The Chopper Compendium

I guess it depends on what type of welder it is and what the duty cycle is. 180 is actually pretty light. I weld my springers using stick-start tig at 180 amp setting on a 250 amp machine but for frames I use a 150 amp setting.

Yeah, the 6.5" is supposed to be measured to the main pin pivot hole center and the other hole dimensions are correct at 6". sorry about that but I guess most people catch it and don't bother reporting it. I'm working on new design that looks more like a pro-tools 105 but it can be mounted...

It's not as easy as that since the die makers have various drive pin location and different follow bar pin locations but in general the follow bar radius will be either 4-inches of 5-inches from the primary one-inch link pivot holes. That's holes #3 and #4 on a JD bender. Hole #2 isn't used on any d...

Great work and good engineering on this project. Beware that the selection of the coil-over may become problematic unless you've already bought what you're going to be using. If the maker advertises 3-inches of travel you will typically only find 2 to 2.5-inches actually happens after you do the pre...

I'd go for the course. The structure of a course is good to start out and you should be exposed to at least 3 different welding techniques. Maybe more if they include gas welding which is a very handy skill to have. Buying a cheap welding machine will get you nowhere as it won't do much but make you...

Since you're going to get a doner bike anyways I think it would be easier to just modify the stock frame and keep the stock mounts and tabs. That's most of the Sporty guys end up doing. So far from the feedback I get nobody yet is really happy with any of the frames they've built or bought from afte...

Jim,
Do you know the address or phone number of the hospital he's in?

I'm rooting for him. Sounds like the Docs are optimistic so that's a good sign.

Great work and some good ideas. I don't think anybody's jig is really ever finished. Once you get it to where you think it's perfect, you find more things to do to it.

That's correct and also if you didn't drill all 4-holes in the drive links you need to drill the hole for the small die 1.875" down from the link pivot pin hole center. You may have to slightly modify your drive pin by cutting off the 'bail' so that the drive link can go further 'into' the fram...

That's about how I have mine set up. You only need 2.5" clear in the drive links for the 1.25" die. 3" is only needed if you go up to 1.5" dies. I didn't look at the drawings but I must have reversed those dimensions since the drive links fit inside the frame plates.

I imagine that they will never get any real garage-based builders after what I've read on some of the other boards about the 'contract' and 'conditions' you have to sign on with. So far it appears as if more people have turned them down than have signed-on for the show. I've said it before and I'll ...

Forgot to add that the general rule of thumb for nice clean bends is to keep the centerline radius near 3.5 times the diameter of the tubing. so for 1" tubing a 3.5" radius is typically used, for 1.25" tubing jump to 4.5" clr. You can go to slightly tighter bends if the wall thic...

The holes in the JD2 model 3 that the follow bar link pin goes into are as follows, measured from the center of the die pivot pin. 4" rad. for what they call hole#3, 5" rad. for hole #4, 6.5" rad. for hole #5 and 7.75" rad. for hole #6. You small die will use pin hole #4. The loc...

The series looks like it's going to be another 'drama' thing but the group of kids bike was very nice. The other 2 were weird. I thought they said this new series was supposed to be 'garage-based' builders only.