Will someone with good welding knowledge look at these pics and teel us what you think about the penetration of the welds.
http://1tail.com/2005_GSXR_frame/default.asp
You guys grinding down your welds to polish your frames should really pay attention to this.
There's no penetration to speek of. That's why it failed. Yo can see there was no bevel on the pcs, they where just butted together and one cap weld was placed over it. Very week weld. The process for a complete 100% weld, one that will pass x-ray = The two pcs to be joined must be beveled. The welding process is as follows.
1) the root pass, (or known as the stringer) must penetrate beyond the inner wall above flush. Anything below flush is know as lack of penetration, or undercut.
2). Filler pass is what the term states. You fill the bevel to just below flush of the outer wall. If you fill it completely flush, the cap weld will protrude to high.
3.) The cap. It's the final pass to complete the welding process. The cap must not have undercut on the sides, and must extend above the outer wall thickness by at least 1/16th''to 1/8th''. All pass' must be free of pin holes, porosity, slag, undercut, lack of fusion, lack of penetration, excessive penetration to pass the x-ray.
Note: The cap weld is basically a cosmetic weld simple to make it look more uniform. If the root pass is 100%, and the filler pass is 100%, you can actually grind the cap completely off and the weld joint will be just as strong if you left the cap on. People that polish there frames should take great caution when you get close to the welds ( the welds you see are the cap welds), mainly because you do not know if the weld joint has 100% penetration. You could have them x-rayed for your security. But not knowing, you must not remove any of the cap weld during the polish job, because in this case, thats all there was holding the bike together.
