Getting close!
I'm hoping to get my frame finished this week. I have the top engine mount, the foot peg/controls and fairing mounts still to do. Then there's a bit of tidying of bracketry and that's it.
In the meantime, yesterday in fact, I had an emergency repair to do to Pete Keys' extended driveshaft. There are, of course, two welds on driveshafts extended in this way and I'd re-done one of them a few weeks ago, after it snapped. Imagine my delight then, when he told me it had snapped again and it turned out to be the remaining example of the other person's welding and not mine. That means my welding is better than at least one other person's!
Pics below show:
The broken shaft - you can see how shallow the weld depth is.
The shaft assembled in the lathe and straightened. Checking with a dial gauge shows I can get it to within about 0.2mm. After that the surface quality of the, previously welded, shaft starts to intrude on accurate measurement.
The join V-ed out. Nice and deep this time.
Pre-heating avoids cracking of the first fusion pass.
The first pass of TIG welding - fusion only, no filler.
The filler pass. Nice big rod, all done in one hit.
A quick skim on the lathe to take off most of the excess filler - no room in the swing-arm to leave it on.
It was then lightly polished but I forgot to take a pic of the finished article.
Of course the downside is that next time it breaks itll definitely be one of my welds!
