welding pics

[Jordan T]

^welds are 100% nuts

[ImportLuv]

Originally Posted by SpottedMango

I think the difference between your shop and ours is the fact that you depend on the welder for a good % of your business.

100%
It's the only reason we are in business. Not many automotive shops weld TIG, so its cool that DC does.

Originally Posted by 3SVERIZON

yeah that was when i had a lincoln 175 sqarewave and the fact my welding looked so good and when i used ur miller it was so easy to weld nice but that was almost 2 years ago i have a miller scyncro wave 250 and i ll have a weld off with anyone now hahahahaha

oh hush up! You lay some really nice fu*kin welds Sean.

[CFP_IVAN]

Its more about the man welding than the machine. Skills!!!!

[ImportLuv]

just like drifting

[CFP_IVAN]

Originally Posted by ImportLuv

just like drifting

I agree!!

[dscivicdx]

Originally Posted by Jordan T

whats an advantage of a log mani?

spool time and packaging.

[Alpha]

Mike does great work. Welding, fabrication, etc. Good guy too. I could spend an hour or two going through all these pictures I have seen some of his work in person Cant wait to see more

[manifoldmike]

thanks for all the compliments and the critisizm.

i'm not the best welder and i don't know everything. i like welding and fabbing and thankfully i've been good enough to do it as a living.

i've been tig welding for about 4 years now (professionally for 2). i'm not to shabby with a mig either (been doing that for about 6 years)

i specialize in exhaust and turbo systems, however i'm going to start building intake manifolds and chasis components in the coming months.

i'm always improving and working at new techniques.

i havn't had the chance to sit down and set up a nice purging system, however that will be in the works in the next couple months. i'm trying to stream line welding and fab process in order to drop time required to build some of this stuff so i can pass on some savings to you guys.

while this thred is some of the work from the past and current, i'm definatly open to suggestions and discussion about theory and practice.

thanks for showing interest and i hope to help some of you with your upcoming projects.

case you guys didn't know, the invertec is basically the same thing as a dynasty. 7 lbs lighter too

[Alpha]

Originally Posted by manifoldmike

while this thred is some of the work from the past and current, i'm definatly open to suggestions and discussion about theory and practice.

thanks for showing interest and i hope to help some of you with your upcoming projects.

Mike answered all my questions while I was up at DC a couple times Welding is something I would like to get into so it's nice to ask questions. Mike. What do you do to avoid contamination?

I hope to see some more of your work in the future

[to4b35]

The flame of a tig/mig is sorrounded by an inert gas...the gas moves the standard nitrogen/ oxygen out of the way so it can't reach with the metal. The high temps involved with welding act as a catylist for, mainly the oxygen, to start a oxidation/reduction reaction, its important to keep the atmosphere away.

A standard mig uses a 75%/25% mix of argon (inert gas, last row on the periodic table...the group know as "Inert gases") and CO2. The CO2 is NOT an inert gas, but the requires a high level of energy to break the bonds of the molecule.

Tig welding generally uses straight (100%)Argon, and some times helium. The gas will change for the material you are working with, but generally you can get away with argon on just about anything.

THe back purging he mentioned, you will use on stainless, and titanium, and on a few other matials as well. In this process you fill the inside of the work material with welding gas as well as have the welding gas flow out the tip of the mig/tig torch. It purges out the atmospere completely from around the work area to prevent contamination, and also helps make that 'purdy' stack coin look on the inside of the work peice.

[Mdeniz]

Nice portfolio you have there, looking foward to seen future projects

[manifoldmike]

Originally Posted by Mdeniz

Nice portfolio you have there, looking foward to seen future projects

thanks. thats a nice looking car you have there. i'm pretty jealous.

as far as keeping contamination out of the weld, there are many ways to clean and prep metal before welding.

like most things, welding is about 80% prep time. the welding part is usually the easy part.

most guys like to seperate metal working tools to keep contaminates out of different metals. if your cutting aluminum on a chop saw, you would only want to cut aluminum on that blade. if you were to cut stainless or carbon steel right before aluminum and tried to weld it without cleaning you would most likely get some contamination.

while this is important, most people are only limited to a certain amount of time, tools and cutting media. if i have to cut two different metals with the same tool and them weld them in a timely mannor, i'll typically prep the surface after welding with a scothcbrite pad, deburing tool or sand paper. i would keep these seperate though. after that i try to wipe everything down with laqor thinner. some people prefer acitone, however the laqor will take off a lot more stuff quicker. the after cut prep usually gets rid of most of the contaminats.

if its a more cosmetic weld or somthing important, i'll wipe down each welding rod with laqor too.

the idea is to have things as clean as possible before welding.

things to look for as contamination would be a surface rust over a stainless weld or right around it. with aluminum its a little more obvious, because the weld will look "cloudy" and might have small black specs in it.

aluminum is kinda tricky though and there are a lot of welders that can't get it right. fortunatly i'm pretty good at aluminum, however my welding can only look as good as the material that i'm using.

there has been a huge influx of crappy pot metal aluminum parts in the aftermarket industry, so a lot of the aluminum parts that i'm modifying won't turn out as good due to the metal.

pot metal is recycled aluminum that doesn't have a lot of attention paid to purity. you'll find this stuff on most valve covers, oil pans, ebay intercoolers and cheap cast aluminum parts. polished or not, they still have a bunch of impuritys which can't be clean out. some times you have to settle with a less attractive weld.

aluminum welds will look polished if they are done correctly.

hope that answered some of your question.

[manifoldmike]

turns out our other welder danny is just as good at manifolds as i am. he hasn't built a manifold before, but hes been welding a couple years now (intercooler pipes, exhaust, ac lines and misc stuff). i had him start building a a/c saver log for a saturn today and its looking pretty awsome. good coloring, fitment and penitration. i'll get some pictures up in the next couple days for you guys.

i've been wrenching quite a bit the last week, so i don't really have a lot of welding stuff to show. i did manage to sump a stock gsr tank, so i'll post some pictures of that too.

if you guys have any questions about future projects or estimates feel free to drop me a pm.

[Griffin400]

your posting to much on here mike....means your not doing your work at the shop!!!

[back2Nissan]

John,
He's "taking care of the God - damn customers" .