Phil

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My son and I are building a custom exhaust for his Victory motorcycle , we have it all configured and tacked. All I have ac/dc buz box & oxy/ gas set up Question is the best way to weld the heavy duty exhaust pipe ? Going to have them chromed !  possibly silver gas weld ? or just take it out to a mig welder?                                                                                    Thanks PhilLast edited by tractorman; 03-13-2005 at 08:09 PM.
Reply:I would persoanally TIG weld it if possiable. It make a weld with much more control of heat. Which makes for a easy clean up and a finished product that looks like one piece. Just my.02.Brett
Reply:Thanks a lot . I think your .02 is right on the money !!!!!                                                    Thanks again                                                         Phil
Reply:Tig will give you the nicest looking job.  But you say you have O/A and that is an option.  You'll have some scale to clean up, but O/A can look almost as good as TIG...both depend heavilly on the skill of the fellow holding the torch however.If it is steel exhaust pipe, I'd O/A weld it befor I'd MIG.  I did some intercooling plumbing this way, and tried several processes (not TIG though) and MIG resulted in pinhole leaks.  MIG was great for tacking things up without setting the truck on fire, but _I_ couldn't make things airtight that way.  Brazing seemed to make the mandral formed elbows want to crack where they had stretched on the outside of the bends.If you want to try MIGing it, I found that I could re-work the leaking MIG welds with O/A.Tips: If the tubing is Al coated (much of it is) then you need to strip the AL before you weld.  Soaking the ends in a strong lye solution is the easiest way to do that. When it quits foaming the Al is gone. If you don't do this the AlO2 will form a skin on the puddle that makes welding painful.  The Lye is also a super de-greaser that will remove the lube left over from the bender.Tack about 8 places around the tube before you weld...otherwise the last side will end up with poor fitup due to warpage.Pay attention the the way the bends lie.  If you are using preformed elbows, they are about half thickness on the outside of the bends.  If you assemble two to make an "S" then you will be welding a thick section to a thin section. If you note this, then you can keep the heat mainly on the thick section and not burn holes in the thin part.  This fact makes stick welding really tricky, in addition to the normal troubles with stick welding sheet metal.
Reply:Thanks : the more experiance I can learn from the better the finish product !