Devastator's upgrade

[Sneaks]

I even heat treated 2 of my fingers ....

I'm going to use that sometime

I did last night, I heat treated one finger welding up exhaust on my son's truck. Heat treating sounds so less 'I did something stupid' than my previous explanation: I wanted to brand myself.

[Devastator]

It's a weird property of physics that regulates heat treating fingers. It seems that the more I do it, the more annealed my extremely hard head becomes.

[73AZ]

post heat treat is really just a chromoly thing, right? help those playing at home catch up.

In this case it would have been better for me to use the term Stress Relieve.

All welding sets up stress in the item being welded, the weldment.
Depending on the type of joint, size of weldment, weldment restraint/jig or fixture, and amount of heat per weld pass put into the weldment there can be more or less stress. Just understand that all welding puts stress into the weldment.

Depending on the intended use of the weldment, life cycle, etc. the stress may be acceptable. If the engineer decides the welding stress is unacceptable than some form of post weld heat treating is used to de-stress the weldment. Basically the weldment is heated to a specific temp., held there for a specific amount of time, and slow cooled at a specific rate.

The post weld heat treating associated with chromoly steel is a good bit more involved.
I suggest googling it as it would take a lot of typing to go into it, and I would most likely make mistakes explaining it from memory.
If you want to look into it chromoly tube as the off road world uses it you'll see the debate between weld joints needing heat treating or left as welded. I have no opinion to offer on that.

Vague enough for ya?

[DesertGuy]

Post Stress Relief/Non Stress Relief, Heat Treat/Non Heat Treat, Mild/Chromoly, MIG/TIG, Single Pass/Weave, etc... all of those subjects tend to generate as many opinions as people asked. As an example, had a lengthy conversation with a few very respected builders the other day... all made excellent points concerning their opinion; however, at the end of the day, no one was able to convince the other to change their mind.

[73AZ]

It's a weird property of physics that regulates heat treating fingers. It seems that the more I do it, the more annealed my extremely hard head becomes.

Yes.
I find that the repeated cycle of rapid heating followed by ice water quenching
will induce cranial annealment, too.
It also has a very peculiar effect on my hands; they no longer immediately latch onto metal
items with a firm grip right away. It seems my heat treated fingers want to lightly touch
the metal a time or two before allowing the rest of the hand to fully take hold of the metal.

[Devastator]

Yes.
I find that the repeated cycle of rapid heating followed by ice water quenching
will induce cranial annealment, too.
It also has a very peculiar effect on my hands; they no longer immediately latch onto metal
items with a firm grip right away. It seems my heat treated fingers want to lightly touch
the metal a time or two before allowing the rest of the hand to fully take hold of the metal.

[Devastator]

I have a question for you off road guys. What, (if anything), are you running between your axles and the stub axle and trans drive flanges, to keep them from beating up the splines on the ends of the axles themselves? I'm gonna make up some teflon or delrin pads unless someone here has a better solution.
Dev

[Devastator]

I have a question for you off road guys. What, (if anything), are you running between your axles and the stub axle and trans drive flanges, to keep them from beating up the splines on the ends of the axles themselves? I'm gonna make up some teflon or delrin pads unless someone here has a better solution.
Dev

[Leatherneck]

Not running anything on mine. Seems as long as your not hitting full compression or past then you should not be banging the axles.

[Devastator]

I can hear mine smacking the stub axles when I cycle the suspension from full droop to just above ride height. I know that "back in the old days", guys would cut ping pong balls in half and put them in there, and they would remove the axle clips because longer axles were hard to come by. I thought that there were commercially available urethane covers for the inner drive flange seal. Has anyone here had a problem with the axles getting hammered badly enough that you can't get the CV off without filing the end?

Also, I put the engine back on. Too bad the exhaust pipe after the turbo doesn't fit now. It's always something.

[rickosuave1987]

I had to use a small file to get my CVs off last time I took off my axles. But only on one side of the car. I have not seen any kind of cover that snaps in the axle cups either

[73AZ]

I think the delrin/teflon pads are a good idea. I don't see how it could hurt to have them in there and if it keeps the splines at the end of the axle in good shape thats got to be good.

Glad to see it's all going back together.

[Devastator]

I have not seen any kind of cover that snaps in the axle cups either

It would be difficult to mount a pad in the cups on their respective ends, but I could make some that snap on the ends of the axles, and I do have CNC's available.....

Today I'm using 1 of them to make these reservoir clamps. :

[73AZ]

Pretty slick!

That would be a nice way to secure a swirl pot....hint. hint.

[Devastator]

I guess that would be a good way to secure one. Didn't really consider that when I made it. My swirlpot, (swirlcup), has mounting holes that I tapped into the top of it. I'll have an extra set of clamps if you want one.