Tubing fab.

Stumpalump

Expedition Leader
Working with tubing is not hard. I was asked to help a freind and took some picks. I don't rag on other peoples fab work but I thought these pics might help sombody new to this or for somebody that wants to have a professional welder finish up their project like in this case. None of us are professional fabricators and this is just my friends dads two car garage with only basic tools.

You tell me what you see wrong. Hint in case the resolution is not good. There are a lot of sparks.
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The project was to take this 300 hp Honda rear engine car and make it a mid engine with an $8000 Mendeola transaxle. Light, powerful and strong.

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This tube was fish mount cut with a grinder. It's jagged but a good welder should be able to fill in the gaps. The problem is that the tubes were not ground clean. Notice the paint on one and the mill scale is still on the new tube. Even though steel maybe new you must grind off the outer coating of mill scale if you want the best weld.

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A better way to grind a fish mouth at home is with a flapper sanding disk on your grinder.

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When the fish mouth gets complicated the way to do it is to cut a pattern out of rolled card stock or a toilet paper roll. It's easy to cut and fit paper and you don't have to worry about mistakes. Slide the paper roll over the tube and trace the pattern. Complicated cuts become easy.
In this next pic you can see the nice clean fish mouth cut tube all clean and ready for a welder. In front of it is one of the tranny mounts. Again the paint was not ground off and the mill scale was left on the new bracket. Just take a little time, prepaired with an extra tube if it's your first time and you will be amazed at what you can make. The welder dropped by after I left and said 60-100 bucks to weld in the 6 tubes and three engine tranny brackets. A little paint and nobody will no a couple of goof balls like us could get such good results in a garage with harbor freight tools.

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Here is the Honda 3.5 matted to a Medeola. Would be a first choice combo for manny because of power and weight.
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screwball48

Explorer
I see nothing wrong with the first picture. It looks to me like the small generator is well shield from those sparks by the partially empty gas cans.


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You tell me what you see wrong. Hint in case the resolution is not good. There are a lot of sparks.
View attachment 299738

Ya, maybe the fuel cans under the Plastic "fabrication" table......
Not to mention what looks like a battery on the table..
My biggest fear is burning my shop down. I usually hang out for a half hour or so after running my plasma table or welding/grinding in my shop. My wife thinks I'm paranoid, I think there is too much to lose.

Also as a side note, Muriatic Acid works excellent to remove mill scale on areas that will be welded. Saves a lot of time not grinding it off. Makes a nice clean surface to weld. Just rinse it off with water after removing the part from a quick soak in the acid, and force it dry using compressed air.

BRC
 
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Antichrist

Expedition Leader
A wraparound, a bit of math and sharp piece of soapstone will enable you to fabricate very clean and professional pipe/tube connections.
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
The error in the first pic is a loose shirt tail in close proximity to a rapidly spinning power tool. Properly sealed gas cans below the table top is a minor thing compared to that.


Nice fitting work, how are your weld beads?
 

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
A wraparound, a bit of math and sharp piece of soapstone will enable you to fabricate very clean and professional pipe/tube connections.

A few years ago there was a spreadsheet (at least I think it was a spreadsheet) floating around the internet that someone had set up as a tube notching calculator of sorts. Just fill in the basic data (tubing sizes, wall thicknesses, angles of approach to each other, etc), & it created a scaled & printable graph that you could simply wrap around the tube, and follow the lines with your grinder. It worked pretty well & you couldn't beat the price (free).
 

RockRanger

New member
A few years ago there was a spreadsheet (at least I think it was a spreadsheet) floating around the internet that someone had set up as a tube notching calculator of sorts. Just fill in the basic data (tubing sizes, wall thicknesses, angles of approach to each other, etc), & it created a scaled & printable graph that you could simply wrap around the tube, and follow the lines with your grinder. It worked pretty well & you couldn't beat the price (free).

Could be this site you are talking about. http://metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi
 

RockRanger

New member
I have a HF notcher. One of my bigger wastes of money I have spent. I use the print outs from above the most now. If I am going to be doing a lot of the same fit ups, A I print it and before cutting it out cover both sides in clear packing tape. They seem to hold up a bit longer before having to print and cut a new one.
 

INSAYN

Adventurer
Besides the already suggested Darwin entries, does this guy respect his eyes? Where's the eye protection?
 

BurbanAZ

Explorer
Besides the already suggested Darwin entries, does this guy respect his eyes? Where's the eye protection?

Yea the lack of eye protection was the first thing I noticed too. I've known people that got metal in their eyes, not fun.
 

urbex

Observer
Heh....I once was grinding and welding right next to a leaky fuel tank on one of my Scouts years ago. I knew it was leaking, as I was watching it drip while I was grinding, but it didn't occur to me it was fuel from the tank, as there was another plate of steel under the tank (figured it was just residual water dripping out). When I repositioned myself under the Scout, and it dripped in my eye. The instant, brutal, burning made me realize REAL fast that it was gasoline, and not water, lol.
 

Sabre

Overlanding Nurse
Yea the lack of eye protection was the first thing I noticed too. I've known people that got metal in their eyes, not fun.
I just had my follow-up appointment today with the opthalmologist after getting a piece of steel removed from my cornea. Of course, I have a really nice pair of custom-made bifocal prescription safety glasses...certified lenses, side curtains, the whole deal.

And I remembered that I ought to go put them on AFTER that first shower of sparks touching the grinder to steel. One little bit bounced up under my regular glasses and that's all it took.

After a day and a half of increasing misery and with SabreWife frustrated cuz she couldn't find anything in my eye and couldn't flush it out, I went to have the professional do it.

"Hold still and don't blink," he said, "I'm going to use this needle to dig it out of your eye."

Ummmmm...OK, doc...holy crap, here comes that needle...DON'T MOVE, DON'T BLINK!

Oh, yeah...then he used a Dremel tool with a round burr cutter to grind away the rust ring that had started to form. I cannot adequately express how much I hated this procedure, performed without benefit of any sedation (only numbing drops).

Heed my tale, boys and girls...wear your safety glasses. Turns out that fat old seventh grade shop teacher was right.
 

RoyJ

Adventurer
I go a step further an always use a face shield when grinding, even with a dinky 4.5" Hitachi...

Years ago when working in a mill, a photo was shown in our monthly safety meeting: a millwright was using a big 7" grinder, and the disk disintegrated. Came flying right into his face ..... shield! The disc was lodged right into the lexan shield, less than 1/2" away from his skin.

After that even diehard old school millwrights started wearing face shields when grinding.

So for myself it's always ear protection, face shield, and welding gloves when grinding. I make a habit of putting on the face shield as soon as the welding helmet comes off.
 
I go a step further an always use a face shield when grinding, even with a dinky 4.5" Hitachi...

Years ago when working in a mill, a photo was shown in our monthly safety meeting: a millwright was using a big 7" grinder, and the disk disintegrated. Came flying right into his face ..... shield! The disc was lodged right into the lexan shield, less than 1/2" away from his skin.

After that even diehard old school millwrights started wearing face shields when grinding.

So for myself it's always ear protection, face shield, and welding gloves when grinding. I make a habit of putting on the face shield as soon as the welding helmet comes off.

Yep, which one would you rather have?

This?
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1442692871.738736.jpg

Or this?
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1442692887.140371.jpg
 

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