Hobart Champion 16

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sounds like you're making some serious headway with it! gotta love that they actually have serviceable parts inside....and on top of that, a good tech line!


this may influence the brand of welder I guys in the future
 
So this afternoon was muffler building day.... there's not a prayer of buying a champion 16 muffler, they haven't made it in years and the John Deere lawnmower that uses the same engine, has the muffler on the other side than the generator so swapping isn't possible on this part.

So, It's off to the SCD racing LaBoraTory!!!!

The problem:

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Parts gathered, a 24" x 24" sheet of steel and an 18" long piece of 1 7/8" exhaust pipe extension:

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Two pieces of tubing that fit over the head pipes:

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I started off just notching them with the grinder:

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Then I drilled the holes:

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I'm making the baffles by hand out of some extra rusty scrap crap I had laying around. It's actually a piece I had left over from making my dragger pipe. I'll wire brush it before I weld it....

First step is to cut out the 5 baffle plates:

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Then stick them in the vise and bend them. Make sure to line up the bend exactly with the notches (which were handcut themselves LOL!)

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Then we have to cut the hole out of the baffle plates and band it slightly to "adjust" the hole to line all of the plates up along the pipe.

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The plates nearing completion:

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The plates slid onto the tube:

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The next step is to weld the 1 7/8" tube onto the notched headpipe adapters and then the plates to the 1 7/8" tube and then start warpping the other sheet around the outside of the baffles plates. Might actually have it done tomorrow.
 
you sir are an animal lol.


looking good though. can't wait to see the completed muffler.


now about that new drag pipe lol
 
You and i would get along fine bro!!!

You do exactly what i do either build it,buy it dirt cheap and restore it,or trade for it.

Most of the stuff doesnt run or is in serious need of rebuilding i get in fact with the exception of this banshee it ran alll my toys when i got them were junk piles headed for scrap.

Its good to know theres more people like us out there.
 
good stuff SI

but halfway thru the pics, right after cross drilling them pieces, i see a bandaged thumb that wasn't like that in the first pic ????
 
good stuff SI

but halfway thru the pics, right after cross drilling them pieces, i see a bandaged thumb that wasn't like that in the first pic ????

Observant.... I had an "ouchie" halfway through. Darned sheet metal....

One of the drill hole backsides got me.... that little thin sheet metal overheats and kinda melts through the back before the drill bit ever cuts its way through and theyalways press out little shards of razor sharp steel.

They didn't design corner notchers, stomp shears, and press breaks for speed and efficiency, it was to cut down on the number of bandaids used!
 
Observant.... I had an "ouchie" halfway through. Darned sheet metal....

One of the drill hole backsides got me.... that little thin sheet metal overheats and kinda melts through the back before the drill bit ever cuts its way through and theyalways press out little shards of razor sharp steel.

They didn't design corner notchers, stomp shears, and press breaks for speed and efficiency, it was to cut down on the number of bandaids used!

good thing not everyone can afford such toys! lol. otherwise bandaids would go extinct....
 
you sir are an animal lol.


looking good though. can't wait to see the completed muffler.


now about that new drag pipe lol

Hey, when you decide to stop wasting money on rings and houses and get down to what REALLY matters..... I'll be here!

I tried to coax blasty_95 into getting a blaster headpipe so I could justify buying a 4' x 8' sheet of 18 gauge.... he didn't bite :(

You and i would get along fine bro!!!

You do exactly what i do either build it,buy it dirt cheap and restore it,or trade for it.

Most of the stuff doesnt run or is in serious need of rebuilding i get in fact with the exception of this banshee it ran alll my toys when i got them were junk piles headed for scrap.

Its good to know theres more people like us out there.

I dabble in all KINDS of junk, welders, quads, bikes, cars, boats, woodworking equipment.... pretty much anything with an engine or I do with my hands.

Most of what I get isn't headed for the scrap yard. This certainly wasn't scrap even thought it might have looked like it originally until I had given it a good yeehaw type try!

I do, however, like trading, I seem to always be dumping a small amount of cash into things in order to improve them slightly and trading up. A few notable exceptions being a small runabout boat and the LT250R in the background in a few of those shots....
 
No no, it's an inframe silencer. I:I

I welded until about 10:15 tonight. Mostly really fine stuff around the outside edges of the muffler welding together two sheets of 22 gauge sheet steel to form the body.

I finally ran out of energy and argon....

Back at it tomorrow afternoon to finish the muffler body and weld it to the head pipes.

I think if I need to redo this, I'm going to order a piece of 3.5" exhaust pipe and a piece of 1.5" exhaust pipe and take some 16 gauge sheet to work and use the iron worker to punch all of the holes out. This building from scratch without using anything "square" is for the birds :p
 
Looking good, James! Can't wait to see the finished muffler. Sounds like you'll be running and welding before the end of the month.
 
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Because of the size of the muffler body, the outlet comes out in a slightly different spot than the factory outlet pipe so I'm going to have to "trim" the main cover. I knew this going in and the hope is to have a quieter than stock muffler so I'm willing to make some sacrifices!

I'm going to wirebrush, straighten, and paint the covers for the welder and install them tomorrow.

The last stop is Hobart for an owner's manual so I can redo the front cover (the sun has faded some of the numbers off the front cover) and we're done!
 
Looks good! Now I see why the owner's manual is necessary!

Yeah, that front panel has seen better days. The operation is REALLY straight forward and I could use it without the manual but I'm going to take the manual and relabel that front panel so anyone can use it.

The big knob is amperage range (60- 225) in steps. The little knob is fine adjustment within that range. The four buttons and knobs at the bottom right are engine operation (field coil collapse, choke knob, start/run and autoidle kickdown)

You attach the welding leads either to the two studs on the right for DC or two studs on the left for AC. Not rocket science but I'd like to be able to relabel, correctly, the amperage course adjustment ranges....
 
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