Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

racks for under a tenner!

Hi people, I have just had a go at making some racks & thought...by way of evidence, I should post this ASAP, as Mrs Rod York is getting rather anxious about Feb 14th ....the postman has yet to deliver my card & present.

I think she will absolutely love these though.....Im from York, called Rod and state now I have no suicidal tendencies...please send help If I fail to come back on this forum!.

its a no brainer surely...what would you prefer- hnd crafted racks made from 2 chairs or a dozen red roses:eek3:



Motorcycle Rear Rack, DIY pannier rack, XT225, Cheap rack - YouTube

I need help with the link...for the love of God!

Hi Rod,

Nice bit of work. Nice channel too. bier

I presume you want to embed the video. You take the video specific code, in this case 3VXf9FNtJlM, click the YouTube button when you're composing your HU post (red button, white writing, with the word "Tube") and paste this code between the open and close tags. You get this :thumbup1::



Nice idea, using a chair!

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

That's a nice Fab job considering what he used ? Who is it ?? They need to be told about wearing gloves while welding. Unless skin cancer is suddenly cool :eek:

Thanks!
 

Thank you for the advice on gloves- I did not know that and rather fancy keeping my hands!

Thanks Chris for sorting out my video- I could not embed it- but with your help, now can!

Fraser- thank you!

Kato...big respect back to you(in da house):thumbup1:

...any other welding/video/life in general tips- gratefully received- the video alone took 06 hours & a bottle of Red!beer

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

Can't really tell from the video but that rod looked rather thick for the tubing. The better you clean the steel the better the weld will be too. And NEVER quench in water. Always allow it to cool naturally. And keep those rods in a warm dry place. Airing cupboard etc. They're hygrosxopic (they absorb water)

www.touringted.com

Times have obviously moved on. When I did my welding evening classes at the local agricultural college in the early 90's nobody ever mentioned wearing gloves. Now you've got me worried! :thumbdown:

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

The arc off a welder radiates a great deal more UV than any sun bed. You don't wear a mask for nothing. Fair enough, a few runs here and there will be no worse than sunburn but prolonged exposure could give you skin cancer.

www.touringted.com

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

The same with your for arms and the v gap on your collar. People have died from it...

www.touringted.com

Quenching-with Oil
 

Ted- thanks for your advice...at this rate i'm going to look like a readybrek advert!..just been reading you site- very good indeed, I know the Wirral & used to be in court there fairly regularly in the 90's

I read somewhere about quenching in used engine oil- what is the reason &...can you then spray at a later date onto it?

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

You don't quench because the rapid cooling breaks the chemical bonds. Its all very scientific and I don't know all the big words but if you imagine putting a hot pint glass in cold water....? CRACK!!!!! I'm on an nvq2 welding course now and we did welding tests on joints before and after quenching and the quenched ones failed a lot faster.

www.touringted.com

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

Re. Engine oil. I don't know. I'll ask my tutor about it. He's ex nuclear standard and will definitely know.

www.touringted.com

Yes, you learn very quickly about arc eye one way or another, :thumbdown: but arc knuckle.:eek3: No wonder my hands look the way they do. Having said that you must have seen small fabrication / bicycle repair shops in Africa where they arc weld using gas welding goggles. Even I know better than that.

I was in a fabrication shop in Egypt getting some fake number plates made up.. (Don't ask lol)..

The guy was welding with a pair of $2 sunglasses :helpsmilie:

He's probably blind now.

I have a pair of leather sleaves that I now wear all the time welding. This follows and incident when I managed to get an arc burn the size of a 10p caused by a old burn hole in my overalls. It was bloody sore for a long while and I'm sure I can add it to the list of things waiting to kill me.:(

Also, be very aware of ventilation; some nasty fumes come off welding.

As Ted said clean metal makes for good welds. Spend the time on prep and your finish will be all the better for it.

Re: Bike rear racks- from 2 chairs (DIY)-under a £10.00
 

Re. Fumes... galvanized is the worst. You get galvo lung which is apparently like getting the flu for a days after breathing it. Nasty !!!

You can easily self ventilate with open doors and a desk fan when stick welding. It gets much harder with mig as the shielding gas is susceptible to being blown away.

www.touringted.com

There are few things as toxic looking as the arc and fumes from galvanising.
Quenching , as well as knacking the weld, hardens the metal, making it brittle.

Ted you've been brainwashed by the H+S brigade! Everything you've said is probably perfectly true, but I don't think the occasional bit of hobby welding ignoring all that is likely to cause problems!


I used to be terrible for safety when welding and grinding. The worst arc burns to get are on your eyelids when welding without a mask, it doesn't take much exposure to do it, because they're so thin and delicate and not normally exposed to normal sunlight very much! On fumes, I used to be lazy and not bother cleaning away paint before welding, I found it would normally burn away before the arc gets to it - Not great for your lungs and also remember to stop and blow out the flames now and again!

I hope you're right........

However, It's good to be properly informed so you can take educated risks. Then you can only blame yourself when you end up with lung cancer.

I don't bother with gas masks and gloves if I'm just doing 20 seconds of welding either. The arc is just like sunburn. A little bit won't hurt. I just hold my breath :innocent:


With paint, it's not just the fumes that are affecting your lungs. Paint's are usually oil based. When they burn they create hydrocarbons.

These hydrocarbons will contaminate the weld..... You think it's burning away but they're still there and your weld WILL be contaminated.

Not a problem for rough bits here and there but if it's a joint of any integrity, it should be avoided. bier

:offtopic:

Although I'm unlikely to do any welding in the future it's interesting to read this thread and learn the latest stuff.

In the 60s and 70s when cars were beginning to fail MOTs in large numbers through rust, DIY welding was all the rage to get a car tested.
Everyone was at it, and many of us, including me, used our skills at soldering electronics with tiny soldering irons to tackle sills and subframes. :no:

This anecdote might be useful for anyone in a similar position about to fix a car.
My dad had handy access to oxy-acetylene gear and my uncle showed me how to work the taps. So I dived under a girlfriend's mini to weld the subframe up with a couple of pieces of dexion, being mindful of the petrol tank close by. :no:

Job done, we jumped in the car and drove off to her home. In a quarter-mile a pedestrian stepped onto a zebra crossing quite some distance ahead, and the release of the accelerator was sufficient for her to slow us down in time.
Almost at walking-pace, she needed the brake to pull up in the last few yards. There was a loud scream.... "NO BRAKE!" :helpsmilie::eek3:
her right leg bouncing up and down on the pedal. http://www.smileys4me.com/getsmiley.php?show=69

I pulled on the handbrake and told her to steer for the kerb, encouraging her by pulling on the steering wheel as well.
Hitting the kerb was enough to bring us to a halt. Oh dear!

Never mind. Replacing the melted flexible hose to the off-side rear wheel, and the aforementioned welding, was sufficient for the MOT, and we got married a while later..... bier
(Don't try this at home..... you chose which one!)

Just what i need for my xt, knock some up n i'll come collect ;-)

nice rack
 

good job on the rack but just an option new steel is not that expesive and dosnt have any paint on it also chair metal will be rsw if you push the boat out a bit and buy cds it is alot stronger ,cost me 35quid for the cds and managed to beg a few off cuts for tea many at a local fabricators .

Any of you welding experts want to run me off a set of pannier racks for my versys ?:innocent:

It would probably be cheaper to buy some..... ;)