thats some damn fine mig work ! Ive only met a few guys who can weld that nice, what setup do you use >
better get a new hat! all mig welded on cebora 250amp welder. nothing special, all about being comfortable, and setting the welder up corectly. cage work is coming along nicely now. nearing completion, then its seat rails and pretty much done! more pics soon thanks for the kind comments! nick
I always thought T45 had to be tig welded with the correct filler material.. or did you find a spool of the correct wire? and am i right in thinking T45 is just chromoly 4130? or have i got my wires crossed?
t45 and chromoly are different materials. chromoly should be tigged, but there is a lot of debate over which filler to use as some can cause cracks due to different cooling rates of the base and filler. t45 can be mig or tig welded, using various different fillers all with good results. some top teams will use an a31 filler which costs around £300 for a reel. when i was working at gartrac we always used mig and mild steel wire for t45 cages including btcc nissans and many other top stuff which we had crush tested and custom homologated using this method with no issues whatsoever.
i can weld to a high standard but fuck! very well done man really looking forward to seeing this done and in action now.
i knew it wasnt tig'd, but for mig it certainly looks awesome. I can mig weld to a decent standard but no where near that, hats off to you ( and given to alexfalk to eat !) So you recommend the Cebora line then ? im looking at getting a decent mig ( got a sealey supermig 140) as mine is a bit wank TBH, the wire feed is very erratic and getting the power/feed right on it is a pain, constantly getting burn back. ( i am welding upside down which obviously doenst help)
cebora isnt to bad, tbh i bought this welder 2nd hand 5 years ago on a whim off ebay, and it turned out to be pretty good. although the quality of the welding isnt as good as it used to be. i will likely buy a new mig soon, and use this as a bench plant. not sure what to buy now, as things have moved on a fair bit. tbh where i used to work we used migatronic and esab welders that were 20 years old. no joke they were the best welders i have used to date i also borrowed a £300 welder to do some on site work recently, and it welded just as well as my cebora, or any other welder i have used. as long as you get a half decent welder, i promise its more down to practice and methods, rather than the welder you use. making sure you use a light sensitive mask, and getting as comfortable as possible, keeping the torch steady, and making sure the speed u move at is constant as possible. you also need to weld on the highest setting possible before you burn through, this is more the art, and having a feel for what power seting to use on certain thicknesses. if you use your welder regularly, then u will get to grips with it, and just know exactly what settings to use in different areas. if your welder is on to low a setting, it will never look good, and will not achieve good penetration. if your not used to using your welder regularly, dont just turn it on and start welding your piece of work. grab some scrap of a similar thickess, and get the welder set up perfectly, power and wire feed. so that the weld is how you want it. then go onto the work piece. im seriously considering doing some welding workshops at some point, as i feel i could improve peoples welding skills considerably within a day or twos tuition! nothing more satisfying than a shit hot weld!
thats a really good idea, id pay for that! im an apprentice tig welder at the moment and getting pretty good now, id love to improve my mig work though, as tig is kinda limited when doing car bodies. theres one thing i have to ask, how you weld the roof joint all the way round when the car body gets in the way? i always assumed you cut holes in the floor and drop the cage legs through the floor to bring the the joint away from the body, is that right? i hear you about the old welders though. we have a mix of tig machines at work, the best of the lot are the 20 year old hitachi's, the brand new lorch blew up in 3 weeks!. iv had first hand experiance with an esab and a friend of mine does aluminium mig for marine stuff and he swears by them too if theres one thing iv learnt about welding in general though its preparation, edge preperation and having properly cleaned, degreased metal to weld makes so much difference!
yes thats correct the cage is dropped down to weld the tops, then put back into position. i have a marshall/millar 370amp tig plant, its the size of a house, and weighs about 600kg. its about 20 years old, and its the best tig i have used! when buying a used welder, i would always look for something older tbh, they are much better made, there is no way that a new welder would last 20+ years! more like 5!! esab are great, i also have a small invertor esab tig, and when i buy a new mig, i will likely look at new esab stuff. like u say, preparing the metal and making sure there is no crap the other side of the weld such as underseal etc, will always ensure a decent quality weld. i may start looking into running a monthly welding workshop at some point, the only issue is finding the time to do it, and i would need to buy some more mig welders really, but certainly something to consider.
Thats some seriously nice Mig work and fab work with the cage, talent like this is rare. I want to go weld something now, practice makes perfection after all.
You should see if the local UNI/Colleges to a college let type thing , they allow the welding bays to be let out for training purposes etc
cage work nearly complete now! seat rails to do tomorrow and we are pretty much done. today saw the nascar doorbars go in! looking pretty sweet even if i do say so myself lol. will certainly give some awsome side impact protection along with the sill tubes. pics soon!!
so whats the advantages of nascar style over the X bars you normally see? it seems to be getting a more popular style of cage now than the X bars, but you still see them in wrc and stuff. is it something to do with FIA regs or something? Id imagine getting in and out is a bit easier, and the bars themselves are further away from the driver/passenger, but doesnt that mean they intrude into the door cavity and you have to cut the inside skin out?
main thing with nascar bars is it takes the tube and impact zone about 10 inches away from the driver. so if u had a big side impact smash, the bars can deform and bend inward 10 inches before anything got near the occupant. some doorbars sit right up against the drivers seat etc, in a big smash the bars can bend. phil wanted maximum side impact protection, these doorbars along with a sill bar give that protection. yes the inner skin has to be cut away and the bars sit up against the outer skin. x doorbars are still safe, as homolgated and current cages run them, but its nice to have a bit of a safety margin between the cage and driver.
