So I decided that I wanted to make another topic regarding my new work, I hope I'll be able to take many pictures from it.

From monday I started to work at local fab shop as a fabricator. That shop mainly focuses on roll cages and Subaru work, also other custom stuff. I believe main reason for me to get invited to work for them was because of header/manifold/exhaust/intake and those kind of fabrications, I believe owner saw pictures on the internet... those are not the greatest here, but for local area, those are maybe the best. But as the shop mainly focuses on roll cages, I know thats the main thing the owner wants me to focuse on - to learn how to build and weld them, of couse, I want that too

So, started out monday, got there, there was 2010 STI with interior striped down, and the main roll cage fabricatior guy there was already working on bending main hoop. Started out helping with small stuff, as always, when you're new, not with big experiance and so on... then started on making "base plates" (how are these called in english???) and MIG tack welded them, also help with cutting tube, bending it...

As I only own a DSLR and I really don't feel like taking it to work, I'm taking pictures with my phone for now, but I think I'll buy a cheap digital camera from my first sallary, cause I like to take pictues

Here are few pictures from first day:

JD2 Model 32 bender & other tools you can see there, Subaru Impreza STI 2010, main hoop, a pillars and roof bar in.





This company does 99% MIG roll cages, here localy 99% cages are MIG welded. This car is actually from Finland, and the cage is custom FIA spec as far as I know, this is the first time they are doing 2010 STI... That main roll cage guy here is a MIG welded, he does TIG too, but not really good, I believe I do a bit better then he does on mild steel and this roll cage steel, and much better at stainless.

So yesterday the cage was coming together pretty well, and I also did my first measuring, magic stuff, bending, notching I, on my own (), did both lower door bars, and almost fully both upper door bars too, and I'm pretty glad they turned out good, cause that was my first time doing something like that Also, to mention, this is 30 roll cage this year for this company, and we have are only able to do one car at a time, for now, so I would say not bad...




One thing I also wanted to mention... this company in my opinion is lacking good tools... not that they have cheap tools, they just choose wrong tools IMO... fron models/companies and so on

Also yesterday owner decided that we will be TIG welding 90% of this cage, and as that car was here before me, and I don't know how did they talk about this before starting work on the car, but we've already built everything thinking we will be MIG welding it, so, as you may imagine, not the closest fit notches and so on, some gaps here and there and such.......... Ok, then owner decided lets do everything what we can TIG, other things with MIG.

So, today we pretty much finished building the middle section of the cage, still main X will go in, but we started out welding everthing today, and then we'll build front, rear, and main hoop X. And of course I'm the one welding the cage Ok, what the hell... they had wp-20 button controled european style tig torch, which, of course is quite a pain in the ***, the TIG welding machine imo is crap to, it's made by METABO, a german company which does a lot of tools, but that not welding equipment...

But dispite that, I today welded 90% of what was TIG weldable there (it was ~80% of middle section in the picture), those were my first steps in "out of position" welding, I did overhead many time and such - which of I've never done, I really thought that I wont be able to get anything close to acceptable, taking in to account me welding aroung 5/6 months, not my equipment and never ever welding a cage before But I'm really glad how I did today, not the best welded ever, but IMO good for first time.

Here are those crappy phone pictues





In the second weld pic you can see that top and other side was mig welded because of a big gap.

Everything welded without anykind of gas lens, usual #7 cup, 3/32 red electrode (tomorow I'll get my gray), 1/16 filler, 80amps. Main hoop is .098" wall, other .078" wall. No remote heat control.

Also, as I know, we got two Imprezas scheduled for roll cages and a e36 coupe which is sitting outside already for a month waiting for a roll cage

P.S. thats not me in the last pic...

Thanks

 

Looks like a job that you enjoy!

mmm awd + cage = Gimme some dirt jumps

 

Good luck to ya rad.

 

Yeah, I do enjoy this job so far And I think I'll be enjoying it for a long time

Thanks Collin! So far I'm really excited to learn building cages

 

Interesting job, best of luck to you. Who works there just you and the owner?

Just roll cages or other things as well?

 

nice work...reminds me of the welds on my old bmx bikes

 

looks good man, enjoy it.

AWD ftw.

 

Looks good!

 

Congrats! This will move your career and skill along nicely!

 

Thanks! No, there is that one main roll cage fab guy, me, three mechanics, one guy on mill. We have total of three garages there, one for roll cages, two for other mechanical stuff.

Mainly roll cages, but they take on intakes/exhausts too, I believe also other custom stuff.

Thanks, I will!

Thank you Chris. I believe so, that was one of the main reasons I decided to get involved, just wanted to raise my skill, learn new things and so on

 

Thanks Ricky! There is the owner, who doesnt work himself, but he did roll cages from 1986 so lots of old timer experiance, his son, who also helps with the management stuff, then me and the main roll cage fab guy, three mechanics, and one old guy who works on mill there. We got three boxes/garages, one for roll cages, two for mechanical stuff.

Mainly roll cages, but they take on intakes/exhausts too, I believe other custom stuff too.

Thanks, I will!

Thank you Chris. I believe so, that why I decided to get involved - to learn new things and get my skill/knowladge up.

 

The majority of them look pretty good, but back off the pedal towards the end and fill the crater with filler. Otherwise that will lead to a crack.

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks, but I dont have an remote control pedal, so I just try to move faster at the end an maybe lenghten the arc lenght a bit.

Also maybe someone could tell me which tungsten from their experiance works best for aluminium????

Thanks

 

Black tip tungsten 2mm

 

It looks like everytime you let off on the aluminum weld, you drag red hot tungsten across the end of the weld bead. Are you resting your tungsten on the weld when you let off? Brake that habit asap.

 

Well spoted Collin.....Rad I think that thos is the reason why you have a crater at each stop....
You are concentrating too much heat at a single spot.

 

You know this thread will become indexed and google searchable for that business name soon. You might want to move your practice welds back to you own thread unless the owner wants your practice time to come up everytime his business name is searched. No offense, but I wouldn't.

 

if youre welding without a pedal, dab a little extra rod towards the end when you let off to not leave a crater.

 

^^^ Listen to the above, and remember, if your doing all of those at the same time the plate will get hotter and hotter so you'll need to back the amps off, some of them look like the material is just too hot.

 

Do you mean like - I dip and then move and stop, but I should dip and then stop without moving, to avoid craters?

About that resting of tungsten, do you mean that about those scratches? If so, then yes, maybe I touched the bead with hot tungsten after letting off...

Yeah, that's a good idea! I didn't think of that earlier Thanks

 

Here is a little report of how we're doing with cage.

Basicly 90% of cage is finished. Still have to do few things, weld few spots, but thats pretty much it. Also it seems that we will be building this car fully, we need to fit seats, and need to make those holes where rally type "jack" stands go in, then I think car goes to mechanics for other things.

Here are few pics of progress:





Close-up is, in my opinion, nicest weld I've done on roll cage so far Was done with 83amps.

Thanks

 

bro get yourself a pedal so you can back off the heat slower when you stop. nice work but theres a lot of room for improvement in your stops/starts.

 

Congrats on the new job...a couple questions though.

- On the diagonal bars at the halo, did you have to drop the cage to get them welded 360deg? It looks almost as if the main downtubes were welded in already. Not sure what the regs are for FIA, but I know in the states a lot of concern is given to welds being completely 360deg.

- I understand that FIA cages tend to be "pre-designed" for compliance (how many bars, how they are bent, etc, etc) for whatever level of competition they are to be used in. For that cage (which looks great by the way), will there be another bar connecting the node between the upper door Xs, at the main hoop and the rear downstays at the suspension point(beside the rear wheelwell). That looks like the only "missing link" in an otherwise tidy cage.

Gavin

 

Hey, thanks

Which are diognal bars at halo??? (English is not my first language, so I don't know all roll cage terms in english yet ) as far as I know, also FIA spec cages here are really inspected to have 360deg welds... so we drop cage for everything that requires cage dropped, and almost only at the end (when we build and weld back side (rear) of the cage) we weld it to base plates.

For that other "missing link" - if you're talking about bar which would fit in between the upper bar and lower bar which both come from main hoop to rear strut point, the one which would come out from the connection point of upper door X, then no, there wont be one... as far as I know, there are FIA cages where you use it and dont use the lower one, or like we do, or with all three.

Cheers

 

Hallo

Today we finaly finished the cage Still have to mount seats, steering wheel, dashboard and such, though.

Here are few pics:

I'm not sure how this is called, but on side, I helped to mechanic which was working on this Land Cruiser to make this "bar" or how you call it, for those big lights... Thats just for some kind of off road driving



Here are pictures of cage, a lot of angles :D







I really like this way we made "bracket" for steering column, of how it's called



Also I'm trying to invest some time to try and weld aluminium after work, also try to weld with MIG, cause as far as I've understood, mainly all cages are MIG welded, cause no one really want to pay for TIG... so, I need to get that down Also want to get ok and with time good with aluminium, to be able to do repairs and such things, also catch cans, fuel cells or how they're called

Ok guys, cheers