Sideboxes for enduro bike

[TylerSchwend]

Newbie welder with a Hobart 210 w/ spoolgun. Really, new at everything. I'm a computer guy who does a little bit of motorcycle maintenance... so this project has me thoroughly whelmed so far. My old sideboxes for my KLR 650 have succumbed to various wipe outs... I think it's time they go in the scrap pile. So for my first project, I'm going to try to build a replacement for them.

Picked up some .090" 6061-T6 at the local metal-place... Sure is pretty...


Had some difficulties moving it into the basement work area without cutting off my toes...


Started marking up the sheet with the planned measurements. The idea was to make as few welds as possible, and just fold the whole thing up and weld the seams. some of you will know the immediate problem with that. :-) I noticed that for some reason, marking up the aluminum really ate through my Sharpies. What do you guys use to draw your guide lines?


Because the sheet was a pain in the *** to work with vertically, I got impatient and started some of my cuts early... wanted to get the sheet cut in half so it would be easier to work with. I used my dewalt jigsaw, a sheet metal blade, and water. Was surprised how well it cut... as long as I kept it cool. I had to file aluminum out of the blade teeth more than once.


After getting a few "waste" corners cut out and the sheet lopped in half, it became much easier to get the lines drawn.


My 11 year old neighbor came over to inspect what all the noise and cussing was about... I showed him how to use the jigsaw and cut out a "box" from one of the waste areas. The plan is to do some welding on pieces like this before tackling the main bit. I figure if I turn everything into scrap, I'll be ok since aluminum seems to go for a pretty good rate out here, but I'd prefer to have a chance of success. :-) I'll fold the sides up, as well as a little rim around the top... and end up making a latching top for it later. The construction would be identical for the sideboxes, except no weird angle cutout for the ground.


Unfortunately, here's where I discovered the T6 part of things... I did a test bend on some small pieces of metal... I hadn't planned on being the one to bend these, since I don't have the equipment for a nice bend. But I wanted to see what I'd need to do before handing off to a shop. Well, clearly there's some annealing that needs to happen... Would a bending shop handle that themselves? What kind of information would they need from me? My original "design" just assumed perfect 90 degree bends (except in two places), which I'm sure would leave some pretty big gaps to weld as it is... Now I'm wondering if that's just a bad idea...


Heating until the sharpie mark went away...


And then bending gave some pretty good results...


These are the boxes I'm looking to replace:


So... Am I on the right track? Should I skip trying to get things bent, and just go for welding the whole thing? Are the gaps that I have to bridge going to totally stump a newbie welder? I've performed a few ugly "repairs" on the old boxes to keep water out of them, and stuck a few pieces of steel together. Just wondering if I've got the right idea for how these should go together...

[TylerSchwend]

And... the last trip these boxes went on... Somewhere towards the end you can see them flopping around on the bike, as they'd already fallen out of their mounts and were then held on with bungie cords and ratchet straps.

[Hotfoot]

Where is the video being shot?
Also, put your location in your profile.

[TylerSchwend]

Video was from Colorado... brother and I take annual bike/camping trip.

I have updated my profile for your pleasure!

[mikecwik]

i think your project is on the difficult side but it looks like your off to a good start. i hope you can pull off a nice finish.

[TylerSchwend]

It definitely doesn't need to come out pretty, I just want it to hold together! Trying to find projects that no one's life depends on that I can get some practice with. Shame my first one is based on aluminum.... Any thoughts on whether I should scrap the idea of bending it together, and just go with welding all the facets?

[Blacksmith]

Most of your "white" metals, aluminum, copper, etc. work harden when they are bent or hammered and as you discovered need to be annealled frequently. If you goal is to gain welding experience, and you seemed to have mastered cutting the aluminum, I say cut and weld and be happy.

[old blue]

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

The amount of time devoted to some of the seam welds could be utilized making a rudimentary bending brake. Bending at least some of the corners will yield a superior result. More strength and better aesthetics.. If you weld everything, I bet the two boxes will come out different respectively.
Depending on your skill, half a day or less with care and basic tools can create a simple unit. Making one that only bends only along a single bias, as opposed to a pan capable unit, is very easy.. And it's all you need for a killer outcome on this project. To get your juices flowing here's a bench mount gadget I made. Works well. If you want some dimensional info just ask, but it's easy to figure out as you go.







Calling the face of the bag closest to the bike the 'back'; the face furthest the 'front'; and the face looking at the guy behind you along with the face facing the wind referred to as the 'ends' here's what I'd do:
Start with a piece of AL long as the finished back is tall plus the height of the front including a bottom radius, plus a couple of inches; and wide as finished bag is from end to end. Make three ninety degree breaks, then form a bottom to front transition. Experiment wrapping the material over a piece of PVC pipe or something.. Maybe shoot a couple of screws through the PVC "die", the AL back and into the workbench as a clamp. Weld some angle ribs at the top from front to back, then cut and weld on the ends.

Finish as desired. I'd dress the welds smooth then high polish the ends, brush finish the front and transition. Anodize the whole thing some cool color. To make the top with a simple break cut a piece of AL the size of the top plus a narrow flange width, notch the corners, use the bender on the long breaks, do the short ones by hand.. Or by this time, you'll have figured out how to jig up your bender for smallish pan breaks.

[MAC702]

... I noticed that for some reason, marking up the aluminum really ate through my Sharpies. What do you guys use to draw your guide lines?...

You rarely need a solid line. As I draw the Sharpie down the straightedge, I lift and drop it several times, making a dashed line. The amount and size of dashes roughly varies with how intricate or curved the part is. Also, I angle the Sharpie to drag the line, and slowly rotate the Sharpie as I move it, giving each spot on the Sharpie just that ever so much of a reload time before coming back onto the surface. Combine the dashes with the rotation, and you will notice significantly greater Sharpie life, both for the line and for the shop.

[Roger]

A brake made for bending aluminium makes radius bends not sharp bends as you have discovered.

Another aluminium design problem is need to eliminate flexing or strumming of aluminium that cause metal fatigue early failure. Stiffening ribs and vibration isolation mounting brackets help reduce this problem.

[TylerSchwend]

Awesome info guys, thanks. I'll pore over it this weekend and see how things go.

One of the reasons I'm starting with an aluminum project is that I've found cutting steel to be impossible with my current setup. I'd either have to buy a new air compressor, a band saw, or spend forever with a hacksaw... I'll look into the bending brake. I am totally open to taking it off to a shop to have them do the bends, but was also concerned about what kind of prep I would need to do (annealing, perhaps, or would they do that?) / whether bending was even a good idea.

Given me much to think about. I'll keep you guys updated. :-)