Racks

[TheKid]

I should have posted this here instead of the Streetfox threads:

This is the easier method for making the cross piece for the rack. The long center piece gets the top cut off a little less than the width of the cross piece, and the cross piece gets two slits on 2 perpendicular sides.



http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z66/edpol_photos/Fox%20Rack/000_0444Small.jpg



Then you just slide the piece on, and if you made the slits correctly, it will be a tight fit that must be tapped into position.



http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z66/edpol_photos/Fox%20Rack/000_0445Small.jpg



Whether it's tight or not, if you flip it over, you'll find you could install one or two sheetmetal screws to secure it.



http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z66/edpol_photos/Fox%20Rack/000_0446Small.jpg



http://forum.atomiczombie.com/images/misc/progress.gif

[likebikes]

That's interesting. I had some aluminium welding rods, alumaloy I believe they were called but they were lost a couple years ago. I have a very light mig setup now but I haven't tried to weld aluminum yet. I wonder if the non welding guy couldn't cut the overlapping piece back further and wrap it around the back side and do the whole job with fasteners and epoxy? It might be adequate for most tasks.

[TheKid]

Sure. You could wrap it around the back if you feel you need more strength. But it's not so easy to get a clean bend with some grades of aluminum. Even without being wrapped around the back, your idea of using epoxy is excellent. Epoxy and a sheet metal screw will be more than adequate.
You could preheat and use a stick welder too. If you have a MIG or TIG welder that's even better. Even those "soldering" rods would work, but I'd add a screw just to be sure, in case you carry heavy loads.
The idea here though, is to be able to make a lightweight, sturdy, rack without welding.