W800 from Street Bike to Touring Bike

This started out as a review for my new PrimeWeld TIG welder for a friend, but I realized there isn't much you can do with a welder review unless you make something. So was born the pannier/saddlebag mount to turn my Kawasaki W800 street bike into a touring bike.

The welder is a disappointment in a way. If you have experience with an Ox-Acetylene welder (making puddles and using filler rod), Also called a "gas welder", then the TIG is basically the same thing. It gets the metal hot faster but both methods provide a clean weld, unlike using flux-core wire in a MIG welder, which splatters all the over the place. A gas welder has the advantage of being able to weld very dirty metal. A TIG requires pristine metal. A gas welder doesn't care if you accidentally dip the tip into your weld puddle. A TIG hates that and will ruin the end of your tungsten tip (requiring to stop and re-sharpen it or insert a new one). So you have to get really good at holding the tip a fairly precise distance from the puddle. Another bad habit we gas welders can't break is with a TIG you need to pause at the end of a weld and let the post-flow of your argon gas shield the weld while it cools to keep from contaminating it. That's something you don't have to do with a gas welder and really hard to remember when you're TIG welding. The speed of both is about the same. TIG has better penetration. But all in all, most home garage welders need a MIG and a gas welder. Leave the TIG for precision work for the professionals. Also, most TIG welders use a foot pedal to feed the gas and control the amperage, but you can't use that if you are not working on a bench. I put the thumb-control on the torch head so I can use it anywhere in the shop, even if I'm down on my knees welding. That's something you can't do with a foot pedal.