The fabrication thread.

[Baxter]

Originally Posted by BlazedGlory

I too am thinking about getting a welder. Right now I'm looking at the Miller Diversion 165. I don't know (or maybe care) if it is dumb to jump straight into TIG welding first, but I mainly want to be able to do aluminum, etc.

Personally I would hold off on getting the diversion. It's not too hard to find good deals on ebay for a dynasty 200dx. you can find them for just over $2000 with relatively few amount of strikes and it is a hell of a lot more welder than the diversion 165. In the long run you'll probably be kicking yourself for not spending more on the dynasty up front. An added plus is that the dynasty is even smaller than the diversion so if you want something easily portable it only gets better.

[240sxaddict]

Originally Posted by fakts13

huh, for some reason they looked larger, maybe it's the black on the interior or somethin? regular dom or chromoly?

1 5/8" x 0.120wall DOM

Originally Posted by GSXRJJordan

Didn't want to run the rear down bars back to the strut towers? Most S14 cages connect the strut towers with a cross-bar, and have the rear down bars cross and connect to that... gives you quite a bit less angle - how close to 45* are those down bars?

Nope, the only way I'll weld a cage to the strut towers is If I reinforce the whole thing. I do not trust strut towers at all. And the lopsided design and placement of the gastank makes this a pain in the ass. The down bars on this car hit a solid peice of floor with a frame rail behind it. I forget the angle but it's not bad at all.

[Otto347]

Originally Posted by fakts13

not dumb at all. go for it! diversion is a great bang for the buck welder!

x2 I also want to get the 165, its really a really nice machine!

Also added some pieces of steel to the stock bushing housing, tapped them so I can add grease fittings. Also threw a weld on the bushing housing to keep them still.

[BlazedGlory]

Originally Posted by Baxter

Personally I would hold off on getting the diversion. It's not too hard to find good deals on ebay for a dynasty 200dx. you can find them for just over $2000 with relatively few amount of strikes and it is a hell of a lot more welder than the diversion 165. In the long run you'll probably be kicking yourself for not spending more on the dynasty up front. An added plus is that the dynasty is even smaller than the diversion so if you want something easily portable it only gets better.

Ok; I've also started looking at the Synchrowave 200 as well... I'm not worried about portability at all. Any thoughts?

[Jonnie Fraz]

Originally Posted by BlazedGlory

Ok; I've also started looking at the Synchrowave 200 as well... I'm not worried about portability at all. Any thoughts?

I have a Dynasty 200. It is an amazing machine! I can say I will never outgrow this unit.
The Syncrowave is very simular to the Dynasty in features, but in a transformer machine. The Dynasty is about $1300.00 more than Syncrowave, and if portability is not an issue then the Syncrowave may be right for you.

[blu808]

Jonnie is right. He brought his Dynasty 200 down to my shop one day. He had it all setup in about 5 minutes.

I was blown away with how much better it welds than my lincoln precision tig 185.
I want to get one some day if I have the money.

[JDworkz]

PIPE BENDER FROM ......GOTTRIKES.COM

[cazman]

what do people think of using these kind of benders for roll cages?

[steve_o1989]

You might have trouble bending tubing with that. The unit you posted is a Pipe bender, and pipe is measured in I.D. where as tubing (which is what you want to use) is measured in O.D. So, the dies for the pipe bender, do not exactly match the size of the tubing, and you will end up with kinked bends most of the time.

There are some tricks to avoiding this though, such as filling the tubing with sand first.

You would be better off building a tubing bender like the one JDworkz made.

[Andrew Bohan]

i've used that kind of bender for cages

it will definately bend the tubes but whether or not it kinks depends on wall thickness.

for example:
1-5/8" x .120" didn't kink
1-5/8" x .095" kinked

but you ALWAYS get dents on the outside edge of the bend, where the holder pin things hold it

and it also doesn't have a degree wheel, so you always have to guess and check for the right angle


i wouldn't recommend it for building a serious cage, but one for just lapping days would probably be okay.

[GSXRJJordan]

Today Duffm4n called me up after installing a header on his old skool Corolla and having a nasty piping problem - the header didn't even come close to the cat flange - and needed a fix to get home. Naturally, I helped him out

Problem was, the angles were totally off, the header was positioned too far away from the frame rail, and pointing inward, while the cat flange hugs the frame rail, and points outward lol.

The Corolla on stands, ready to 'do work':


Fast forward hours later - I had some extra flanges and 2.5" pipe so I made some pie cuts and started fitting them in there - this is what I ended up with, super fitment!


... well, not so super - I tacked it together (seeing only the driver's side) and realized I left some HUGE gaps on the inside - luckily I'm a mack at filling gaps w/wire feed (had to cut a filler piece for the huge gap though):

Flash makes the welds look super nasty, some parts were perfect, most were 7/10ish

Finished product, ground down for baller-ness:


And it fits really well!! ... and all hardware is accessible:


Then we grabbed Camilleon and got her to take her 510 and the 'rolla out together

[Om1kron]

cool stuff, that corolla Eddie has was a real smog death trap lol

[DUFFM4N]

thanks again for the help jeff...even though i dug your grave a little deeper with your girlfriend by just showing up lol

[JDworkz]

[forum04pl]

^ why didn't you hug the cage closer to the a pillar and go through the dash?

[4sfed180]

Originally Posted by forum04pl

^ why didn't you hug the cage closer to the a pillar and go through the dash?

i was gonna say the same thing. good luck removing the dash any time soon

you could have hugged the A-pillars and tied into them too. this makes it look like a show cage unfortunately.

[GSXRJJordan]

^^^ If I was a pro fabricator, and someone brought me a car for a cage, and I told them "you should pull out the dash, so I can design it better, and it'll look better", and they didn't... I'd probably just do it like that too. Sucks, cause it gets in the way of everything (makes it harder to get in/out, impossible to take the dash out, etc).

[fakts13]

Originally Posted by 4sfed180

i was gonna say the same thing. good luck removing the dash any time soon

you could have hugged the A-pillars and tied into them too. this makes it look like a show cage unfortunately.

i think this is more of a show car anyways since the car is a converted RHD. there's no reason to do that on a perfectly good chassis on a track car.

GSXRJJordan: look at the other post by JDworkz it shows the dash being out.

[DisEpyon]

I like your tube bender you made jdworkz. Never seen a cage built like that in front of the dash, none the less great work. I recently welded in a cage for an integra, need to take pics of it and post it. The cage i welded in it is a swing out version. so basically a hoop with two back bars, 4point, then the two front bars can be removed or put in to make a 6point.

Got done with this recently last week. Its a oil catch can/breather tank. I didnt design it, just welded it. Apparently the guy was having problems with his previous catch can spewing out oil while racing (road coarse car), so this one was made.

Pictures of it after welded (nonpolished)






Pictures of it installed in the car (polished), i didnt polish it, the shop owner did.




Underneath picture


Few shots of the engine bay




Lastly a few shots of the car

[JDworkz]

Originally Posted by forum04pl

^ why didn't you hug the cage closer to the a pillar and go through the dash?

this was my first time building a cage. i had to figure out which way i should bend the tubing and the degrees. it was too late after i made the last bend. i found out that the left a-pillars tubing fits perfect on the right side a-pillar and vise versa. i will remember this for my next cage that i build. plus i didn't want to scrap the tubing, so i just kept it. its really not that bad. i will just put a metal plate there.

Originally Posted by 4sfed180

i was gonna say the same thing. good luck removing the dash any time soon

i figure that i wont have to remove the dash. i thought about that. thats why i put all the heater core, a/c components, and wiring back in before i welded the cage. even if you drill holes in the dash, you still have trouble getting the dash out. unless you make major cuts in the dash or have a removable cage. mine is welded to the frame

you could have hugged the A-pillars and tied into them too. this makes it look like a show cage unfortunately.

yeah....your right. first time building it.

Originally Posted by GSXRJJordan

^^^ If I was a pro fabricator, and someone brought me a car for a cage, and I told them "you should pull out the dash, so I can design it better, and it'll look better", and they didn't... I'd probably just do it like that too. Sucks, cause it gets in the way of everything (makes it harder to get in/out, impossible to take the dash out, etc).

I would have drilled holes in the dash if i didn't want to have a/c, heater, or glove box

Originally Posted by fakts13

i think this is more of a show car anyways since the car is a converted RHD. there's no reason to do that on a perfectly good chassis on a track car.

well.....this car is going to be my DD, track, and show car for now until i get a new DD and i will go full track with it.

GSXRJJordan: look at the other post by JDworkz it shows the dash being out.

yup your right before i welded the cage to the frame.

[quote=DisEpyon;2776697]I like your tube bender you made jdworkz. Never seen a cage built like that in front of the dash, none the less great work. I recently welded in a cage for an integra, need to take pics of it and post it. The cage i welded in it is a swing out version. so basically a hoop with two back bars, 4point, then the two front bars can be removed or put in to make a 6point.

Got done with this recently last week. Its a oil catch can/breather tank. I didnt design it, just welded it. Apparently the guy was having problems with his previous catch can spewing out oil while racing (road coarse car), so this one was made.

Thanks......love your work too. I would love to see the cage you built with the swing arm.

[atutt]

Here are a couple things I've built at work




























I know the aluminum welds look like ass but I can't seem to conquer this "Vibrant" aluminum BS. Everything else turns out wicked. Just this Vibrant stuff is crap....

[atutt]

Oh and here's what some flux core looks like with gas... 220v



Not total ass, just messy

[duffman1278]

Wow not bad.

How was the penetration?

[GSXRJJordan]

Those are some awesome projects Atutt, and great work, of course

[duffman1278]

Alright well I had to help finish the car at school and I finished by welding up the brackets for the shock mounts.

Some spots were tricky. I had to end up getting someone to push the pedal for me on the TIG lol

[blu808]

Here was my "fun" project for the day.

We obtained a ex factory BMW ALMS car carbon intake manifold.

My job was to make it all fit. I won't go into what I had to do, but it was a huge pain in the ass.

This is on our shop E46 m3



Andrew also fabricated all the stickers for my new car.

[4sfed180]

Originally Posted by atutt

Here are a couple things I've built at work

just remember. you want the heat exchanger inlets and outlets to be smaller in area then the heat exchanger itself. simple fluids problem

do this:

inlet

/ \
[ ]
\ /
outlet

not this:

| |
[ ]
| |

or this:

\ /
[ ]
/ \

looks good though.

[driftstyre]

Originally Posted by blu808

Here was my "fun" project for the day.

We obtained a ex factory BMW ALMS car carbon intake manifold.

My job was to make it all fit. I won't go into what I had to do, but it was a huge pain in the ass.

This is on our shop E46 m3



Andrew also fabricated all the stickers for my new car.

That is awesome!! There must be like 30 liters of capacity in that thing.

[fakts13]

^^ well if that's an ITB setup it won't make as much difference as you think seeing as how it isn't a plenum but more like a reserve tank

[bungl3]

never heard of something m-power designed being called retarded before.....

they really know what theyre doing with n/a