250-500cc 2 stroke pipe guard steel vs aluminium

[04wr300]

Been looking at strong pipe guards for the husky 2 strokes, and there's not a lot around. There's a few made by whipps here in Australia but there difficult to get now they have stopped production.

I came across a great site on how to make a really nice pipe guard.

http://www.eawarehouse.com/rbc/exguard.htm

Now I really think this is one of the nicest looking pipe guards that offers real decent protection, ie not braced off pipe and could take a hit on a log and come out alright, pipe unscathed. Only issue is the orange plastics.... Haha

Now I have all the gear to weld mild steel and a decent experience, however aluminium not so much. I don't really know anyone who can weld the aluminium for me, and having a shop do it will be costly.

My thought was to make it out of mild steel but to reduce the material thickness, the original poster used 4.5mm aluminium and the final bashplate weighed in at 3.5kg, hopefully by using 3mm mild steel I can keep the weigh down to not much more.

What are people's thoughts.

 

[juicypips]

Go for it!
I like the thought of ali but unless its tough stuff like
T6 grade then its got to be thick, t6 is hard to
Work with that said enough curves and shold be strong.

Just make a steel one will stand up to punishment.

 

[Motosportz]

Don't build it out of steel. Steel is 3x the weight. That thing will weigh 20 pounds when your done and not work as well. Aluminum is the only way to go. With that in mind has anyone here ever tried that Aluminum brazing rod? You can weld with the torch.

http://www.aluminumrepair.com/more_info.asp

 

[R-J van Hulst]

You might thing in lines of fiberglass

be aware that if designed not carefully its a great place to store mud on your ride (equals heavy)

other point is that in hotter climate the engine temp can rise a bit due to lesser cooling on the bottom part and the capture of the exhaust heat near the engine

oil cooler might be the way to tackle that one

Robert-Jan

 

[04wr300]

Thanks for your replies, however after today I'm going a completely different way altogether.

I went to local swap meet and a bloke had a Hyde bash/pipe guard to suit a 2004 ktm 300 exc for $25 so I grabbed it. What I'm gonna do is make up the spider steel frame and modify the Hyde to bolt to it instead of the pipe. This should make it a lot stronger over the original Hyde set up.

Just Been rebuilding my 04 wr 250 with a 300 kit and lectron carb, motor goes into the frame tomorrow night. So during the week I'll chuck some photos up of the Hyde ktm to husky swap, for only $25 it's worth having a play around.

 

[Kyle Tarry]

I like the thought of ali but unless its tough stuff like
T6 grade then its got to be thick, t6 is hard to
Work with...

FYI, "T6" refers to the temper (heat treatment) of the aluminum, not the grade, type, or strength of the aluminum. For example, you can get 6061 and 7075 aluminum in T6, and the properties and machinability & weldability will vary significantly.

 

[juicypips]

Ohh all i know is the t6 i cut with hacksaw was dam tough, thank you for clearing that up.
Will wiki search how to correctly grade aluminium.