Fabrication

I have decided to finally bite the bullet and start making: rock sliders, front bumper, rear bumper, roll cage connecters. If anyone has any advise, or ideas I welcome them. I am pretty much going to shoot from the hip. I will post pics as the construction.

lets see

heavier is better...........why use 1/8th" when you can use 1/4"

triangulation is key........

double shear is better than single shear...........

krylon rocks!!! its going to get scratched anyway

fuck it just weld something up.....

and post pics......not crappy cell phone pics, good pics and i'll let you know all the ways you fucked it up

I have just come across a pile of chrome moly tubing that is from 2'-5' long all .090 thickness with an od of 2". There is also a bunch of "dent and scratch" bumpers that I can cut up. I was also granted the use of a chop saw, full set of torches, mig/tig, and a drill press. I dont know how I scored this. I do know if things work out well there might be enough for me to duplicate a couple pieces. Trying to decide on how I want it to look. I know it will be strong enough!! I will start construction this friday. If anyone has a request let me know and I will see if I can get it done at the same time. I have 3 months to complete what ever it is that I want to create.

sounds sweet........tig that cromo and clearcoat it....no paint

This is along the idea of what I want to run for the front bumper.

just so you know.......that 2" cromo is going to be a bear to bend.....

i bent some .095 x 1.5 cromo a while back and it was tough, i would consider hydro power a must for 2"

I dont really plan on bending much. I would rather have welded joints. I just bought a hogging bit for the press that will allow me to cut fit and weld the tubing. I guess I might have to have a mean stinger!!!!

redneckhouston wrote:

heavier is better...........why use 1/8th" when you can use 1/4"

I'm not a fabricator, I admit, but I'm also not a fan of unnecessary lead in my shorts. Seems like you'd want it as heavy as necessary and as light as possible, no?

There is always a compromise when fabricating I wouldn't use 1/8" for anything other than decoration. 1/4" is too heavy for some, it just depends on what you are using the it for, I will usually use 1/4" for brackets, tabs etc, somthing that is going to see a lot of stress. 3/16" is probably the most widely used and is what I will use 90% of the time. Oh, and we are talking about plate steel here. Tubing is a little different. 1/8" wall tubing (.120) is very common and acceptable in most applications.

In a double sheared application, the shear load is applied over two points and not just one. I could show you this using some 2 x 4s and nailing them together, but the illustrations I found below do that well enough and are what I think redneck is referring to. If not, he'll correct my dumb ass!

you are correct Jody, but those drawings suck

Here is one, top is single shear, bottom is double shear

Thanks guys, "I lernd me sumptin nu tooday"