Thanks Jim. I've read a lot of your posts, or guys who quoted you. Very informative.
I've done a lot of fabricating and welding in my former life as a truck & equpment mechanic & owner. I've made up the plugs for the pipe already and I've got a cutting torch, so I'll give heating and pressurizing it a try, one of these days. A good rainy day project.
RB
Thank you for the kind words.
It sounds like you are ready. What did you use for plugs?
It took me twenty years to refine my set-up. During my initial experiments with my first version set-up, I shot a plug out of a Husky 430 pipe that went through my building's tin roof.
Some years later, while using a later generation homemade setup at the motorcycle shop, I shot a freeze plug all the way from my work area to the front display window, 100 feet away, when a bailing wire retainer broke.
(If it hadn't hit the ceiling on the way, I think the freeze plug would have broken that picture window.
)
Here's my latest generation set-up. It's worked well for me for the last 15 years.
I took a 2" line pipe coupling (to slip over the header of the pipe) and near one end, drilled and threaded three 6mm equidistant holes to use the bolts for retainers, to catch behind the larger, flange part.
I use an expandable rubber freeze plug for the header end stopper, and a 2" threaded flat plug to screw into the pipe coupling to hold the freeze plug tightly against the header.
On the stinger end, I use a metal plumber's compression fitting that is sized to fit over and seal against the "stinger" of the pipe.
I fitted a threaded schrader valve to a bushing, to a bell reducer, to a pipe nipple, and put it into the other end of the compression fitting. (tighten the compression fitting.
For a thin wall pipe (Messico), I start with only 18 psi. For a heavy pipe like the FMF Gnarly, I start with between 35 & 40 psi.
Wearing gloves and safety glasses, with the pipe in a vise and aired up, I use a rosebud tip to circle the dents and work toward the middle.
I don't generally relieve any pressure on the pipe until I am finished, so the hotter the pipe gets and the longer I work, the quicker things happen. (I adjust what I'm doing accordingly.)
Don't get carried away and take out the small factory dent that helps clearance with the right radiator.
When I'm finished, I (now) always let off pressure at the Schrader valve before I start removing the compression fitting or the freeze plug.
I never take off my safety glasses until I finish.
I usually burn the spooge out the pipe before I start. It's amazing how much spooge can remain in a bike's pipe.
Good Riding and Wrenching to You!
Jim Cook