Roll Cage fabrication using JMR MFG Bender

[motobilt]

Whats up everyone? I have not been able to spend much time on the forums lately. We have been super busy in the shop. By the way if you know anyone with a proven background in cage fabrication, 4 link suspensions, and general metal fabrication looking for a job have them contact me at Motobilt.

The following is a cage I recently fabricated for a Jeep YJ. This YJ was originally in the shop for suspension work. It certainly needed a better cage. This cage was not built for comp use. It needed to be functional for trail riding and such.

The cage is fabricated from 1.75" x .120" DOM tubing. We cut the seat mounts and gusseting here on our CNC plasma table. Check out the pics.

 

[motobilt]

More pics

 

[motobilt]

Cut some gussets for where the cage attaches to the rear upper coilover mount.

 

[motobilt]

The seat mounts were fairly simple. I put down the dims in Solidworks ans simply cut a flat .1875" thick plate mounts. The mounts are low to accommodate the sliders on the Mastercraft seats.

This is the back side of the plate straight off the CNC plasma table. I think we have it dialed in pretty good.

 

[motobilt]

I need to get back to work. I will drop back in and post some completed pics later.

 

[skipnay]

Very awesome... I can't wait to see it all tigged up. I would love to have a cnc plasma table. Just the plasma cutter would be awesome.

 

[countryroad82]

Very very nice cage there!!!

 

[pdangerp]

How thick were the gussets? Could you have used the material cut from the seat mount plates to make the gussets?

 

[motobilt]

How thick were the gussets? Could you have used the material cut from the seat mount plates to make the gussets?

3/16" thick. I could have nested the smaller 2 parts but those parts were cut and installed before the seat mounts. I am not that worries about saving every small piece of plate. Doing so can slow down the process and as you know time is money.

 

[motobilt]

Formed some Logo badges to weld to the cage. This is a very fast process to form them. Installing them is made easy with a hose clamp to hold them down tight.

 

[motobilt]

 

[motobilt]

 

[motobilt]

 

[theoldwizard1]

I love the gusset plates ! Very cool and functional.

 

[bad_idea]

Beautiful work. How many hours do you have into that cage? A basic breakdown would be appreciated (x hours for fitup, x for welding, x for paint). I have a couple Camaros I play with and constantly underestimate how long it will take me. Fortunately I am working on my own stuff, so the only loss is my own time.

 

[zmotorsports]

Beautiful work and great design.

I am assuming you MIG welded it as the last couple of pics from a distance looked like MIG and you have the same welder as I have, Miller MM251, sitting there. In the first couple of pics it almost looked like the tack welds were TIG welded. Can you clarify?

Also, where you did your frame tie-ins under the cage to body plates, did you use urethane bushings or did you worry about isolating the frame from the cage?

Mike.

 

[tarbellb]

Always a pleasure to come across one of your post Moto.

Can you elaborate on what type of steel you used for the seat plates, HR, CR? and what if any cleaning process you do before sending to laser?

 

[LXCam]

Excellent work as always!.

 

[DougWil]

Nice work!!

The JMR followers are hardened, unlike Protools and older JD2 followers.
Do you have any issues with galling/scratching the follower or tubing?

 

[aka Larry]

Not saying it would fail, but the S-bend in the A-pillar tube is generally not a good practice in a cage deign. In a hard roll-over incident, it would tend to deform at the last bend where it heads back under the dash down to the floor.

 

[bullnerd]

Can you post a pic of your bender setup please?

Almost bought the JMR package they had on sale.

 

[paramud]

I just installed a JMR manual at home. It works good, just hard to get within one degree.

 

[motobilt]

Beautiful work and great design.

I am assuming you MIG welded it as the last couple of pics from a distance looked like MIG and you have the same welder as I have, Miller MM251, sitting there. In the first couple of pics it almost looked like the tack welds were TIG welded. Can you clarify?

Also, where you did your frame tie-ins under the cage to body plates, did you use urethane bushings or did you worry about isolating the frame from the cage?

Mike.

Mike, Yes the cage was mig welded. The customer's budget for this cage didn't allow for the time to tig it. I tacked tubes in to keep from burning up the windshield and other things during the construction process.

The cage is mounted solid to the frame rails with round DOM tube.

Dan

 

[motobilt]

I just installed a JMR manual at home. It works good, just hard to get within one degree.

Pretty much any tube bender is difficult to get within one degree.

 

[motobilt]

Not saying it would fail, but the S-bend in the A-pillar tube is generally not a good practice in a cage deign. In a hard roll-over incident, it would tend to deform at the last bend where it heads back under the dash down to the floor.

I am well aware of the bend in this location. In a race cage we would not do it. This is a trail Jeep and the customer wanted to be able to get in and out of the Jeep. We have built cages similar to this for years and have not had failure issues. Keep in mind a hit hard enough to damage this will likely cause other issues without having door bars and so on added.

 

[motobilt]

Can you post a pic of your bender setup please?

Almost bought the JMR package they had on sale.

I have their electric hydraulic tube bender. No handle pulling for me. LOL

 

[motobilt]

Nice work!!

The JMR followers are hardened, unlike Protools and older JD2 followers.
Do you have any issues with galling/scratching the follower or tubing?

I prefer the hardened dies over the softer ones. If you notice in the pics the follow die is not marking up the tube. We just don't have an issue with it.

Dan

 

[motobilt]

Always a pleasure to come across one of your post Moto.

Can you elaborate on what type of steel you used for the seat plates, HR, CR? and what if any cleaning process you do before sending to laser?

I cut these parts here in house on our CNC plasma table. The plate is P&O. It is basically HR that has had the mill scale removed with acid. Nice and clean for laser cutting, plasma cutting, welding, and so on.


Dan

 

[srlbotanical]

Beautiful work. And that YJ has a great stance.

Do you happen to know what the wheel base is?

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, Yes the cage was mig welded. The customer's budget for this cage didn't allow for the time to tig it. I tacked tubes in to keep from burning up the windshield and other things during the construction process.

The cage is mounted solid to the frame rails with round DOM tube.

Dan

Awesome. Thanks for the response Dan. I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was accurate, it looked like the tacks were TIG welded and the remainder was MIG welded, I just wanted to check.

Again, great work and thanks for sharing.

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Pretty much any tube bender is difficult to get within one degree.

Agreed. I have the JD Squared that I have had for about 8-10 years now and although quite accurate I have found that each tube and/or run of tubing can have a very slight different degree of spring back. I would usually do a test piece upon the start of the project when I acquired the material(tubing) and then calculate my bends off of that figure for spring back and bend accordingly. For the most part it was very accurate but it takes getting to know your specific bender and even different bend radii will need to be taken into consideration.

I used my JD Squared Model 2 bender in manual form for the first 4 or 5 years and then about 3 or 4 years ago converted it over to air over hydraulic. The accuracy wasn't really affected, but the convenience of not having to have it bolted to the ground and having everything on a cart was a big benefit in my small shop.

I do have the JMR Tube Notcher though and am very pleased with it. Many times I end up free-handing my notches due to the angles or getting into a tight node though so in those cases I don't know if there is a notcher that will work very well. The "Beast" notcher would probably come the closest but even then in tight nodes you will be free-handing some notches/fish-mouthing.

Mike.

 

[motobilt]

Beautiful work. And that YJ has a great stance.

Do you happen to know what the wheel base is?

It is currently at 116"

You can see a lot more pics of the build one my website here:

http://www.motobilt.com/blog/projects/custom-build-jeep-yj-4-link-suspension/

 

[motobilt]

Awesome. Thanks for the response Dan. I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was accurate, it looked like the tacks were TIG welded and the remainder was MIG welded, I just wanted to check.

Again, great work and thanks for sharing.

Mike.

No problem, I am sure you know its faster to just tack with the tig than move welding blankets around all afternoon long.

 

[zmotorsports]

No problem, I am sure you know its faster to just tack with the tig than move welding blankets around all afternoon long.

Agreed.

Thanks again for posting. I love seeing high quality workmanship.

Mike.

 

[bullnerd]

I have their electric hydraulic tube bender. No handle pulling for me. LOL

Cool, thanks, I was just curious if you had anything special going on.

 

[motobilt]

Cool, thanks, I was just curious if you had anything special going on.

No, but we do have some adjustable tube stands to hold the tube here we want it.

Dan

 

[fnieto]

Excellent work Dan.

 

[RogueFab]

Nice work. You have a well equipped shop and know how to use it! I love the simple use of pipe to put a shape to your logos you cut out. We use tube for all kinds of metal working around our shop.

 

[motobilt]

Nice work. You have a well equipped shop and know how to use it! I love the simple use of pipe to put a shape to your logos you cut out. We use tube for all kinds of metal working around our shop.

Thanks, I have been doing this a long time. We are working to get the shop tooled like we want it. Still a long way to go. Let us know if we can ever help with anything.

Dan

 

[vintagespeed1956]

that's a sweet looking cage and rig, well done!