lbhsbZ Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I hate it when this happens. I bought a roll cage kit from a reputable vendor, and it did't fit very well, so I got all pissed off and bought a bender from Pro-Tools.....the protools 105, even paid extra for the heavy duty model. Now I can bend my own cage up, and make it right. Then after making a couple of test welds (I always make test welds, try to destroy them, and cut a couple up to check for proper penetration) I noticed that my trusty little lincoln SP135 wasn't really up to par for cage work...even with its nipples twisted (both knobs turned till they don't turn any more). So being the impatient type that I am, I headed down to praxair and picked up a new Millermatic 180. OH yeah, and I also bought 100 feet of DOM tubing for the project as well ( I figure 30 feet or so will be consumed by the learning curve of the bender and notcher). So, I've got a new welder and a new tubing bender and a new notcher....Now I can make it fit right. I think I did pretty good. There is about a 1" gap between the main hoop and the sheet metal, and less than a 1 finger gap between the front tube and the A-pillar, on both sides. The main hoop is hard up against the roof and the body seam by the hatch hinges, so I'm going to stitch weld the hoop in to the body seam. The top windshield bar is also touching the body seam along the top of the windshield, so that will get stitched in too. I cut some plates to take up the gap between the A-pillars and the cage to tie in. I mounted the cage on little boxes..the main hoop boxes tie into the floor, fender well, and rockers, while the front tube boxes tie into the floor, rocker, and kick panels. I tacked everything in place, then knocked out the boxes and lowered the cage about 3 inches to weld the top, then welded the boxes back in and finished welding all the joints. The door bars will be the project for next weekend. I am doing Nascar style door bars that tie into the rockers, and also extending a couple tubes through the firewall on each side. More pictures to come when its done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buZy Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 You did really good! Smart move. Having your own tube bender and notcher is the way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 280ZForce Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 looking good! when can I come down and help me build a cage for my beast? I'm impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 You did really good! Smart move. Having your own tube bender and notcher is the way to go! Dunno about smart....my wallet is quite a bit lighter though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 looking good! when can I come down and help me build a cage for my beast? I'm impressed. Give me about another month. My garage isn't lit very well, so its hard for me to get anything substantial done after work during the week. I'm kinda limited to weekends for the welding and bending. I'll have mine done in a month or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 Well, I'm minus one new toy. My brand new $800 miller caught on fire tonight while I was welding.....and I just sold my old Lincoln today. I'm welderless so the cage won't be finished tomorrow as planned. dammit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdsk8ter Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 that sucks cage loos really good wheres the box you were talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Sorry to hear about the trouble. I think your cage looks very good from the picture and how you described it. Was the welding pulling to much current for your wiring in the garage? Or did the welder itself fail internally? Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 The wire feed mechanism was somehow shorting to hot and caught fire. Dunno what happened. I run my 200 amp Tig off the same outlet wide open and never had any problems...i would think there is enough power to run a 130 amp mig. Anyway, screw Miller. I'll take it back tomorrow and get my $900 back. I just got back from Home Depot and picked up a Lincoln SP175...basically the same thing. My little lincoln has been great. I've never had any issues with it in the 3 years that I've owned it. I'll stick with Red. I layed down a couple beads with the SP175 just now and WOW....nice and clean, no spatter, no sparks in my hair. I've been talking to all my welder buddies trying to figure out why the new Miller spattered so bad....they said thats the way it is with the larger machines. Hmm, the lincoln doesn't spatter. They told me to turn it down a bit. Something was wrong with it from the start I think. Anyway, back to the grindstone tomorrow. Beer time now. I ground into a couple of the welds that I made with the miller, and there are a couple small voids in them and some porosities. I'm gonna grind out all the welds and redo them with the new machine this weekend, then I'll try to roll the car out in the driveway and get some pictures of the rest of the cage and the mounting points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnymrp Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 i also just picked up a bender from por tools. im happy with it and the guys at pro tools were great to deal with. jon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 I'm not a welding expert, I've just been learning as I go, but I thought I should say something with regards to the 135 experience. If you just crank both knobs all the way up the wire comes out very fast, at least on my Miller. So fast that you won't get proper penetration and you'll end up with a cold weld that sits up really high on thicker material. I have found that it penetrates a lot more if you turn the heat up and the wire speed down, and then weld more slowly. Another trick to get better penetration with a 110V welder is to heat the tubing with a torch before welding. This is just not necessary with a 220V welder, but works for the little 110V units. 220V is the way to go in my opinion, but I know a lot of guys out there are like me and don't have a 220V outlet in the garage, so I wanted to pass along those tips for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 I agree with you 100%. I said that to illustrate that I had my little machine running as wide open as it gets, which in my case had the feed knob set at about 7/10 or so. The 135 class machines are great, and will do well on almost anything automotive. I just have a little more sense of security doing it with a larger unit thats not running at full tilt. My 110 circuit in the garage isn't all that great, and the welder sometimes pops the breaker. This was the one of the reasons I wanted to step up, because I have a 40 amp 220 outlet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Like they say "the sound of a sizzling steak is what you are looking for" Takes some time for me to get mine set up for this thickness or that, but once it's set (and having something that has more adjustability like start high amperage and then drop it down for the rest of the bead) mkes for really easy welding. For my tastes, I haven't gotten the bag of MIG so much, and will TIG as much as I can. I have to pull wires to the shed from the feeder for my 100A 220 Breaker Box. Already have a dedicated 30A 220 out there for the Compressor and/or the Plasma Cutter, should have had the 100A pulled then. And the Edison guys went "Why in the world do you want 250A service to a Mobile Home?" Hey man, I only sleep in it, the rest is for everything BUT the house! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Was the polarity set on the Miller for solid wire and gas? Polarity set for flux core can make it do goofy things. SOrry to hear about the fire... I've never had a Miller welder, but I like my Miller plasma cutter! Keep us updated on the cage. Looks good so far. I've got the pro tools 105hd also. I've done some test bends in 2" .134 DOM and I'm gonna' be built like Arnold by the time my Jimmy cage is finished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 Cage is done. Some of the welds look like crap...I'd like to blame that on the fact that this was the first cage I made from scratch, and I didn't do so good clocking the notches correctly, so I had some gaps to fill. If that excuse doesn't fly...then I just need more practice welding upside down with my head stuck between tubes. I screwed up a couple tubes, made a bend a little off or in the wrong spot, but was able to salvage all but about 8 feet of tubing. The total project consumed about 70 ft I think, maybe a little less. It was a learning experience, and I now know that I need to get the whole cage welded together while I can still move it around a bit in the car, and mount it to the boxes last. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnjdragracing Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Cage is done. Some of the welds look like crap...I'd like to blame that on the fact that this was the first cage I made from scratch, and I didn't do so good clocking the notches correctly, so I had some gaps to fill. If that excuse doesn't fly...then I just need more practice welding upside down with my head stuck between tubes.I screwed up a couple tubes, made a bend a little off or in the wrong spot, but was able to salvage all but about 8 feet of tubing. The total project consumed about 70 ft I think, maybe a little less. It was a learning experience, and I now know that I need to get the whole cage welded together while I can still move it around a bit in the car, and mount it to the boxes last. Looks great to me, how much was your bender and where did you buy it at? I like the way you ran your door post bars, we used a add on kit from Comp engineering. we had a 4pt and went with th 8 pt.I thought it would have fit better than it did ,but John my brother made it work with a little tweaking .Jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdsk8ter Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 im hoping that the one i bought from you can only turn out half this nice alsocan i get a close up on that box that you were tlking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 im hoping that the one i bought from you can only turn out half this nice alsocan i get a close up on that box that you were tlking about? Look at the first two pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbhsbZ Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 Looks great to me, how much was your bender and where did you buy it at? I like the way you ran your door post bars, we used a add on kit from Comp engineering. we had a 4pt and went with th 8 pt.I thought it would have fit better than it did ,but John my brother made it work with a little tweaking .Jerry I bought the bender through Pro-Tools.com. Its the Pro 105 model...a little less than $800 shipped. It was worth it. Takes 5 minutes or less to make a bend. The guys in the video must be bending conduit or something...makes it look easy. I used .120 wall tubing. I weigh about 200 lbs and I had to brace myself against the side of my truck to pull the handle (I made it mount in my receiver hitch). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racin_Jason Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 Looks good! So whats your address so I can get some stuff done on MY car now?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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