TIG Welding Workshop

Do I look like Darth Vader? :)

Now that my bike is done I can relax but I have sacrificed my last free weekend in Ashland to take a TIG welding seminar at UBI taught by Mike DeSalvo. You might have heard of DeSalvo custom cycles and Mike is a local here living a couple miles from the school. They offer this class the weekend after the brazing class I took and before the TIG frame class starting next week. Learning to weld is the next logical step in frame building as many custom bikes are welded and you are not limited by lug angles. I am not sure how many people fillet braze vs. TIG weld in the industry but most custom higher end performance bikes are TIG welded.

Anyway, I took a welding class about 5 years ago and learned all 3; MIG, TIG and Stick. TIG was by far the hardest and I just remember burning holes in all my work. It was cool to meet Mike and he gave us a few exercises to do using the Tig welders at our stations. We had lots of hands on for the day and I quickly remembered how hard Tig welding was as I burnt several holes in my bike tubing. We practiced on scraps of bike tubing as this most closely simulates how you would build a bike. Below are some photos of my fancy tubes! LOL!!! :)

My first attempt at TIG welding. It might make some nice art! :)

By the end of the day I sort of got it

Mike said that you need about 100 hours of welding to really catch onto it. That made me feel better since I kept burning my tubes in the hard to reach angles and we only welded for several hours. It is hard on your eyes also so I haven't quite decided if I like this method or not yet.

On Day 2, Sunday, we reviewed the above steps and then moved on to making a triangle with 3 tubes with very difficult angles. It seems that I was getting the hang of it on the flat sections but the acute angles were very tough to get into with the torch and it was easy to burn your tube. Here is how Mike had us set up our practice triangle:

After two of these it seemed only a little easier but it was one step forward, two steps back for most of the day. When you seemed to be getting it then all of a sudden you would burn a hole into your tube. I also burnt myself more in 2 days than I did building my bike in 2 weeks. There is a definite acquired skill in TIG welding! I am now closer to that 100 hours.

Our last exercise was to weld a bottom bracket-seat tube combination and then afterwards we broke it on purpose to see where it would fail if it were a real bike. The key was to get it to fail outside the weld and not on the weld. Lucky for me mine broke perfectly about 1/4 inch outside the weld all the way around. It was sort of satisfying to know that if it were a bike--as ugly as the weld was--that it would still hold together. I was happy to have done the brazing class and felt sorry for those poor guys who are starting the TIG frame welding class tomorrow. Still, I know they will somehow come out with a bike in the end.

Here is one side of my welded bottom bracket

Here I am breaking my bottom bracket!

The final result--a perfect break! :)

Overall, it has been an amazing month I have spent out here in Ashland! I haven't even written about my mechanics class which was pre-blog. It was so much fun and I made lots of friends in the process, many of which are reading this blog! :) Tomorrow I head for home back to the midwest! 2,152 miles of driving ahead. Should be interesting. On the way out here in the middle of Nevada I saw a donkey in the middle of the desert! He was so cute and I hope I see him again! :)

I spent my last evening at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for my last caramel apple and piece of Java Toffee. Well, I am trying to save the toffee for the road--if it lasts.

Stay tuned for future updates on my trip home and of course finishing up my bike! :)