Author Topic: DIY titanium 4into1 (Read 18917 times)

mec · « **Reply #25 on:** January 25, 2012, 07:07:51 AM »

Quote from: HonderCB on January 24, 2012, 11:24:45 AM

mec, i am thoroughly convinced that you are some sort of super-human.

Nice work!

spiderman? or godzilla??.....oh its no human

@lucky: thx for all your explanations.

Quote from: 754 on January 24, 2012, 10:37:13 PM

ACH du Scheiz!! Austria it is,, .. I thnkthat is a canton of Switzerland...lol..

here we go again:

all attentive readers have noticed, that there is a long and a short version of the collector...but its the same collector. after welding the tubes together, i noticed that the collector will collide with the oilsumpcover. i decided to cut off 4cm of the 4 tubes and did the expansions once again. i wasnt sure, if that would work without destroying the collector, but i had good luck.

2 photos show the making of expansions for the 50x1 tube.

mec

mec · « **Reply #26 on:** January 25, 2012, 08:19:43 AM »

due to my 2D drawings, it was obvious, that the header tubes will not fit the collector. i had the hope, that header 2 and 3 would
fit without any changes except shortening. this came true. but nr 1 and 4 had an angle of ~ 40° to the collector. i tried to make
it fit by cutting some segments welding together. this was a lot of work and turned out fine at the first glance. but 1 and 4 had
an ugly kink contradicting all the gas flow knowledge.
i decided to order 2x 45° bends again and am waiting for delivery at the moment. this bends will replace my segmented tubes.

mec

Sam Green Racing · « **Reply #27 on:** January 25, 2012, 09:15:42 AM »

Fine work Mec as usual. Subscribed.

Sam

lucky · « **Reply #28 on:** January 25, 2012, 12:55:32 PM »

Quote from: Spiider on January 23, 2012, 05:32:21 PM

Tube is normally dimensioned from the inside...pipe is normally dimensioned from the outside.

So a 40mm tube has an inside diameter (ID) of 40mm.
A 40mm pipe has an outside diameter (OD) of 40mm, minus your wall thickness gives you the ID.

Edit: Nice job Mec! I'd love to have half your expertise.

A TUBE is measured on the outside.
Pipe measurement is given as the inside diameter.

If you go to the store and ask for a 3/4 inch pipe it will be 3/4 inch diameter INSIDE.

If anyone doubts this go to the store and check.

lucky · « **Reply #29 on:** January 25, 2012, 01:00:29 PM »

Quote from: Bankerdanny on January 23, 2012, 02:42:26 PM

@lucky: I'm with mec, I don't understand the distinction you are making.

A tube is a pipe and a pipe is a tube. In terms of vernacular tubes are pipes used for some sort of structure while a pipe is used to route a liquid or a gas, thus frame tube and exhaust pipe.

But either way both are geometrically tubular.

In the metal fabrication world it is a VERY important distinction.
If someone specifies a 1 inch railing on a sailboat made with stainless steel it will be made with a tube. It will be 1 inch OD exactly.
The finish on tubing is much better than pipe.

You would not use a pipe with a rough finish for a sailboat.

If you are at a muffler shop and someone says grab that exhaust pipe,
You just let that go by.

lucky · « **Reply #30 on:** January 25, 2012, 01:09:59 PM »

Quote from: mec on January 24, 2012, 06:37:55 AM

hi,

@crazymofo: thx for your help.

after i did some investigations on "merge collector", "how to weld titanium" and so on, the real work began:
first photo shows a spare tube doing some practice welds. titanium is easy to weld. but: you have to provide against oxygen coming into contact with the material during the welding process and you must not exceed a certain welding temperatur (a blue color is the critical temp). either you shield the seams with a backup flux, or better you work with additional back purging argon gas. the characteristic shape of the collector made the solar flux necessary. i did not see any way to back purge the collector. the weld of the 50.1mm tube to the collector was done with back purging however.

next photo shows how i fixed the thin walled tubes on the mill. with pliers i stuck a digital protractor to the tube, in order to set the tube 45° for milling. this way i milled 4 bend tubes for the merge collector. two of them had been TIG welded together, the pairs welded together as well. all these welds had been shielded by my "solar flux typeB" backup flux. this comes as a powder which has to be mixed with (m)ethanol to become a paste. two seams within the collector couldnt be reached from the outside. i plugged the 4 tubes of the collector, filled it with argon gas (argon is heavier than air), elongated the wolfram electrode 3.5cm (!!) over the ceramic shell and tried to weld the inside pyramide. what a wonder, it worked fine.

mec

If you are welding titanium and the weld turns blue it has been contaminated.
Oxygen has gotten to it.
Titanium welds should only look silver/chrome when finished.
Usually when TIG welding titanium tubes that are not in an inclosed chamber
The argon will flow right around the tube where the weld is as long as there is no draft in the room. Some more complex weldments like that collector may need better sheilding. You can make you own shield with anything that will not burn.
You could even do it inside of a large cardboard box with arm holes and a plexiglass lid on top. What ever you want to design. Many companies buy these plexiglass bubbles for welding small parts.

Stainless steel welds can have colors to them based on oxides that form at around 975º in the presence of reduction materials like burning oil.

mec · « **Reply #31 on:** January 26, 2012, 09:42:24 AM »

@lucky: i am always ready to learn.
i did know the possibilities of welding under a complete argon athmosphere. but i am also searching for the best compromise between result and expenditure. sometimes not easy to make a decision, sometimes the wrong one

waiting for the bends for header 1 and 4, i did some further work:
out of 3mm titanium wire i bent some loops for the springs holding all parts together. 3mm wire was easy to bend with simple pliers, but the result was disappointing: nearly all loops became asymmetrical and no pleasure for my eyes. way too late, i decided to mill a simple tool. this worked perfect. the following four loops looked good.

mec

65Ch3v3LL3 · « **Reply #32 on:** January 26, 2012, 11:02:14 AM »

Quite creative there. Great fix for the problem. Keep up the good work.

mec · « **Reply #33 on:** January 26, 2012, 11:24:16 AM »

my plan is to make a race legal silencer as a megaphon as well. here we go with the silencer (outer tube made of 2mm sheet aluminium, front and rear 3mm alu and 56x3mm aluminium tube):

mec · « **Reply #34 on:** January 26, 2012, 11:26:05 AM »

inner perforated tube 1mm sheet steel

lucky · « **Reply #35 on:** January 26, 2012, 11:44:21 AM »

Excellent work MEC.
BTW what material are those white strands?

mec · « **Reply #36 on:** January 26, 2012, 11:57:40 AM »

Quote from: lucky on January 26, 2012, 11:44:21 AM

Excellent work MEC.
BTW what material are those white strands?

sorry, cant answer your question. once i bought this stuff from ebay, was called "silencer wool". it feels more like cotton than fibre glass i used many years before.

mec

mec · « **Reply #37 on:** January 30, 2012, 04:46:53 AM »

hi,

2 bent tubes arrived on friday.

back to work:
to make the silencer a little more shiny, i made a small tool, something like a driven wheel, mounted it on a 60x5mm tube and converted my lathe to a belt sander. the plastic wheel was way to slippery, so i run into trouble fixing that with some rubber and/or self-gluing tape. in the end it worked with rubber bands.

next step was the making of a template for the headers. this way it should be easy to make the headers accourate enough to fit the collector. big mistake as i learned the hard way.

mec

70CB750 · « **Reply #38 on:** January 30, 2012, 05:17:25 AM »

Unusual way to sand - did it work well?

mec · « **Reply #39 on:** January 30, 2012, 05:53:52 AM »

after eliminating the issues with the slippage of the driving wheel, it worked well. nevertheless not comparable with all the tools a professional machine (sanding, polishing) shop has.

to make a smooth finish on the aluminium silencer, it took a few minutes. doing the same with a titanium tube and you will despair.

thats why i will have the ti-tubes be polished by a prof polisher.

mec

mec · « **Reply #40 on:** January 31, 2012, 12:52:26 AM »

some miscellaneous pixs
new 45° bends
back purging
sometimes the only way: handsaw
template

mec

Retro Rocket · « **Reply #41 on:** January 31, 2012, 01:44:09 AM »

Very nice Mec.... I am a big fan of your work....

mec · « **Reply #42 on:** January 31, 2012, 01:58:19 AM »

thx retro rocket.

after i have replaced the ugly kink mentioned above by the new

bent tubes i run into severe troubles. despite placing and spot

welding the tubes with the help of my template there had been

accuracy problems. it was a pain to stick the headers onto the

cylhead flanges and into the collector as well. under wiggling

the exhaust system, header 2 and especially 3 came off of the

flanges. why? everything was under tension. i discovered

clearance problems with the collector and the oilsump cover as

well.

mec

mec · « **Reply #43 on:** January 31, 2012, 03:25:13 AM »

thoroughly investigations led me to the following conclusions:

first of all, i had to solve the clearance problems with the

oilsumpcover by reducing the bends near the cylhead of header 2

and 3. small corrections of 1-2° solved this problem (see

previous photo with one header on the lathe). but the result

was, that header 1 and 4 was out of specification. the only way

was to cut of the extensions, make new ones and weld them to

header 1 and 4. header 4 had to be shortened by 3mm as well.

all this done and the problems had been solved. there is no

remarkable tension on the system nor the parts in itself now.

this was the work of 1 and a half day and i am very relieved

that this adventure turned out well.

now its time to make the end pipe.

mec

70CB750 · « **Reply #44 on:** January 31, 2012, 03:42:39 AM »

Splendid!

srbakker · « **Reply #45 on:** January 31, 2012, 06:27:05 AM »

That is incredible. What was the total cost to you?

754 · « **Reply #46 on:** January 31, 2012, 07:44:12 AM »

Nice .....bet it was lots of hours.. Do you have to pull pipe to get oil filter off ?

Sam Green Racing · « **Reply #47 on:** January 31, 2012, 08:17:55 AM »

Frank, if you take those silly things out of youe eyes,

read reply 34 it says a day and a half.

Nice turn out in the end Mec.

Sam.

754 · « **Reply #48 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:42:37 AM »

Bet its 2 days and plus...

mec · « **Reply #49 on:** February 01, 2012, 04:45:53 AM »

hi,

@srbakker:
total cost:
1000€ tube bends
200€ titanium welding rods
100€ titanium sheet metall
100€ sanding bands and small stuff
silencer made out of scrap

@754:
at the moment i do not know whether the oil filter cover comes off with headers on. it seems that it will work. either way, it will take one minute to take off the exhaust system. 4 springs to remove and one screw.

one day and a half of work was the time for eliminating the tension the headers had. all in all, half a week?

mec

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Author Topic: DIY titanium 4into1 (Read 18917 times)