CJ's FJ45 Restoration

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1.5 hours

Not a lot of activity working on the 45 over the last week. With the new years eve party that I attending and a costume modeled after Chris Pontius and picking up the rotisserie from Gumby. Then the RAM needed a lifter pump and new water pump installed and trying to finish up the bathroom remodel, other activity have taken away from metal working.

Fine tuning the welder:
Well I got the first patch in last night. I think it looks like s*** but you tell me. This patch is not finished, I just got frustrated at the welder and stopped.

The Miller 172 likes hot and fast, not slow and low spotting welders. Need to borrow friends 110V and get the other patches finished up.

This patch shows sights of poor penetration on the back side and I was getting a lot of porosity. Gas was on and flowing nicely.

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Get smaller wire and a spot weld shield for your gun
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How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

I've not been satisfied with my welding so I started to play around with material and settings so I can get better with it before I get too far in.

Changed to .023 from .030 and .035. Played around with the settings and my technique to start to understand the puddling effect and better penetration methods.
The PDF manual on my Miller 172 and book I bought both SHOW great examples of welds...but mimicking it is an art form. I see why TIG is much better from a visual stand point.
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The thing is none of those welds will work for panel welding.

To panel weld you have to tack every 3-4 inches, then tack at the midpoint of those welds, then tack at the midpoint of those welds and so on until its filled. If you run a bead, you'll warp the s*** out of the panel and have a lot of heat control problems.

It won't look stack of dimes pretty, but you're going to grind it all off anyway.
 
Update

Fellas,
I have been away from the 45 for quite some time. Here's why!

1. Kitchen remodel needed to get finished.
Reconfigured the space for more cabinets by adding 39" wall cabinets instead of the 30", moved the frig to the other side of the kitchen entrance for more counter top space and took out the pantry for more counter top space as well.

2. Mig welding the butt joints with bad results was increasing my blood pressure.
I was having mixed results with the scrap metal I was using to practice with. The welds were not heating all the way through and I did not want this to be in the back of my mind when I finished it and was showing off the prize to fellow cruiserheads. "..Yeah it's finished but..." was a phrase I do not want to utter.
Getting the weld dialed in was a task. I tried changed from .35 to .30 to .23 wire and played with the heat and speed for hours. Position, angle, depth, gas: nothing seemed to work so before I started throwing things across the garage I stopped and took a break.

3. I picked up a tour for Can-Am Spyder. I'll be taking 10 vehicles around the west coast for consumer demo rides. I'll be gone until Sturgis and kick off is at Daytona bikeweek in a couple days.

However I'll continue to live through your projects with Mud.

Jimmy
 
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