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Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding method

TwistedXT

TwistedXT

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Sep 20, 2004
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Parker, Colorado
I sit here at work everyday surfin the net when i get a chance, drooling over these buggies i keep seeing poping up all over the place. I am very handy and got cert. in welding like 10 years ago and wouldnt mind getting my hands dirty if someone would take the time to refresh (or kick) my memory. any little tricks and short cuts are always welcome. I know im not the only one here drooling!!!!! :flipoff:
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

I'm not too sure what you are asking but here it goes:

Well I'm not certified by any means but , the little scale tube work I've done I might be able to help. I used a miller 175 mig welder set on it's lowest setting then I tack welded the tubing all the way around. Then spent a good hour grinding the welds smooth. What I learned is that you really only need to tack the top & bottom of the joint. The corners aren't that important being scale and take forever to grind down if you weld them. I hopew that makes sense and helps ya.
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

i am a welder and i would be happy to help you with any questions you have. right now i am building a txt tuber and should have the rest of the pics up tonight. well maybe :P
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

I use a specially designed form to hold all the steel in place. Then go around and tack weld all the joints. Then I pop the steel from the form and finish all the welds. After finishing two like this, I lay them both into another form and put the two together. That has worked the best for me, and both sides are always the same.
clod%20frame%20painted%20black.jpg
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

Thanks guys, i wasnt sure on the method used for welding those small rods. Weather it was brazing or glorified soldering. I might have to pick up a cheap little welder (walmart special mig) and start having at it. Could you tell me what size and type of stock you use and possibaly the method you use to bend it, weather it be grunting (by hand) of something like a brake line bender from the autoparts store? Thanks again for the insite fellas.
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

If you build the chassis out of 1/4" bakeline tubing, which I think will be strong enough, then you can use a brake line bender from the auto parts store.
I have bent solid 1/4" steel rod with a brake line bender but it is not much fun. Solid rod will make a very stong chassis but is not necessary IMHO.

I have found the tack and grind method to werk quite well also.

Welcome to the site, you will need to get together with the rest of us Colorado guys sometime. 8)
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

I use 1/8" cold roll steel for my frames. And 22 guage flat stock for the mounting points. On the frame pic I posted it was all bent by hand. I tacked two of the 1/8" rods together at the ends and went crazy. The design was made on the computer and printed off. I used this as a guide, and when I had my shape, I broke the rods apart and had both sides of the frame (exact replica's of each other). For any of my newer frames though, they are more seperate pieces layed out in a form and welded as I said in my last post.

The only brake line benders I found won't work very well because they only go down to 1/4". Plus, it takes way too much time (at least that's what I think)

Hope this helps.
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

Tack weld each joint. maybe 2-3 tacks each joint. You could probably leave it just like that as they said before. Very strong, for this purpose. If you want the joint to look good, you can go back and braze it in. Seems to go a little quicker this way, as opposed to fully welding the joint, then tryin to make it look good by grinding.........
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

8O WOW, you guys are more informative then i ever imagined! 8O

This is great... guess im going to hit Pep Boyz auto parts and homedepot on my way home... thanks for your help everyone, i will be sure ti post my progress as i get my hands dirty. Cutter, that website you linked is awsome.... thankyou very much and thankyou very much to everyone else that lended a hand. :!:
 
Re: Tube chassis construction, can anyone explain welding me

I use 56% silver solder and an oxy/Ac torch, I can show ya, but it is hard to do on here. :?
 
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