Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Gas Tank Fill Spout

Here is the finished product. Looks like one tube, just as intended. Kris knocked down the welded on the lathe and left it .040" or so proud of the final surface as I planned on hand finishing it. Trying to grind a round tube, any smaller than 6" in diameter is a nightmare. It is very hard to not make the tube 'notchy' from grinder passes. So I chucked it up in the lathe turned it at 190 rpm's and then used a 2" 120 grit to grind the weld flat to the tube. This trick helped me to get a perfectly round tube, that it completely seamless and no one can tell by sight or feel that it is 2 pieces welded together.
Another view, pre-clean up.
Welded it up over lunch. Tacked it around the diameter by skipping around to prevent over heating the weld seam. Then stitch it together between the tacks. That is why you will see a variation in the heat line, thickness and style of weld.
A perfect fit, it makes the welding a breeze. I don't have to worry about the 2 parts slipping out of alignment as I work the bead around the diameter.
I bought the cap and matching steel bung from The Chassis Shop. A race car chassis parts company based in Silver Lake, MI. They are either partners with or own Pro-Werks as well, the company the cap. Both for aesthetic reasons and function, I wanted the gas cap to be 2-2.5" overall height off the top of the gas tank. So I need a piece of pipe to weld to it that is the same diameter and will look seamless like one piece of tube. I was lucky to find this chunk of old steam or water pipe that was just .100" over the diameter of the pre-made steel bung. Tom 'Tweaky' Peek turned it down for me when he still worked at BAKER. I have had it for 2 years. Kris added a small counterbore to it, as the bung has a .060" tall lip on it. This allowed the 2 pieces to align perfectly to each other before I welded them up.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Tank Mount Models

A section view right through the middle of the mounts to give a better idea of how it all works.
Here are the computer models that I created to make sure everything laid out just right. I use Solidworks for almost all of my designs. It may seem like overkill, but this whole design took me under an hour to calculate and model everything. Make assembly a breeze as a result.

Gas Tank Pockets 2

I forgot to clean off the threaded bungs with lacquer thinner before I machined them and I pretty sure that is why they turned blue. The bluing was only surface deep and I did not put that much heat into the weld. They had oil on them from anti corrosion coating from the mill, as well as an extra concentrated cooling solution in the lathe. The welds will not be visible once I weld the mounts in the tank, all I care about is that they don't break and/or leak.
Double checked that they fit good, and got the welder fired up.

For both cost and ease of machining reasons, I made the gas tank mount out of 2 pieces. It didn't make sense to waste all of that material for machining. I added the .020" deep counterbore to ensure the threaded boss would be center in the threaded hole for alignment ease during assembly. Allows the 5/16-18 bolt to have over .700" of full thread engagement. Plenty for strength and a decent safety factor.