Well,
I have an older Lincoln Square Wave 175 TIG/ARC and a newer Miller 211 MIG. The Lincoln, while somewhat older technology is still a pretty darn good welder for both TIG and Arc welding. The newer TIG welders, as in A/C versions that can do aluminum, but still have D/C capabilities, have a lot more refined technology and are "Inverter" design. I won't get into all that crap but suffice to say, the newer more modern welders allow for way better control of all facets of welding.
Along with being a fireman for well over 35 years, I've also been a fabricator/welder for that same amount of time. To me, while I have made a fair amount of money at welding as a side income for a zillion years, it's always been way more of a hobby for me. Although I don't do it all that often, I still love ARC welding.
Anyway, here's one of my latest "little" projects. The wife and I have a couple of folding E-bikes and we often take them on our RV trips along with the Jeep etc. We needed a bike rack to haul these two 70 lb. machines. After scouring ads and Youtube vids for quite some time, I'd determined that just about any and all bicycle and so-called "E-bike" racks were JUNK! To me, there's waaaay too much slop, wiggle and wobble and not a lot of structural integrity.
Soooo, I decided to purchase a dual motorcycle rack from Vevor and then just modify it. It's a long, long story but here's the real short version. It's a steel back bone rack with aluminum trays for the bikes. Each tray was too long for the E-bikes so, I shortened each one. The distance between the trays was too wide (due to it being designed for two motorcycles) so, I cut the back bone down and removed and reinstalled each tray mounting bracket to decrease the distance between the trays.
There was inverted V-shaped angles in the trays for tire contact and were placed (welded) in the wrong spacing for our e-bikes. Soooo, I cut those out and tossed them in favor of some 1 1/2" round 6061 T-6 1/8" wall aluminum tubing. I TIG'd those in the proper spacing for our 20" tire/wheels on the bikes. The trays were reinstalled onto the back bone and that took care of that. Now, since I'm not in favor of 20,00000 tie downs (almost exaggerating there some) or any other factory type securing mechanism, I designed my own.
Basically, it's a "clamp" type system with one, single clamp that locks those bikes from moving in ANY direction, sideways, laterally, and up and down. I designed and fabricated a lock system for when the bikes are left unattended while we're in the traveling mode. Ok, enough blabbing. Take a look and see what you think.
Scott
