of 10.21 seconds for the standing start 1/4 mile. I held it for 4 years. My best 1/4 mile terminal speed was 140.8 mph; (the bike is unblown---i.e. normally aspirated). I never did any flyers (top speed runs) I always said 1/4 mile was fast enough for me! I was in my mid twenties then. It's only as I got older that I wanted to try some top speed runs but the double-engined Triumph was a bit outdated and costly to run on nitromethane fuel. (Currently about £60 per gallon). It also destroyed engines--hence the 'bike's name! I bought a second hand (used) '99 Hayabusa in 2006 and started to convert it for drag-racing and also decided to have a go at top speeds! However, things were rudely interrupted in 2010 when I was diagnosed with cancer and spent some time going back and forth to Clatterbridge hospital, for chemo and radiotherapy but I got back on the bike thro' 2011 even with other medical issues. In September of 2012 at Elvington and in remission and just 4 days before my 71st birthday, I managed four runs over the 1.4 mile (one point four mile) course, all over 190 mph with a best of 196.6mph. That's also on YouTube along with my double-engined Triumph. Anyway, enough of my essay for now. I hope to be out again this season. Be in touch soon. Cheers for now, Pete.

 

[Shox Dr]

I doff my cap sir.

 

[Sean]

That, right there, is what makes Britain Great - Old boys in sheds working magic

 

[Pete Williams]

My first double-engined Triumph.

I bought an old 500cc Triumph in 1963 and cut the frame in half. I bolted another engine into the front saw-off part, with the original engine left in the rear part, along with the gearbox. All I had to do was offer them up together and fill in the gaps with steel tubing. I was working as an electrician then in my early twenties (served my apprenticeship at Rylands in Warrington). So I had an idea of what was inside an electric-arc welder; basically a transformer, so when you effectively short-circuit the secondary output supply, via the welding electrode, it passes so much current that it melts the elctrode; much like a household fuse would melt under short-circuit conditions. At Rylands there were electric stacatrucks powered by a series of batteries connected together. There periodically had to be charged up by large battery-chargers. There were some superfluous ones lying around in a dismantled state, so I obtained the transformer from one and mounted it in a wooden box. I scrounged some welder-leads and electrode holder from the fitting shop and did some test welds with my home-made welder on some steel electrical-type conduit. Soft as s--t stuff really but it did the job. As the welder was a fixed output, I had to strike the rod on and off so as not to blow holes in the thin tubing. I managed to do the job although it looked a bit like pigeon-s--t ! The bike did a standing 1/4 mile in about 13 seconds on methanol fuel. Not spectacular but about as fast as an E-Type Jag was, at that time. I'm going to attempt to upload some pics of this first bike, then in a later post I'll do some details on the Two Faced Triumph I built in 1968 and how I made the frame for that (which was aluminium at first)! Cheers, Pete.

 

[Pete Williams]

After running this old double-engined machine for about 4 years and sorting out all the 'bugs' I decided to completely rebuild it. I used two 650cc Triumph engines this time and re-built and tuned them myself with 11.5 to 1 compression pistons, wilder cams, opened up the inlet ports and used nitromethane fuel. The two engines were sandwiched together between two 3/8ths inch thick HP 30 alloy plates. I decided to also make the frame from light alloy and used similar spec tubing for that. Really strong aircraft quality material wasn't really generally commercially available in 1968. I sawed and filed and profiled all the various pieces of tubing and alloy billets to shape myself and bolted them into the engine plates which I used as a jig. It took it to a local sheet-metal works and had the frame argon-arc welded as it was called then. I never heard the expression TIG-welding used in those days over here in UK. It was argon-arc and I believe in the USA was referred to as heliarc welding. I believe Helium gas was used in the USA and argon over here but maybe I am wrong. Anyway, that is the process that was used. If you look closely at the pic of the Two Faced bike parked up my path in '68, you may be able to tell that it is an alloy frame. The bike did the s.s. 1/4 mile in 10.21 seconds and a best terminal of 140.8 mph but I experienced cracking of the alloy frame tubing just in front of the back wheel on the lower tubing of the LHS (drive side). It was re-welded but broke again, so I made another frame the following year from Reynolds 531 steel tubing and this was bronze-welded together (so called brazed--but not technically correct). I think you may be able to see in the second pic, that is closer up, that that is a steel frame which I had chromed. Cheers for now, Pete.

 

[Wallace]

Plenty of billet and no CNC machining, did you have access to a die filer?

Mike

 

[Pete Williams]

Hi Wallace, forgive my ignorance but what is a die filer? Perhaps you could explain that? I bought loads of alloy tubing and billets and I bent the tubing the way I was taught as an electrician to bend conduit. That was in a long block of wood with a hole in it, although I had to warm the tubing slightly and I had packed it with sand to prevent kinking. I cut the blocks of alloy with a hacksaw and file and drilled large hole through it in the fitting shop at the place I worked and then slid the block onto the alloy tubing for argon-arc welding. I'm talking now about the later, Two Faced bike. Subsequently, I made a steel frame from Reynolds 531 because of cracking of the alloy one. So anyway, all the cutting and shaping was done purely with hand-tools. The only lathe work was making the headstock from a billet. I don't know for sure what terminology is used in USA but when I say headstock, I refer to the part at the front/top of the frame which holds the forks. I am explaining this, cos I thought some of the guys on this forum may be from the USA. I don't think there were any frames made from aluminium alloy back in 1968 apart from the front down tube on a Greeves Scramber/trials bike I believe and I think that was a casting. 7020 aircraft material is known about now but it wasn't generally known about nor commercially available then and the tubing quality I used, wasn't really strong enough, hence going to Reynolds 531. Cheers for now, Pete.

 

[Wallace]

This is the best photo I can find of a die filer, basically a table adjustable for angle with a file supported at both ends and adjustable for stroke. We had one at I company I worked for in the 80's and I used it for more homers than I ever saw it used for toolmaking!

Mike

 

[langy]

This is the best photo I can find of a die filer, basically a table adjustable for angle with a file supported at both ends and adjustable for stroke. We had one at I company I worked for in the 80's and I used it for more homers than I ever saw it used for toolmaking!

Mike


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Havn't seen one of them for years, great machines