Cheap welding

[Silky]

Hi all.

Ive been having a few problems with my mirrors lately. They've broken off. In order to fix them i need to somehow stick two 'bolts' together.

Ive tried so called 'sets like steel' adhesive but that broke off straight away.

I was wandering if it was possible to buy welding equipment cheaply? And what type of weld? Some time ago i saw mini acetylene torches on sale in B+Q, but cant find them anywhere now.......Ideas?

I would use the equipment more in the future, being a self employed 'mechanic', so please dont advise to get a mate to do it.

Thanks.
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[feef]

for welding something as small as a bolt, you'd probably need a TiG.

Although I'd be concerned about a self employed mechanic who's welding, and doesn't know what welder to use for the situation

a
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[Ichy]

Brazing is probably one of the cheapest, secure, ways of attaching two bolts together. A blow torch with a decent nozzle producing a thin flame and some flux coated rods are going to be around twenty quid? You might get away with a plumbers torch and some solder but I haven't tried it so don't know how well it will work.

Cheapest general purpose is a ARC welder, £40-£60 buys you a cheap unit that will weld most stuff over a couple of millimeters thick, but they are not easy to use.
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[sickpup]

[hmmmnz]

lol, sickpup has some pent up anger, wheres some little chavs when you need them

i would just buy new mirrors they'll set you back less than a welder,
and if you havn't welded before chances are you'll fuck it up, its not as easy as some people make it look,
just my opion of course
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[Pete.]

What bike you got and what part of the mirrors has broken?
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Cillit-BANG]

I very much doubt you could buy ocy-acetylene torches in B&Q, more likely to be something similar.

IIRC you can no longer buy the relevent gas bottles and they have to be hired directly from BOC at roughly £45 each per month regardless of how much you use within reason. This may have changed but this was the case a few years ago.

You clearly have no welding experience so do NOT charge people for offering this as a service unless you have very good public liability insurance. As people have mentioned, it looks very easy, but to get it to a standard where you could do it on a professional basis takes a lot of experiece. You can quite easily produce a weld that looks good, but have no penetration and be potentially lethal.

If your just using it for patching up bits and pieces for your own pleasure then an arc welder can be had for about £50 and will be quite sufficient. It will take a lot of practice to get it to look any good though, you'll get lots of splatter and once you've knocked the slag off will look fairly poor.

Welding is a truely beautiful art that like many trades takes years to get any good.

I've done maybe 30-50 hours of MIG, gas and stick welding and am still very crap. Very rewarding when you get it right though.

And for what its worth, a local garage shouldn't charge you much more than £10 to patch it up.

[Pete.]

My argon bottle costs less than £3 a month to rent from BOC.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Cillit-BANG]

What about Acetylene?

[Pete.]

Can't use acetylene with argon for welding.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[irving]

>>

[Walloper]

Use a 'Yellow Pages' to WELD two bolts together.
That's the way Profesional do it.

Look under : 'W' for Welding Services
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[Silky]

Theres no need to be so harsh sickpup. Im just starting out. Thats why i put 'mechanic' as i wouldnt grade myself as a good one.

Thanks for the info guys, i might just get new mirrors like suggested. But i keep it in mind for the future.
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[sanchezz_182]

stick would be next to usless on anything as small as a bolt, unles u want a blob of molten metal,, then it would be a very effective.

a mig would do it, wouldnt be very neat but would be able todo the job, as people say can pick them up real cheap an its pretty much point an shoot type thing

tig for this particular job would be ideal, but tig welder aint so cheap and are harder to use although produce a far better looking weld once you know how to use one.

as a mechanic u would be better with oxy acetylene, not the best thing for welding but i have seen some realy nice welds done by gas, once you get the hang of it you could do small thigns liek bolts an brackets, but mainly for the fact that it can be used for so many things like heating snapped bolts welding all kinds of metals, burning,, stufff...

anyway hope i helped in sum ways, or just said what everyone else said..
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[Jebus]

depending on what is broken just replace the part, if not your going to have to strip a lot of the bike away, remove paint etc, and for a job as delicate as this mig and stick will not be suitable, gas is a possibility or tig.
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[Ichy]

[loply]

B&Q sell a cheap mig welder for £49.99.
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[loply]

Don't forget to buy a mask though.
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Yamaha SZR660 Caution to the wind, the throttle pinned!

[Walloper]

Not Hallow'een mask.
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[Arfdog]

[Cillit-BANG]

Wasn't really referring to welding the mirror, but general arc welding

Gas welding has to be my favourite. It is so rewarding to just use the heat from a gas flame to join metals and is lovely when you get the molten pool flowing just right. Scares the crap out you when they pop though

[Johnny GSX-R]

BOLLOX

Self employed mechanic

Its cowboys who know fuck all who give the genuine trade a bad name!
'Bike Business' , your heading the right way to get on 'Rogue Traders'.

You can't just set up business in a field like that and practice on customers property..... FFS If you can't fix a mirror there's little hope of you building a good reputation, i can see trading standards having a ball with you.

If the metal is clean and rust free then a mig will do the job, i've been mig welding since the early 90's and i can get good results with care.

RANT OVER.

[Silky]

This is to clarify what i am doing at the moment, to stop people, who have no idea about who i am or what i do having a go just for the hell of it.

Im breaking down bikes and selling parts so i have no need to weld anything there.

The welding that would have taken place would be on my own bike, so no 'customers' would get involved.

I would only use a welder on a 'customer's' bike in the future with the proper qualifications if i ever went that route anyway.

I just wanted some advice on welding....not a bloody appraisal of my skills. Isnt that what this forum is for......help?

thank you.
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Have ya ever drunk Baileys from a shoe? IM OLD GREGG!!!

[Ichy]

[loply]

A mechanic doesn't necessarily specialise in bikes or cars, I should point out.

Perhaps he works on roller shutters, for all you know.
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