Stumpalump
Expedition Leader
Working with tubing is not hard. I was asked to help a freind and took some picks. I don't rag on other peoples fab work but I thought these pics might help sombody new to this or for somebody that wants to have a professional welder finish up their project like in this case. None of us are professional fabricators and this is just my friends dads two car garage with only basic tools.
You tell me what you see wrong. Hint in case the resolution is not good. There are a lot of sparks.
The project was to take this 300 hp Honda rear engine car and make it a mid engine with an $8000 Mendeola transaxle. Light, powerful and strong.
This tube was fish mount cut with a grinder. It's jagged but a good welder should be able to fill in the gaps. The problem is that the tubes were not ground clean. Notice the paint on one and the mill scale is still on the new tube. Even though steel maybe new you must grind off the outer coating of mill scale if you want the best weld.
A better way to grind a fish mouth at home is with a flapper sanding disk on your grinder.
When the fish mouth gets complicated the way to do it is to cut a pattern out of rolled card stock or a toilet paper roll. It's easy to cut and fit paper and you don't have to worry about mistakes. Slide the paper roll over the tube and trace the pattern. Complicated cuts become easy.
In this next pic you can see the nice clean fish mouth cut tube all clean and ready for a welder. In front of it is one of the tranny mounts. Again the paint was not ground off and the mill scale was left on the new bracket. Just take a little time, prepaired with an extra tube if it's your first time and you will be amazed at what you can make. The welder dropped by after I left and said 60-100 bucks to weld in the 6 tubes and three engine tranny brackets. A little paint and nobody will no a couple of goof balls like us could get such good results in a garage with harbor freight tools.
Here is the Honda 3.5 matted to a Medeola. Would be a first choice combo for manny because of power and weight.
You tell me what you see wrong. Hint in case the resolution is not good. There are a lot of sparks.
The project was to take this 300 hp Honda rear engine car and make it a mid engine with an $8000 Mendeola transaxle. Light, powerful and strong.
This tube was fish mount cut with a grinder. It's jagged but a good welder should be able to fill in the gaps. The problem is that the tubes were not ground clean. Notice the paint on one and the mill scale is still on the new tube. Even though steel maybe new you must grind off the outer coating of mill scale if you want the best weld.
A better way to grind a fish mouth at home is with a flapper sanding disk on your grinder.
When the fish mouth gets complicated the way to do it is to cut a pattern out of rolled card stock or a toilet paper roll. It's easy to cut and fit paper and you don't have to worry about mistakes. Slide the paper roll over the tube and trace the pattern. Complicated cuts become easy.
In this next pic you can see the nice clean fish mouth cut tube all clean and ready for a welder. In front of it is one of the tranny mounts. Again the paint was not ground off and the mill scale was left on the new bracket. Just take a little time, prepaired with an extra tube if it's your first time and you will be amazed at what you can make. The welder dropped by after I left and said 60-100 bucks to weld in the 6 tubes and three engine tranny brackets. A little paint and nobody will no a couple of goof balls like us could get such good results in a garage with harbor freight tools.
Here is the Honda 3.5 matted to a Medeola. Would be a first choice combo for manny because of power and weight.
