Rookie wanna-be weldor starting to make some cool things!

In my "case", it's only one latch per side.

Okay...I now have 10 latches - good for 5 sets of hinged bags.

Option 1 - pay a locksmith who knows how much to re-key 5 of them. End result? Still enough latches for 5 sets of bags.

Option 2 - Buy the mates to the remaining 10. End result? Enough for 10 sets of bags.

Need me to draw a picture? Going with option #2. I need to buy some keyed-alike in black powdercoat finish, anyway. No biggie.

:huh either you are getting the latches SUPER cheap, or I am under estimating the price to have them re-keyed. no picture necessary

You are reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally overthinking this.


Pay a locksmith to re-key a $20 latch, or just buy another $20 latch to have doubles?


Pay one guy - same amount of latches.

Pay another guy - double the latches.


I'll eventually need to buy more anyway, right? Soooooo.........


Where is the beating the dead horse emoticon?

nope, just trying to suggest an alternative. you are reeeelly over reacting.
have fun.

made another trip to Kirk's and had fun chatting and looking at all the cool stuff that I've seen in this post. Got to see the crane in action, Blowzilla the wonder tractor, the pinstriped brake...and The Bumper! It's all better in person

Picked up my tool tube and couldn't hardly wait to get it home and mount it on the bike. I was a little bummed that the fit wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Kirk made it according to my drawing and measurements...so no fault of his that it didn't fit just right. I rushed my measurements and I really should have made a cardboard mockup before sending in my drawing.

All that said, here's the current state of the tool tube. I may have it tuned up a bit before it's all said and done...since this is the first prototype.

btw, my latches are all keyed alike....LOL

I have got to get one of those!

Oh wait....

Hey - you took your helmet with you!


Lookin' good, Jeff!

A little "quickie" to keep me practiced up on heavy aluminum.



Adding 1" x 1/4" aluminum strips to an aftermarket 3/16" thick al. DR650 bash plate for additional crankcase protection.



Fillet welds take about 10% more oomph than an outside corner. My slide calculator shows 210-240A to make this weld, so I have the Dynasty maxed at 200A. This would not be possible without the liquid-cooled torch. I can develop the puddle around 3/4 pedal, and drop back to half once underway. So, even though this is max capacity for a Dynasty 200DX, I still a have half pedal more juice, which is a good thing. In other words, it's not struggling to do this.



The last time I did something this thick was the Tundra bumper around page 70 or so, so I'm glad to have a project like this to stay in practice. My welds on the bumper were nowhere near this nice!



Since I'm running full-tilt, I have my hood set at shade 13, and I have a dark, long-sleeve shirt on to keep from getting a sunburn from the U.V. rays. Why dark? Light colors reflect the light up into your welding hood. No kidding.



As silly as it sounds, my heart skips a beat when I see this ^. This is what I want to see. I feel I have finally "arrived". There is always room for improvement, but this is what I've been chasing for a year. It's exciting to see it. Plus, I have half a dozen tungstens pointed up waiting for a crash, and didn't need a single one of them! Love it!

After some cool-down, I have 3 more rails to go...

You see the smiley faces after my comments, right? I'm picking on you just like you pick on me with all the spraypaint comments.

Please don't be offended.

Sorry! Hard habit to break.It's 15" back to beak, 11" ear to ear, and 12" bottom to top.

Greatl looking rails, btw!

Thanks! ...and Thanks!

I hope it still lines up! Lots of heat went into this...



I finish up with a 60 grit flapwheel and bevel the leading edge.

When you gonna do sumpin sumpin like this, hm??

Wouldn't THAT be cool!!!! Shoot, I'd be happy with a small aluminum rowboat!


I have a couple nice projects I want to try...

This spring - a nice BBQ smoker, and a nice enclosed fire pit. We were looking at a camping trip to Fort Wilderness @ Disney, and the fire pit needs to be covered.

I still want to try my hand at a sidecar for the KLR, and I think I can pull it off with much research.

It all comes down to time and money. I usually have one or the other. Once I have enough of both, I can do something about it.

That is SWEET ! Nice work

yes it is nice work....whoever did it.

Looks like they had to use an english wheel on a good bit of it.

Top notch craftsmanship right there!


Coffee's ready...time to get on the next build!

Don't you ever sleep?

Couple things I have learned on TIG'ing aluminum, stuff like that thick bar, hit it with a MAPP torch and preheat it. Make the start much easier.

I used to grind my green tungstens and then put a flat on them, and then they would "ball" up upon welding. I forgot where I heard it, but someone suggested DC+, about 80A on regular steel and it makes balling the tungsten stupid easy. And also easy to adjust the size of the ball. It's my new favorite trick. The DC+ thing is what threw me at first, but it works, just feather in the pedal and voila.

And I've also been spending a little more time with the SS brush and acetone wiping everything including filler rods. My Aluminum welding is better than my steel welding at the moment