It is solid rod, I got it because the original idea was to bend it. Is a bit heavy, now I’m wondering if worth to get tube instead to make it lighter or another rod to try to bend it again. The good thing is that the rack will be on top of the bike frame instead of hanging like in many bikes, so I believe that would help on make the joints a little more secure(?)
Edit: I’m going to put it on a BMW GS 1100, I’m removing the passenger seat and place the rack instead. I hope to see you around too! =)
Oh nice thanks! I’ll get it ready for that! After watching the video you sent, I’m wondering if wouldn’t be better to use tube because of the weight, or buy another rod and try to bend it again
I ran your numbers into CAD, does this look right to you? Doesn’t look exactly like your drawings.
Remember that to do the cove, you need to extend the measurements I have here by half the radius of the rod you’re welding to, on each end, for the 90 degree welds. For the angled ones, you could do the math, or just cut the same as the other calc and it’ll be pretty close, fine tune by trial and error.
Naw, run what you got, as long as you haven’t cut it too short. On a motorcycle, I don’t think it’ll be a huge problem for weight. You’ll be putting heavy things on it.
What’s gonna be hard is actually getting full penetration on solid bar with welding. But even if we aren’t at 100%, it’ll still likely be very strong.
Sorry. didn’t mean to side track your plans. You aren’t wrong. solid can be easier to bend but in some ways. Small tube like that isn’t difficult to bend either though.
there are a bunch of differant benders out there. this is probably the cheapest
Plasma cutter you say. I didn’t know we had one! Would it cut aluminum lets say 4mm thick?
Also suppose I was wanting to learn how to mig weld for pretty much this application. Could I show up Sunday and tag along? I’d love to see the project since I’m also working on my Gs!
I built two options, and there’s probably still some final sizing to do. (Currently I built it with the dimensions @Dio put in in his original post as the MIDDLE of the bar stock, but it looks like he wanted them on the outer edge of it. Easy to fix, but he’s taking measurements now)
This was all done in OnShape, here is the link if anyone is interested. You can view, and copy the design if you want. If anyone is interested in modifying let me know, I’ll add you in onshape.
So, I got the measurements from with the pieces, and wasn’t so bad! I actually cut a bigger than I needed and I realized that the bend I wanted can be replaced by cutting the sides in two pieces like on pic 01 so I can follow the shape of the bike frame, also I need to get this angle so I can attach the rack on the sides.
The thing I think I would change is that instead of welding all the pieces at the same “level”, because the frame is uneven, maybe it would look nicer if weld the bars on top of the base like in the Pic 03.
I would actually bend at the red/blue bridge. Welding a butt joint isn’t strong, and that bend is MUCH easier than what we were talking about above, since there is effectively no radius (none you really care about as long as it’s close)
I’m not sure what you mean about being level. All the bars would still intersect one one plane right? if you just plop it on there at an angle that’s no problem, except maybe for your luggage that slides off.
if you see on pic 03, the bike frame in the side view, isn’t a straight line, it also bends a little bit, so to make up for the gap, I was thinking to place the “light green” bar from pic 01 underneath the rest of the rack. I don’t know if would be possible.
Well, if it’s fully underneath, with one resting on the other, then you’d have a point contact where it meets the other pipes, giving infinitely small point to weld. You’d need something to tie them together.
Anything is possible, but it’s getting complicated, might be scoping too far for first welding project.
So for your new design, I don’t know how you’re going to attach under like this, You could in theory weld something in the corners there, but getting it to the right shape first isn’t gonna be simple. Now, since this is all 1/2 inch round, you can maybe just get away with filling with tons of weld, but it’s not great.
A)
Butt joint if you don’t have anything going across on the same plane as the blue/purple tubes
B)
Only 2 point contacts. You need to figure out a way to bridge the gap.
Getting one bend in the right place isn’t hard, as you just bend too long stock to the right angle, then cut down the ends until it’s in the right spot.
Ohhhh sorry! I think I didn’t make it clear on the picture, that bright green rectangle will be a flat 5cm X 28cm piece of metal that will work like a bracket to attach the rack on the frame under the seat.
Ok, point remains about how to attach that bottom bar.
You could double up, and put some pieces in here (in reality, if it was doubled up, you could probably just run a weld across the whole thing and it’d work)
