Subframe continued

I completed some more work on the subframe today, it's still a way from being finished but it is starting to feel reasonably strong now.  I'm still not very good at tig welding aluminium, it didn't help that I was running out of gas so under pressure to get it all done quickly.  The argon bottle is all but empty now and i cant get it re-filled till the new year meaning work on it will have to be put on hold.

Subframe brackets

I've welded on the subframe brackets today, I decided to cap off the lower tubes.  They arn't really tubes, but two pressed plate halves welded together and onto the frame.

All 4 brackets welded on, they should be strong enough, but i'd be happier if i could finish them off with a mig welder.  I cant tig upside down.

3.5kg removed

I started work on fitting the fireblade seat unit, when i got to this point i'd already cut off 1.3kg:

But I still couldn't get the seat on, I'd needed to have cut the subframe right up to the tank mount, which would have resulted in lots of steel fabrication work to get the seat on... so i figured  I've now got an AC/DC tig so, I could just cut the whole lot off, save even more weight and fabricate a complete replacement out of aluminium. 3.5kg's removed looks like this:

I also trial fitted the fireblade tank cover, as you can see it reduces the distance to the bars.  I'm not sure if this is a good idea so have decided not to play with this for now: