Can you guess what it will be?

[jakeru]

Hey guys

I figured I'd leak out a few pictures at a time and see if anyone can guess what I'm making, for fun. I'll give you one hint though: personal project; not for a customer. Not a very large project, either. But, it's important.

I was thinking I'd say what material it was at least, but then I realized why not let you guys take a stab at figuring out that too. That part at least should be easy.

So with that said, here is the first installment.

It started out like this:


...then it went to this:




...and then this:


...and here is what the other side looks like at this point:

[Gwaltnak]

Looks like it could be Titanium

[NRM]

I think the material is stainless steel, but what it is I have noo clue right now. Need more pics.

[67cudafb]

I think its a paper weight or a door stop

[jakeru]

Just for fun, I'll keep leaking out a few more at a time...

...some pretty colors

[jerky]

looks like your just doing "spot" welds, and not really dragging a weld puddle. looks like some scrap material, and you didnt butt the two flat edges together, telling me your not concerned with how it all lines up. maybe you will end up cutting the edges off, or milling it into a shape.

[X83]

Are you plasma welding squeaky door hinges?

[jakeru]

OK, we have a winner regarding the material, with NRM making the material suggestion of stainless steel. I'll spill some beans: 304 hot rolled, 1/8" thick. (With absolutely no prep by the way, it was fresh bar stock that I just cut on my bandsaw.)

However, we still don't have a winner regarding what it is. It's not a door hinge, not a door stop, and not a paperweight. (Notice the category is "On Road Fabrication", though; that should be a hint, although it's still going to be hard to figure this one out, I think.)

As for welding technique, I dragged an arc (in two stitches, at least). And, I did modulate my footpedal. But, you might notice that I had it clamped to a really thick chunk of aluminum backer, which basically drew the heat out really quickly and made the puddle freeze very fast when I lifted up on the footpedal. I will also add that this was welded with pure argon.

[jakeru]

OK, another picture installment, but only one this time. (With and without camera flash)



PS - jerky is getting kinda close.

[everlastsupport]

I can't resist. You said it is on-road and important. Is it a brake or gas pedal Stainless might be overkill for that.

Waiting on more pictures, maybe some holes in it or grinding/cutting.

[67cudafb]

I am Thinking balast for a race car

[everlastsupport]

Jake,

Need another hint.

[jakeru]

Cuda guessed correctly that is it for a race car. He is not right however, about it being ballast (at least... I hope he will not be right about that )

Good guess on it being pedals, mike. Homemade pedal surfaces would be pretty cool, actually. I've already got some tricked out aluminum pedals on it though (lighter than stainless, and good for "heel and toe" technique. ) ...but it's not for a pedal.

Here is another hint:

[jakeru]

Hey guys - thanks for participating in this, I'd post up a more current pic, but truth be told my digital camera has officially given up the ghost. Anyhow I'm almost done with it. It's a good case for what you can do even if you don't have the right tools or material. (I've got a pretty good blister that can also show what not having the right tools can do.)

Anyway, it's a spacer for a turbocharger for my race car. It will allow me to fit a new custom fabricated intake manifold, with long runners that I hope gives it more torque at a lower RPM. The custom intake manifold has been a loooooong time in the making. In fact, completing that is what drove me to take up TIG welding years ago. But, about one more weekend and, it'll be ready to fire up.

My initial version of the turbocharger spacer was a failure. I foolishly made it out of copper. Thinking it'd be good to somehow help the turbine housing temperature to equalize with the exhaust manifold. And also to help the gasketless surfaces to seal. But, what actually happened was, it just ended up radiating a ton of heat into the engine compartment and I never could get the intake manifold to be cool when the engine was hot after that.

Reason I welded the pieces together was, they were the correct thickness I needed for the spacer. I had a piece of flat stock big enough but it wasn't the right thickness. (And, I always like to try new things on my own personal projects to push my boundaries.) Needed to space the turbocharger just the right amount to get the intake manifold to fit.

The turbocharger to manifold relies on two flat machined surfaces to seal; no gasket. So, this piece will be totally flattened using my granite surface plate tool. It's about 90% of the way there.

I used my new drill press to drill some holes in it. Then carbide burr to connect the holes to make the big rectangular hole in the middle. Which was, kind of fun and pretty successful. This is a one-off/odd turbo mounting configuration by the way, no ready made flanges or spacers in this configuration. Will post another update once I have new pics, which probably won't be until I can get a new camera. Cheers

[jakeru]

Hey guys - I got this little side project all done.

Unfortunately my old camera died mid-way through. Here was the last shot I got with it. Tracing the old spacer onto the new one with a black sharpie.


After I did that, I "rough cut" to shape with the angle grinder, scribed a more exact tracing of it, drilled holes, carbide burred to connect the holes to make the middle shape. (I know I could have used plasma cutter instead of this, but didn't feel like getting it set up and besides I am looking for excuses to put my "new" drill press to work.)

Started by sanding it with a 80 grit (it might have been 60.) Spray-mounted to a granite surface plate. This is one of the first shots I got with my new digital camera.


Switched to some finer grit (I think about 120) and kept going...


...until it was finished off.


Here is the new stainless spacer next to the old copper one.


I thought it was pretty interesting that sometimes there was a visible change in "color" of the weld nugget to the parent metal. I took an "extreme close-up" of this area trying to accentuate the "color change" with the lighting as much as I could, using my new digital camera in macro mode. Here is what it looks like... (With still a little bit of sanding operation left to go.)

But it's amazing that to the naked eye, this surface actually looked (and felt) pretty flat and "smooth". Even felt by scraping with a fingernail, it seemed smooth. So the below picture with "mountains and valleys" was kind of amazing to me. (Be sure to blow the picture up big to see how "rough" it looks close-up.)

It almost seems like the change in color is really a change in the texture of the surface. Could that be?

Anyhow, I'm motivated now to finish off the rest of the car projects and get it DRIVING again! wo-hoo, can't wait! (Nice weather isn't hurting, either.)

Next up: get the custom intake manifold finished off. Just basically need to finish fabricating a mounting bracket for it, get it all cleaned up and finally installed and time to fire it up and test it!