Originally Posted by
guy153
Stick welding is going to be difficult even on a low-end frame (which is about 1.5mm as people have said). You would get away with MIG. For cromoly etc (0.6 to 1.0mm) you need TIG.
What if you made a 5-wheel cargo bike as follows: make a cart with 4 wheels. Get a bike, throw away the fork, and attach the cart to the bike via some kind of steerer tube which is welded to the cart (and has the usual bearings at the top and bottom of the headtube). The handlebar is fixed to the cart. So basically you have a stable cart with a bicycle attached to it which pushes it around. There are designs like this (I think they might be called "tadpole cargo bikes" possibly) although usually they have only two wheels on the cart, which requires more modification of the frame, but probably gives more agile steering. The only question mark over the 5-wheel design is whether it would be manoeuvrable enough.
im able to weld 1.5mm steel with mma dont be fooled by unskilled welders and their techniques i stock 1.6mm rods specifically for sheet steel incase anyone needs a quick repair on something thin, obviously your not able to run it like mig or tig you need to draw heat from the welding area by using aluminium or copper as a heat sync or you do half the weld move on to the next and so on and then come back and finish, also this thread is a follow up of my op on vintage frame section as that was my original idea, someone on there mentioned a tadpole recumbent and im going for that type of design not fully the same but based off of that
ive found suitable tubing for the bike which is 3mm m/s which isnt what i wanted but im unable to find the correct diameter in s235 or equivalent steel, im not fussed about the overall weight of the bike as ill have the pas system installed also that idea is a great idea about the cart but as its a bicycle its pretty much able to go anywhere where a car or van cant, i also just plan on leaving the bike loaded at jobs and running leads from the bike, obviously i will make brackets for bolting and locking of whatever im carrying
as for the bottom bracket does anyone have any experience installing these as the one i intend to use is 33.95 mm ID ive found 34.1mm od my idea is to get a 34mm drill bit to get it down and then im hoping i can squeeze the bracket in - if this doesnt work i could come up with an idea to ream the inside of the pipe it cant be that hard it only needs 10mm ~ or so