My first build...

H

Hughes

New member
Let me start out by saying, I've never welded before this year (2020). I started out by purchasing a welder (Mig) and building a simple cart for the welder.

A little about me. I'm 56 years old (never too old to learn!) and I always wanted to learn to weld (my grandfather was a welder by trade). So I'm actually really excited to see things come together, as in welded together. I am starting to see the world differently now. I see welds! Ha!

IMG_6266welder5.jpg


I learn the best by doing things. Trial and error as they say. So I jumped in with both feet. I got some free bikes and some square tubing, and started building. Well, I did a lot of reading and of downloading plans. I decided to build something I either couldn't buy or couldn't afford to buy. A side by side tandem. Well a quad. Or something. Not sure what to call it, actually. I keep calling it a bike for lack of a better term.

I started by building the pivot point and connecting the rear wheels (suspended) to the rest of the bike. I read that a quad without suspension is basically a trike since there is no such thing as a perfectly level surface to ride on. So I decided to use two rear suspensions from two donor bikes.

Here are the pivots.
IMG_6300BB5.jpg


It would have been nice to have both bikes exactly the same...

IMG_6303layingdown5.jpg


I started building, and my wife commented that she thought we'd tip over riding this thing... so I decided that I was building the bike too high.

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So I started over. I learned that one doesn't need to make complete welds until one is sure it is designed right. I had to cut all my welds and so now I just use tack welds until I'm sure I'm happy with it. Ha!

IMG_6319lower5.jpg


I made it lower, and got the front wheels on. Still learning though. Which is quite fun.
 
Congratulations. Best of all, it is your design for your particular requirements. What you learn with the first, you can put into the second, or modify the first to turn into the second. There's a hint that you probably won't stop at the first.

I see you have already learned to to completely weld until sure. Just don't forget it is just tacked together, otherwise you won't only have seen it come together, you will also see it coming apart. Don't worry, excitement and enthusiasm can interfere with your checking.
 
The grinder is a amatuer welders best friend.
Welcome onboard.
I still have a pile of rust somewhere which suppose to be a side by side tandem tadpole. One day..
 
vk3ckc said:
Congratulations. Best of all, it is your design for your particular requirements. What you learn with the first, you can put into the second, or modify the first to turn into the second. There's a hint that you probably won't stop at the first.

I see you have already learned to to completely weld until sure. Just don't forget it is just tacked together, otherwise you won't only have seen it come together, you will also see it coming apart. Don't worry, excitement and enthusiasm can interfere with your checking.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I do already have plans to make a trike probably fashioned after the Warrior design. And can see the wisdom in what you're saying. What's interesting to me (being new to welding) is that if it breaks. I can fix it.... I love that!
 
pegasus said:
The grinder is a amatuer welders best friend.
Welcome onboard.
I still have a pile of rust somewhere which suppose to be a side by side tandem tadpole. One day..
Click to expand...

I agree! I've read where some people have three grinders! But I can totally understand that given how many times I've been switching the flap disc and the cutting disc.
 
Hughes said:
Thanks! I do already have plans to make a trike probably fashioned after the Warrior design.
Click to expand...
If you can't find the information or the design that will allow you to make it on this site, it is ahead of its time and you will have to wait until it is invented. Alternatively, go ahead and invent it yourself, then let the rest of us know.
 
vk3ckc said:
If you can't find the information or the design that will allow you to make it on this site, it is ahead of its time and you will have to wait until it is invented. Alternatively, go ahead and invent it yourself, then let the rest of us know.
Click to expand...

Spent the day cutting welds and refitting and redesigning... not an easy task designing...
 
Retrofitting and modifying is much harder than building to an exact plan - and more personally rewarding if it works.
 
vk3ckc said:
Retrofitting and modifying is much harder than building to an exact plan - and more personally rewarding if it works.
Click to expand...

We shall see... and if doesn't work. I can change it! Being able to weld is freedom.

Here's the result of all that cutting and welding. It's sitting level and slightly narrower in the front wheels.
IMG_6320bike127.jpg

I also had to weld a little more that tack welds in certain spots... I leaned on it too much and it collapsed. HA!
 
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What you appear to be building is a Mochet Velocar frame ? if that is the case you maybe need to change your dimensions a bit ?

d7ffa6ac54d9b9027784ef746670d2af.jpg


This is the way to do it :-


IMG_2382.JPG


I am showing you this as it was successful , couple of things you will quickly learn..

It is easy to back yourself into a corner with a chosen design path

&

You put the same amount of effort in to a project whether it is a success OR a failure so the more you get from working designs into your design the less likely the failure will be ?
 
stormbird said:
What you appear to be building is a Mochet Velocar frame ? if that is the case you maybe need to change your dimensions a bit ?

d7ffa6ac54d9b9027784ef746670d2af.jpg


This is the way to do it :-


IMG_2382.JPG


I am showing you this as it was successful , couple of things you will quickly learn..

It is easy to back yourself into a corner with a chosen design path

&

You put the same amount of effort in to a project whether it is a success OR a failure so the more you get from working designs into your design the less likely the failure will be ?
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
My quad side by side tandem has progressed. I took it for a little test ride last sunday. Here is a video:

 
It looks like another few inch on the width wouldn't have gone amiss. It's hard to tell but it looks like the lady is struggling to be central in her seat.
 
It's been a while since I've updated this thread. My wife and I still ride this quad bike on the local pathways. It's quite fun and a good work out.

 
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