- [Jason] Hey YouTube, it's Jason again with weld.com,
and today we're here with Jeff Ray
from Heffner Performance in Sarasota, Florida.
They do a lot of high-end work, but I'm going to let Jeff
kind of tell you guys about exactly what they do.
So what is it you guys do down there at Heffner Performance?
And then explain a little bit about what you've got here.
- Over at Heffner we do a lot of high-end, exotic cars,
mainly twin-turbo systems on Lamborghinis,
(engine revving)
R8's,
(high-pitched engine revving)
Ford GTs,
(engine starting and revving)
Dodge Vipers.
So I do all the welding and fabricating over there,
of exhaust systems, stainless, titanium,
aluminum inner cooler piping.
We do a lot of turbo systems,
is mainly what we specialize in.
- [Jason] Okay, so tell us what you've got here.
- [Jeff] This is for Ballistic Cycles in Wisconsin.
This is for a Harley.
It's a titanium two into one,
we're going to be welding on today.
- [Jason] Okay, I noticed we've been
purging this for a while, so if you could
kind of walk us through the purge process.
You've got some joints that are taped off, some that aren't.
How do you know how long to purge this system for?
You know, how do you know when it's ready?
- I worked in process for a while,
and we have a chart that explains how much CFH
to flow through the pipe to cover
the amount of pipe we have here.
Start at the bottom, always want to purge
from your lowest point out, argon being heavier than oxygen,
it's going to push all that oxygen out.
So, we want to have our vent points up here at the top.
Some of the joints that are welded,
it'll also help push out of there.
Start welding from the bottom here, and go up with it.
- [Jason] And this is all titanium material?
- [Jeff] This is all titanium material
from Ticon Industries.
- What kind of, what thickness are we looking at?
- [Jeff] This stuff is one millimeter thick.
- Okay, what kind of settings
are you going to run on the machine?
- [Jeff] I run DC.
We've got her set at twenty-eight amps right now,
with a long post-flow, you know we want to
shield this stuff as long as we can,
to keep the gas coverage on it and not let
any heat-affected zones trap any oxygen in there.
So, we want it as silver as possible.
- Okay, so you're definitely looking for a silver
final weld, versus the purples and the blues and all that?
- Correct, yup.
- Perfect, okay.
Well we'll let you get to it.
- All right.
- [Jeff] Now that we got her purged out,
we're going to go ahead and start welding here.
Start here and go up with it.
- [Jason] Okay.
(flame hissing)
- [Jeff] Good weld, nice, clean silver all the way through.
You'll see there was a time there
where the wire kind of got hung up.
If you don't have this in that puddle,
it sticks to it and it doesn't like to come off of there.
But, yeah you've really got to keep the wire
in that puddle, held the gas there long enough, let it cool.
I trailed far enough, I was at a nice speed that I didn't
get discoloring prior to my heat-affected zone
outside of my gas lens here.
We've got a Furick BBW cup on here to...
It'll go all the way around.
Get underneath and between...
- [Jason] You want to get in the tight corners
and stuff like that.
Give it a little bit more to stick out.
- [Jeff] We can stick it way out there.
- [Jason] Now would you equate this to
welding on stainless steel, or is it
a completely different animal?
- [Jeff] It is very similar.
That's coming into having welded it before,
knowing it was similar to it.
Just, the different characteristics of it,
keeping it shielded and contemporary.
- [Jason] Right, color off the weld.
- [Jeff] Yeah. - [Jason] Right.
- [Jeff] It's real nice once you get the nerves out of it,
doing it a couple of times, it gets really fun.
- [Jason] Does it get to be a little nerve racking,
just because the thinness, and I mean,
the cost in general of the titanium?
- [Jeff] Yeah, it can open a hole real easy.
- [Jason] Right?
- [Jeff] Yup, so we've got to make sure
our fits are on point, and just take your time.
- [Jason] So tell me about some of the cuts
and everything you have in here.
I mean, do you start from a template,
or are you start off a print, or you just start
on the actual engine and work your way out?
- [Jeff] This system here is mocked up on a bike.
This is the first one, hasn't even been released yet.
But it was built on the bike, take it off there,
build a jig for it to weld it out, and help
keep it all together and so I can build more.
But all the fittings here are from Ticon,
and they're Mandrel bend fittings
that I'll saw off for pie cuts,
already cut clean and all the rest straight to,
this is their megaphone reducer that they make also.
- So you mentioned earlier that you can't use acetone,
like a lot of times we TIG weld and everything,
I mean, that's one of the go-to things
to clean up the material.
- I used acetone on this, yes.
- Okay.
- [Jeff] When the finish is brushed like this,
it will hold oils a lot better than if it was polished.
So, I've done systems where I've polished them out,
and I can actually clean them after
I've welded them and colored.
As far as this one, the oils when you touch it,
you couldn't clean them off.
- [Jason] Can't get them back off?
- [Jeff] Nah.
- So how do you go though your coloring process?
Once everything's done, like all the welds that come out
with a nice silver color, but I notice you have,
like, straw up here, turn into a light purple,
deep purple, into a dark blue.
So, how do you go about getting the colors you want?
- This is all consistent up here that I've done through
an anodizing process, which we use at Heffner,
and this was done with a torch and chucked it up in a lathe,
to evenly disperse that heat across there.
There's other ways you can weld it out, and then brush it
and then torch it all, or anodize it, how you want,
but I really like the fact that I show the weld quality,
as opposed to some companies,
where they try to cover that up.
- [Jason] Right, so you're going to leave
all the welds on it once it's done?
- [Jeff] Correct, they'll all be silver.
- And that's nice, you know?
I've been in a lot of situations
where you put some beautiful welds down
and you've got to grind them back off or,
you know, cover them back up.
You know, that's like there's a lot of art
involved in and there's a lot of talent.
- [Jeff] Exactly, that's what this is man, is art.
- All right Jeff, so what's next?
- I'll get on this backside here, get it tied in,
do the tight spot between here, and then we'll
get into this tight area, and show you how this
cup really is put to work.
- [Jason] All right man, let's run it.
- [Jeff] So, right when you pull out of the weld,
you see me put my hood up.
If you do do that, you need to be careful
that you don't flip it up too fast,
or exhale too hard, and you'll actually blow that argon.
You're shooting gas out of there,
and you'll be left with a blue spot.
So, just be cautious of it.
- [Jason] So, if you do end up with some sort of oxides
in there because you flipped you hood up,
or breathed too hard, or somebody opened the side door,
or whatever, how do you go about rectifying that?
- What I usually do is, I'll just put the torch
back there, heat the material up just a little bit.
I don't get it to where it puddles again, but you can
actually watch that color go away, and then I'll just
back out of it and let it cool it off again.
- Okay
- [Jeff] Great thing about the titanium is,
say I've got a little high-low here,
That opens up on me, back my amps off a little bit,
and the wire actually fills in really nice,
and allows it to fill up, as opposed to
if you've ever welded stainless tubing and it opens up.
It's hard, it's hard, yeah.
This stuff, it comes back together real nice.
- [Jason] Jeff, that was awesome work man.
I really appreciate you stopping out here
and giving us a demonstration tonight.
Jeff with Heffner Performance.
Thanks again for watching.
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