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Bending Steel on a Carry Rack - Heat or no Heat?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Bit more progress tonight, almost at the point of needing welding done, and I found one situation where heat will definitely help :rolleyes:

First off, trimmed the ends up on the top and bottom rails to get it sitting right against the grab rail:



Then I stuck it on with some masking tape for mock up to test the fitting:



Sorry for the crappy photos, the camera wasn't playing well in the garage lighting tonight.

Basically it's good except the lower rails are in about 5mm too far each side, so I bent them out a little and it's almost perfect now from what I can see. Once it's to the point of tacking on then welding it should work out pretty much spot on.

My house mate brought home to lengths of 10mm steel rod on the weekend too.



One so I can add a cross brace behind the tail piece where I've bent the lower rails to give it a bit more strength.



The other I want to bend and put on top of the grab rail itself so that I have an anchor point at the front of the carry rack to tie things off to and stop them sliding forward. This way I can theoretically put a back pack or something on there and have something to anchor it too.

And this is where I found the point at which heat will help... bending 10mm solid steel rod in a bench vice requires a lot of my strength and ends up separating the bench vice jaws so this was the best bend I could get:



I need it to go close to 90 degrees, so will need some heat to get it further.

No rush though, will be another few weeks before I'll get a chance to get a time organised with John anyway... holidays at the end of this week :D
 
Got some time after work this avo to get the angle grinder out and I cut the cross beam to size:



It's a bit larger diameter than the bottom rails, but once it's welded I can grind the joins back a bit and blend it in a little better. It's about 10mm diameter whereas the bottom rails appear to be about 8mm diameter.

Now I just need to get a time when I can apply the heat to the other piece of rod so I can bend it and it'll be ready for welding.
 
Update time at last!

Got down to see John today who very kindly offered to do the welding for me given how lame my welding is, so we got it done today.



John had a thinner piece of rod to use as the cross brace which worked well also.

Thanks again John!

So now it's time to strip it bare and get that chrome really scrubbed back, then etch primer.

I haven't decided on paint yet except I want it black. I can use the satin black I used on the dash and battery box cover, but I'm just not sure if it will be tough enough. I'll see what else is available before making my final decision... at least with that one I know how it goes on now.
 
Got a bit of time after work to tidy up a couple of the welds with a grinding wheel on the dremel, and then tonight I spent an hour and a half with 60 grit paper sanding it back for the etch primer.



I reckon I'm about 95% there.

I'll pick up a bit more 60 grit paper on the way home tomorrow as well as some wax and grease remover and paint, then if I get into it again tomorrow night I should be able to get it primed.

I was worried about the chrome and getting the paint to stick, but according to the etch primer chrome is an ideal surface for it along with bare metal, so I think it'll be fine. There's a couple more spots of rust on the carry rack to remove and a touch more paint on the grab rail part, so probably another 15 minutes of sanding and it'll be right to prime.
 
That is quite the Professional build. :cool:

IMG_4779.jpg


IMG_4778.jpg



If you could produce several like that for a 1100E,
I am certain that several of the members here would be all over them. ;)

Eric
 
Cheers Eric, I've got John to thank for that. I don't quite have the tools... :rolleyes:

John actually held it up against his 750 popup seat and it would fit quite nicely... hahaha... he didn't have the 1100G there to try though...

Is that a new little 'un in your avatar there?
 
Ive got a rack for a 1000G, if we ever meet up you can check the sizes and then start your new business Pete!
 
landshark said:
Ive got a rack for a 1000G, if we ever meet up you can check the sizes and then start your new business Pete!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan! Except the new business part... I'd need to learn to weld for that to happen, can't have John doing it all! Hahaha
 
Brief rant first... Supercheap annoy the crap out of me! Went to pick up some more of the 3M satin black acrylic on the way home, but no, once again they've decided to change brands and no longer stock 3M stuff, so had to get Septone instead. It's supposed to be good but we'll see, haven't used that one before. Got the wax and grease remover as well.



I finished the sanding off when I got home, took all of about 5 minutes.

Then tonight I sprayed it all down with the wax and grease remover and got it all cleaned up and hung up ready for primer:



And two coats of etch primer on:



Fingers crossed it works on the chrome as advertised and gives a good base for the satin black.
 
Professional build, bollocks! my thumb still hurts!

I see a MIG welder in your future Pete, You were quite taken with it till the wire ran out....:)
 
john82q said:
Professional build, bollocks! my thumb still hurts!

I see a MIG welder in your future Pete, You were quite taken with it till the wire ran out....:)
Click to expand...

Hahaha yeah sorry 'bout that John... do someone a favour and burn ya' thumb... that's about how it goes right?

Yeah I like the MIG, I can see myself using one of those a little more successfully than waving a rod around everywhere but where the weld needs to go...

Oh, I see an auto darkening helmet joining that MIG too...
 
Got the Septone satin black on tonight, 4 coats as per the can with 5 minutes between.

With the 3M I was able to go 6 coats so I'm not sure if this is because the paint is better or what... we'll see once it's had time to cure.



Gotta leave it at least 24 hours, but I expect I won't really do anything with it except move it inside until probably Sunday avo or night when I should hopefully have some time to mount it up.
 
Oh, I see an auto darkening helmet joining that MIG too...
Click to expand...
A definite plus 1 on that Pete. My welding with the mig went up 100% when I got mine. I was able to get the bead right where I want it off the get go. Another tip, get a couple of halogen work lamps and focus them on your work piece. Even in broad daylight it helps to give a much clearer view of things.

I've been following this project eversince I came across the old rack I took off my XS650. I'm thinking about mounting it on the 750 for a bit of extra luggage carrying capability as its hard to carry a box of brew on the bike :)

Looking good my friend.

Spyug
 
spyug said:
A definite plus 1 on that Pete. My welding with the mig went up 100% when I got mine. I was able to get the bead right where I want it off the get go. Another tip, get a couple of halogen work lamps and focus them on your work piece. Even in broad daylight it helps to give a much clearer view of things.

I've been following this project eversince I came across the old rack I took off my XS650. I'm thinking about mounting it on the 750 for a bit of extra luggage carrying capability as its hard to carry a box of brew on the bike :)

Looking good my friend.

Spyug
Click to expand...

Yeah I was watching John and it just looked so much easier with the MIG compared to the waving of the stick (in my case anyway).

Thanks for the compliment, it seems to be turning out as I hoped which is very cool...
 
Had to do some touch up tonight. Had a look out in the natural light when I got home and noticed some bits that hadn't really got coverage due to the way I had it hanging.

Not sure if you can tell from the pic's but the bars going across have a strip where it almost fades into the primer:



Gave it a light sand with 600 grit and you can see how easy it was going to be to have the paint in those areas come off with the first use of the rack:



So I cleaned it up with wax and grease remover and a tack cloth again and gave just the top side another three coats:



Fingers crossed that does it and it'll still be cured enough to mount on Sunday if it's good to go...
 
And there we go:

IMG_4792.jpg


IMG_4793.jpg


IMG_4794.jpg


IMG_4795.jpg


You can see in the third picture it's not perfectly centred but it's close enough for me and should do the trick I reckon.

I can easily fit the key into the seat lock with it in place, and yeah... the bike is filthy after the rain on Friday on the way home, needs a big bath!
 
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