Ben Wojdyla of Popular Mechanics is back with another interesting episode of their Saturday Mechanic how-to videos where they talk about preparing a motorcycle for winter storage. A lot of the topics covered also apply to storing cars for a long period of time, especially ones with carburetors. Ben and his motorcycle mechanic Todd cover the entire preparation process while discussing why the steps are important.
Check out this a video from Ben Krasnow on YouTube. This is the first I’ve heard of him, but he seems to be a tinkerer and a maker based on the rest of his channel. Here he’s demonstrating a hybrid rocket engine that’s fueled by acrylic and gaseous oxygen that he built himself. It makes for a super cool demonstration because he’s able to throttle the combustion process with the oxygen valve and you can see the burn happen through the clear acrylic. The engine is incredibly simple and amazing at the same time. Building and playing with one of these really should be integrated into a school curriculum somewhere if we’re serious about jump starting our Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education. This is the stuff that captures peoples’ imaginations which then get crushed when they go to college and have to spend all night doing over-idealized calculations on hilariously impractical situations like cooling a live electrical wire in oil.
Here’s another welding tutorial video from Miller Welders. This time it’s some good basic advice on MIG welding. Again, there is no substitute for actually practicing this yourself but this should prepare you for what to expect. It’s really just a matter of getting your settings right so you’re getting good penetration without burning holes (match the wire size and metal thickness to the chart on the inside of the machine). After that all it takes is good rhythm and coordination as you move the tip of the gun down the weld. That’s it. You have no excuse to not go build something gangster out of metal.
Knight Sports of Japan released this overview of the assembly of a Mazda 13B-REW rotary engine. The 13B-REW was the twin turbo version that was found in the last generation of the RX-7. The video is a 4 minute sped up version of the entire assembly process.
Here’s a second video with some captions on a few of the processes:
I used a TIG welder on aluminum for the first time today to repair some deep curb rash gouges on the wheels of the RX-8. I have TIG welded steel before, but I was a little hesitant to do aluminum since it has a reputation for being significantly more difficult. I found this series of how-to videos on YouTube by Miller Electric. They did a good job prepping me for what to expect and a lot of it is good habits for TIG welding in general. The only advice I have to offer from my whole hour of experience is that the besides using AC instead of DC, different tungsten and different filler, the concept works the same as TIG welding steel. The only difference is that aluminum has significantly different heat transfer characteristics. Aluminum is able to suck heat away from your torch location a lot faster than steel does, especially on something big like a wheel. It may take a lot longer to start the initial puddle and it will be a lot trickier to maintain it. That’s why these videos emphasize puddle control so much. Just think of it as driving a car with no traction control besides your throttle pedal inputs. You have to be very ginger and precise with the throttle adapt it the situation you see with your eyes, just like the TIG pedal. It takes almost the same kind of hand-eye-foot coordination, so most car guys should have a leg up on a random beginner off the street.
Part 1: Setting up your welding position.