bending or welding tube joint

[colman]

i bent my front part of the cage and messed up and creased the tubes when i bent them at the top of the windshield. the question is can i just cut it to length and weld the cross bar then the piece that goes from the wind shield to the roll bar and a third piece that goes to the floor. would that be safe if it was a good weld. ive never seen it done. should i take that as a sign

[stx4wheeler]

huh- need pictures

[agjohn02]

you talking about not even having a bend? just making it a noded joint? how did you bend it that made a crease?

[TxCruzr]

Not being able to understand what you are talking about, remember that a roll cages main purpose is to keep your head from being bashed after a few hard rolls on solid rock. How much do you trust your welding? If you do it, make sure you sleeve it. You're just getting started on the cage now so don't start half assing it from the beginning.

[colman]

here is the bad bend the other is the same. i was thinking cut it off at the crease and just weld a separate piece across to the other side and another to the roll bar

[agjohn02]

still not clear what you want to do. maybe a technical writing class would help:flipoff2:

just fill it in with bondo and sand it down.

what are you bending it with?

[colman]

my neighbor has a bender, he owns the bug clinic in bryan, it looks like a very old jd2. i screwed up when i bent both sides (passenger and drivers hoops from the floor to the windshield over to the roll bar). you can see the crease in the picture, the other side is identical. I am wondering if it is safe to cut just below the crease and above it. weld the 2 tubes together at a 90 degree angle or so with the cross bar inbetween them that goes to the other side along the top of the windshield frame.

[stx4wheeler]

I guess you would need to sleeve it, and that will look like ass. Plus like joseph said dont half ass the cage. Just go find some more tube and bend your pieces again. Are you also sure the bender isnt for pipe or is the wrong size? i have never seen any bends with a true bender come out looking like that.

[colman]

i think i used it wrong, i just kinda started bending. he uses it to make cages for his bmw race cars for his hobby. he races them on the weekends. the other bends were ok i just guess i had the pieces in the wrong places for that bend. basically i don't know what i'm doing. if it ends up being unsafe in the end then i will make a new hoop but for now i'm gong to try it. i will post up a pic in a while

[Sharpe]

"Going to try it" is not a good way to find out if it's safe or not. If you are aactually using a bender other than your harbor freight pipe bender then my money's on the dies being meant for pipe or slightly larger OD tube. A bender's die holds the sides of the tube in while it is being bent, if the die is meant for a material with a larger OD then the sides will not be held in and it will kink.

[redcagepatrol]

you need to re-do those bars. There is no good way to fix it right - especially if you want it to look decent. Ask someone to show you how to use the bender and you should be fine.

[JB]

my neighbor has a bender, he owns the bug clinic in bryan, .


interesting....

[stx4wheeler]

have your neighbor show you how to use the bender