Re: Hug your cage builder

VKZ24 wrote:
jimeditorial wrote:

...in the late 70's when I built my first stuff, we arc welded the cages..

Having done a little SMAW myself, I can't imagine having to get into some of the tight areas using that method when building a cage.  It was like I needed to be an octopus even with the MIG to get all the joints 360 welded!

I'd usually cut the roof off for full frame cars, and for unibodies, I'd cut holes in the floor at the four primary mounting points and let the tubes fall through to the floor. After welding the halo, I'd lift the cage up, slip in the plates and weld to them. And yes, in some places it was  tough to see what you were doing...on unibodies I bolted and welded the plates to the pan. It wasn't even a DC welder....an old Lincoln "cathedral" AC225. On old guy taught me to bake the rods in an oven, store them airtight and warm the joints before welding. E7011 or E7013 I think. Never had a failure, and I sure tried!

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....

Re: Hug your cage builder

jimeditorial wrote:

I'd cut holes in the floor at the four primary mounting points and let the tubes fall through to the floor. After welding the halo, I'd lift the cage up, slip in the plates and weld to them.

We do the same exact process on our cars. That and weld in gusset plates to bolster the cage to body rigidity.

jimeditorial wrote:

On old guy taught me to bake the rods in an oven, store them airtight and warm the joints before welding. E7011 or E7013 I think. Never had a failure, and I sure tried!

Sounds like what to do for welding aluminum. I'd assume it has the same purpose to open the metals pours so it takes the welds better and blends the two opjects better.

Sons of STIG
Judge Jonny, "So, what's the next formerly thought to be immune from winning that will steal the nickels?An MR2? A Fierro (ha ha ha)? A Datsun/Nissan Z? A Camaro?"

Re: Hug your cage builder

As he explained it, it's to avoid hydrogen embrittlement by removing moisture from the heat affected zone. Stick might be primitive, but good penetration is easy.

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....

Re: Hug your cage builder

I thought about getting a welder to not even have to shake my cagebuilder's hand anymore, but that's mostly one of those reverse-finance impressions of somehow saving money, versus giving the guy his due.