Can I weld on a mostly assembled bike?

[Minimichael]

You're not supposed to weld on a gas tank unless it's hyper clean, right? Or where an arc might find the shortest route to ground is through a nearby roller bearing. I'm also thinking this translates into "not supposed to weld where stuff is screwed together"...

I don't want to keep a bare metal frame exposed too long, but I'm not ready to place the kickstand or foot peg brackets on my build yet. I need to assemble and sit down on it first before any of that.

I'm thinking I could weld a steel tab nearby and just of sight for future ground clamping. It might ensure my grounding route won't wander too far. It could also reduce how much primer I have to remove before welding.

I'm a novice mig flux welder but not too bad at it.

So what do you think? If I put a tab no more than three inches away on the back of a tube, can I later come back, clear just a smaller area of the primed metal, and weld a bracket onto that tube without completely disassembling the whole bike?

Thx

 

[sparkwizard]

Yes absolutely. Your paint may suffer for about 2 to 3 inches around the weld.
Also make sure your ground is on bare metal.

 

[Oldsalt]

Also be sure that any electrical device [such as a alternator or electronic ignition crap] is absolutely disconnected if you use a TIG or HeliArc with a high-freq mode. It will kill diodes and such silly things in a milli-second if the battery is not disconnected. Always disconnect the battery on any vehicle you are welding on even if using a wire feed or a rod AC or DC....even if all it has is an old generator. Beware of batteries. A month ago I was nearby when a guy with a nice Corvette decided to ignite the hydrogen gas coming out of an old style vented battery. Missed his eyes but sure screwed up the paint job and his clothes. Only one cell blew so he was kinda lucky. Never weld on a 'shock' that is sealed. It will blow up. Years ago a friend of mine was in a shop where a dude was welding on a Snowmoble. Resulting weld heat to a nearby plastic gas tank caused it to melt a pretty good sized hole. The fireball engulfed the only exit from the shop....John was at the other end of the shop and never got out. The welder dude survived. If you weld on the exhaust system on a modern car that has an Oxygen Sensor and you don't disconnect it from the exhaust pipe it will BLOW the computer even if the battery is disconnected! The last one I saw when this happened the replacement PRICE was $500 from a wrecking yard. Never weld on something on the weld bench if a can of starting fluid or brake cleaner [or etc.] is sitting there on the bench GROUNDED. All that has to happen is for the welding arc it touch the thin metal can. It's best if youall have given your heart to God before that sort of thing happens to you. NERVER use an empty 55 Gallon drum as a weld table! Can you guess why? Don't think I'd use a full one ether.