SS wire is not needed, unless you want the weld to not rust ?
Argon/CO2 is all I use brother.

Your set, get to welding your shiz !

Alright. Well I may weld up one shaft cvd today to check fit. Waiting on the endmill so I can mod the hub on the other side.

I really need to clean up the bench, might do that 1st. Hard to find a place to work!!!

For something that small you are going to want TIG, You also want to use argon and sst welding wire. If you use standard mig wire it will be weak as all get out. Mig is fine for large materiat and structure, but for fine work it sucks. Stainless is very strong even getting a tack broken loose is a pain. Stainless will move on you as well. It warps easily if you are not used to working with it. If you need I could weld you up anything you need in sst. I do everything from 20 gauge sheet metal to 3/8" 100% through welds.

Jeff

Yeah, I had read a fair amount about welding stanles a while back, and thought that tig was the way to go. Thanks for the info, and your weld is beautiful!!!

I may have to take you up on that offer. I have a lst based 6th scale buggy project in the "brainstorming" phase and I will need a front shaft made up out od a lst cvd. Can you weld stainless to steel, as I can imagine the lst shaft is chromed steel. I doubt it is stainless. I had to cut it with a fiber disk, the saw would not touch it so it must be hardened, or maybe stainless...

A good way to tell if something is hardened or not is to run a file across it. If it bites in it's not hardened if it slides across it like glass it is. Mild can be welded to stainless, but you need to use stainless rod. I use 316 rod 1/16" diameter for most things, but for something that small I just use 316 mig wire. One thing about Stainless is that it cannot be hardened like mild steel can it can be work hardened, but not hardened. Take stainless knives for instance they never hold an edge like a steel blade will.

Stainless it a very strange metal, it's soft yet hard at the same time and it's very gummy to machine, unless you use Carbide bits then it cuts like butter.

I don't see why I couldn't do it I make rollers for conveyors out of 11ga (.120") and they are always straight, and if they are not I nudge them into shape. :wink: They usually turn between about 400 and 850 rpm and we use then for conveyors with a scale under it, and we weigh all the way down to a gram and any vibration gets transfered to the scale throws off the weight so I think I can handle it. Send me a sketch and I'll put it into Autocad to make sure it's exactly what you want.

You can usually find sst tube and rod in most hardware stores, along with brass copper and extruded tubes and such.

Jeff

This cvd must be hardened, a file would not bite and the bandsaw would barely scratch it.

May take me a few weeks but I will get back to you. Do you think welding a rod in the middle of a cut cvd would be best, or welding a slip fit tube to the 2 pieces? I plan to cut one of these same cvds down and weld it in the center, I guess I will see how that goes and report back.

Very nice weld J57, I have seen a lot of stainless welds in my career and that is top notch for sure.

What grade stainless is that?

Made a cvd tonight out of and lst1 driveshaft. Cut the center out and made a cvd shaft 70mm long fron the center of the ball end to the center of the drivepin on the bone end. Fits nicely, could have gone up to 72mm before it would bind in the cup at full up travel. Welded together with a mig, this stuff is hard, but when I got it hot the metal welded very well.

Well, I think the rear shocks need 1/4" or so of fuel tubing to limit the up travel. Right now the suspension can go up enough to get the cvd in a bind at the drive cup. So I will do that before running it again.

I also put revo outputs in the pede 4x4 diff, so I could use 6mm bore drivecups from a revo. Straight drop in mod. I did notice the diffs are not the newest revo spec units with the center support. They are the older original revo diffs. Not likely to be an issue, but there is upgrade potential there.

And before anyone asks, I doubt I can fit a lst diff in there!!!

Just waiting on the 12mm endmill, so I can properly mod the other hub. Then I will check that side and make another driveshaft. I have a feeling I will have the inner bearing seated in a bit more so the cvd shaft may end up longer. Not a problem, as the current parts are prototypes and can be modded if necessary.

I guesss I should have mentioned I have a mill too. Lol Sounds like you got it together, but if you need anything welded or fabbed let me know. I have been watching your build since I am buying one of those rollers too and was worried about the drive system.

Thanks for the compliment. That material was 316 and was used as a stand for an enclosure we made for a company that makes turkey bacon. I actually had to make 16 of them. They have been in for 2 years now and even with the caustic cleaning solution they still look brand new.

The material is finished before it's welded. Raw SST is really rough and it takes a bit of grinding to get it to put that brushed and polished finish on it.

We use a tool called a Dynisher (it's basically a 7" bench grinder with the head rotated 90, and an inflatable bladder, like a slick, then you put a short sanding belt, then finish with a scotchbrite belt). You might have seen one before.

Jeff

Very nice. Most of what we dealt with was bending strip in to large rings, welding them and making it look like there was no weld. This were pressure rings for metallic gaskets. Everything from 304 and 316 to inconel's, hastelloy's, tantalum, etc. Most of these welds had to be x-rayed per the specs. The rings really were only grinded on the welds to be smooth and seamless.

We don't do any of the exotics but for corrosion resistance and for the price point nothing beats 316. Actually I am not even a welder, (I'm the service manager) I just started seeing the frames we were buying from other vendors and they were always so out of shape we couldn't use them. Not even Boropark could build a frame that was straight. I ended up bitching so much about them that I said I could do a better job. My boss said see what you need so the next thing I know I was the welder. So along with my other responsibilities I was welding and fabbing most everything we make. Finally we started looking for a welder that was good at stainless. I went through 5 guys before I found a good one. My only requirement was that he was better than I am. :lol:

Jeff

Linc have you fired up that beast yet?

Yeah, good welders are hard to find, awesome welders are scarce. I had the privilege of having an awesome work for me for a while, the stuff he did was amazing.

I would have thought it wouldn't be that hard to find a decent welder. I only set up 2 tests. T 2 pieces of 2X2" .120 wall, weld all the way around and the pieces could not have less than .002" over a 12" length using a straight edge. I set the machine to 0 on all the settings and disconnected the cables and told them that if they wern't used to the machine let me know, and I'll help. 3 guys couldn't even get the polarity correct and the other kept sticking the tungsten to the work and couldn't even form a puddle. The last guy ended up doing a good job.

The very next day he needed a piece of 3/8" thick 2" X 4" but we didn't have any. He ended up welding 2 smaller pieces of 3/8" together and with a straight edge I could not tell they were 2 different pieces. I told my boss "We gotta keep him."

Jeff

Just picked up a stick welder today after not touching one for ~15 years :lol:

Didn't do too bad, but I admit not nearly as nice as I used to do...:whistle:

I have not, still waiting on the endmill so I can "properly" mod the other hub carrier.

I also found some more cvd drive cups and may use them instead of the revo ones I had laying around. We shall see. Still thinking 71 or 72mm would do.

Now keep in mind if you plan to do that and want to keep the stock rear wheels and do not have the lst driveshafts, you can use old maxx cvds (for the 2.5 tmaxx or 3906 emaxx) and they have the correct length axles to use the stock pede 4x4 rear wheels.

I am using the lst axles casue my pede 4x4 came as a chassis and I robbed the wheels off 2 of my other pedes, and would like to put one of them back together.

If you buy the same ebay brand maxx cvds off ebay the lst axles wil also fit. So you could swap them out and use either wheel, or run the lst axles and stock wheels for a 8mm track width increase per side.