More chassis ??? Long travel dune truck

[TS-Off-Road]

Try Freight Harbour, they have one. I heard someone buy it from them and good price and good quailty.

Harbor Freight does not sell a tube bender - it is a PIPE bender that they sell. It will not bend tubing, it will kink and crush it. You can use pipe for a cage (usually 1.5" sched40) but keep in mind, the Harbor Freight unit will not bend over 90*

[Vicegrip]

Try Freight Harbour, they have one. I heard someone buy it from them and good price and good quailty.

He did not get the one I did then. I might have gotten a bad one as the POS would not stay lined up and flexed so much it chattered like crazy. I thought it was something I was doing or the hole saws. Tried different brands of saws, cutting speeds, using oil and still no good. It looked just like the $$$ ones but this one was junk.

I ended up getting one that set me back a fair chunk of change but works well, can do all angles and even offset cuts. It can also be used to punch holes in already mounted tubes for mounting through bolt sleeves and the like. It will cut a clean fishmouth and you can get an entire cars wort of cuts from one hole saw. Check www.tricktools.com. Many cool tools for the builder of things in metal. You can cut them with a grinder and I have cut plenty but for fine work and tight fit-ups a good fishmouth tool is a must unless you have much time and patience. With a good fishmouth tool you can shave a little off at a time to dial in an angle to tube final fit.

[Bert]

Vicegrip, what made you buy that one vs. the one from Pro-tools? Pro's one also does offset cuts. How did you get that long angle in the first pic? (left end). Angle looks longer than the hole saw....??

[Vicegrip]

You can do any angle with it and the cuts can be up to the full stroke of the arbor + the saw. To make a cut that is deeper than the saw socket you cut to the inside depth of the saw socket then cut most of the plug off and continue the cut.

I don't think I considered the one from Pro tools, not as it was bad just that I did not know of it at the time. I "saw" the one I ended up with and it looked like top shelf stuff. There might be better notchers for less money. I was pissed from the last one and gertting ready to start a project that had a bunch of simple and complex notches. I can say that this one is as good as the sellers pitch it to be. I think the saws last longer because the jig holds the pipe and saw so well there is no chatter and no catching or jumping around in the cut. The saw even makes little machine cut like curls when you hit the speed and feed just right.

(edit) I just looked at the $200 one from Pro tools I think you are talking about. Looks like a very nice notcher for the money and would be more than enough for 99% of the work out there. It is not the same as the one I have but that one is also 3 times as much $. The trick tools one can do any angle and can come in from right or left. This is nice when doing double cuts that are in the same plane such as two 45 angles so a pipe will fit in a 90 deg inside corner. You can do the first cut and then swing around the the other side and do the second one without moving the pipe in the clamp and posably getting out of line. If you are on any kind of budget the Pro tools looks like a good pick with a large bearing and shaft and a good looking pipe clamp. If you end up needing a notch that is outside the 60 deg range you can hand grind. Takes more time but you can make nice hand notches if you put your mind to it.

[Bert]

VICEGRIP,
oh yea..THANKS!!! I didn't know you swing both ways!!!!!!
Sorry, I meant your pipe notcher!!! I got the $300 for the offset feature, but my notcher doesn't swing both ways... I get what you're saying about the rest though...
thanks

[kelzweld]

Tossing around the idea of building a custom chassis of a reg. cab short bed f-150. Would use King Coilovers, mid-engine (would like to put it behind the cab). Would build the f-150 looking, not using a cab, just building a roll cage and sheet metal the cab and flared fiberglass fenders and bed sides. How would you build the chassis... sq.tube? round tube? Chromemoly?? I was thinking of using round tube, building two truss like rails for the main frame and building off that. Am I on the right track? Any web sites to point me towards regarding chassis design??
Thanks in advance, Shane

I used to race a buggy that was mild steel round tube truss like rails with everything built off it. Bring your cage uprights down on top of vertical tubes in the trusses and they're really strong and can be fairly light. Lots of triangulation and you're onto a winner. Chromoly would be lighter but I wouldn't go there myself unless I had a proven chassis design. MS is so much cheaper for R&D.