Laser welding: I recomend this guy

[b1k3rdude]

Evening

Managed to crack one of the float bowl's on my B12 carbs while trying to get the damn screws out (that Suzuki put in dry...) Long story short, contacted this chap who said he would have a go and I was presently surprised :-)

Before:



After:



www.laserweldingservices.co.uk

[adeejaysdelight]

Very nice work there  . I had a couple of weld done on my exhaust clams the other week. It looks like the "engineer" dropped some solder spill on the cracks. I could have done a better job myself, if I had the tools.

[chaz]

nice...................how much, or was it a mate?

[b1k3rdude]

nice...................how much, or was it a mate?

He was the on the first google search results and the price was very reason reasoble as it was a small job, I've paid more for a set of plugs!

[Dead Eye]

Very nice work there  . I had a couple of weld done on my exhaust clams the other week. It looks like the "engineer" dropped some solder spill on the cracks. I could have done a better job myself, if I had the tools.

Exhaust clams... hahahahahaha 

For some reason I found this uncontrollably hilarious... my house mate thinks I've finally lost it ^^

[adeejaysdelight]

Very nice work there  . I had a couple of weld done on my exhaust clams the other week. It looks like the "engineer" dropped some solder spill on the cracks. I could have done a better job myself, if I had the tools.

Exhaust clams... hahahahahaha 

For some reason I found this uncontrollably hilarious... my house mate thinks I've finally lost it ^^

Yeah, there were all sorts of crustaceans down there... ^P, Thanks 

[simonm]

At what point is laser welding a cheaper or better alternative to buying a new/used part?

How do you even work it out ?

[Dead Eye]

Usually at the point that the welding costs more than the replacement part :|

[MEM62]

At what point is laser welding a cheaper or better alternative to buying a new/used part?

How do you even work it out ?

It's not always about cost, sometimes it's about availability.  Just try buying a float bowl - you can't!  When a Yamaha dealer cracked one of mine during a service the only option was to buy a whole carb at some extortionate cost.  I ended up buying a set of used carbs off evilbay just to raid a float bowl from as it was about a third of the price of a new carb from Yamaha.  Unfortunately, although the damage to mine was similar to the OP's, I could not find anyone to weld it.     

[b1k3rdude]

although the damage to mine was similar to the OP's, I could not find anyone to weld it.

Exactly.

At what point is laser welding a cheaper or better alternative to buying a new/used part?

When in this case the bloody manufacturer dosen't sell that part and the only option is to buy the whole carb. And when even a bank of s/h carbs cost a fortune.

Some may chide me for having something other than a fazer, but the bandit is for work and the fazer for the weekends. But the issue with the bandit/s is the parts and the bikes cost significantly more than fazer parts or bike. eg

Parts:
Fazer 600/1000 carbs of ebay/breakers in good to vgood cond cost no more than £100-150.
Bandit 600/1200  £150-250, but the carbs at the £150 end of the scale are many as fuck most of the time.

Bikes:
A 2004-2005 Fazer 1000 in good cond. with 20-30k on the clock can be had for £2000-2500
A 2004-2006 Bandit 1200 as the same costs £2500-3000 (I didn't pay those redic figures of course), yet the bandit is an inferior bike in many ways (less power, worse handling, older tech) But it is better at commuting than the fazer (better riding pos/seat (longer before arse ache), lower down torque (5-20mph far superior to the fazer), adjustable levers as std, better HID headlight compatibility and ABS)

Why are fazer bikes/parts cheaper and easier to find than bandit parts, surly as there are less fazer's (someome correct me if I am wrong) one the road than bandit the price/availability ratio would be the other way around.

At one point I considered getting a bank of FZS1000 carbs and tweaking to suit..