New to fabrication and need some general help.

[needsomehelp]

I've had a racing simulator designed in solidworks and have drawings to have it made but because of my inexperience with metal fabrication, I could use a little bit of general help if possible

The racing simulator has some bent and rolled tubing that needs to be notched/coped (I think those are the right terms) so it can be welded together. Virtually all of the fabrication shops I've called don't don't bend their own tubing. I'm just trying to better understand this process. They say they can cope/notch tubing but it has to be straight and their machines can't handle rolled tubing. The guys that roll/bend the tubing say they don't do anything else, including notching/coping.

So basically I'm looking at getting some bent/rolled pipe from shop A, getting it notched/cut/coped at shop B, getting all the rest of the parts other than the bent/rolled tubing made at shop C, having it welded by shop D, and powder coated at shop E.

I've attached an image of the frame below. There are some other sheet metal parts that need to be cut/shaped as well that aren't shown, but I don't seem to be having any issues with getting those made.

My questions are:

What is the process to get bent/rolled tubing cut/notched/coped so it can be welded together? It can be done by a machine, but only if the tubing is straight. So does that mean it has to be done manually once the pipe is bent/rolled? How do you accurately make those kind of cuts manually once the pipe is bent?

Is it typical to have to deal with this many different people? or am I just talking to the wrong shops? There is a sheet metal dash and center console that attach to this frame, and apparently getting those fabricated is a lot easier than this part.

Any help/guidance/suggestions would be greatly appreciated by someone with more experience in fabrication.

Thanks

[camdigger]

Western Canada is a big place. If you had been a bit more specific, we could be more help.


There are a couple members here that I think would take this on as a complete project. For a price of course.....

Myself, I wouldn't take it on, but I might help you do it....

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by needsomehelp

My questions are:

What is the process to get bent/rolled tubing cut/notched/coped so it can be welded together? It can be done by a machine, but only if the tubing is straight. So does that mean it has to be done manually once the pipe is bent/rolled? How do you accurately make those kind of cuts manually once the pipe is bent?

Is it typical to have to deal with this many different people? or am I just talking to the wrong shops? There is a sheet metal dash and center console that attach to this frame, and apparently getting those fabricated is a lot easier than this part.

Any help/guidance/suggestions would be greatly appreciated by someone with more experience in fabrication.

Thanks

Ok, #1 is we host pictures here and photobucket is a bad idea, because when it is gone, the knowledge in this thread is useless.

Never deal with shops that are a division of PrimaDonna Inc.
Any shop doing tube bends should be able to cope.

I would cope after you do the bending and are fitting and welding. I do my coping on a drill press with a hole saw of the correct size. You can also buy a cheap drill attachment for coping.
Before we give too much confusing advise, tell us what you have for a shop and your skills so we can help better.

[allessence]

The brain trust here certainly can and do jobs like this both for pleasure and for work..

If it were myself I would do it all in house but being well supplied in equipment it makes a large difference with small investment..

How many units do you need? This can bring the cost down quite a bit if there is a large enough order..

A 1 off or prototype..$$$$

Try to find a race car frame shop and see if they have any interest in fill work..

[Grizz]

I can think of 2 other shops within an hour of mine that can do most of the steps except powder coat.

Any where automotive racing is or was popular should have somebody with a bender, unless you are wanting DOM bends, which you don't need for that project.

if the tubing is less than .095 wall a competent exhaust shop could do the bends.

As the other guys said a more precise location would make this worthwhile.

[LKeithR]

Originally Posted by camdigger

Western Canada is a big place. If you had been a bit more specific, we could be more help...

Yeah, it's a big area--where are you?

Coping tubing and pipe is not particularly difficult, just a little time consuming, especially as the job gets more complicated. We don't do much anymore but we used to do a lot of custom automotive type fabrication. We've bent, coped and fitted hundreds of pieces of tube over the years--no real magic to it; it just gets easier as your experience increases and you're better able to visualize how parts fit together. How you design something makes a big difference as well--making your joints in "easy" locations makes fitting simpler.

Edit...just took a closer look at the drawing and a couple of things come to mind with regard to the design. You haven't shown a scale so we don't know how big that thing is but placing bends too close together always makes things more difficult. And long, sweeping bends need to be rolled rather than bent and blending them with a regular bend can be tricky.

Through the years we've used torches, plasma cutters, hole saws, rotobroaches, files and grinders for coping and fitting tube joints--most often a combination of tools. Simple joints can sometimes be done with a single pass of a holesaw or rotobroach but most often there's some hand fitting involved to get everything right. In a race care application you want tight fitting joints so your welds are strong and good looking...

[LKeithR]

Originally Posted by Grizz

...if the tubing is less than .095 wall a competent exhaust shop could do the bends...

Only if you want ugly, crush type bends...

And the words "competent" and "exhaust shop" don't usually go together, either...

[cutter]

Originally Posted by Ironman

Ok, #1 is we host pictures here and photobucket is a bad idea, because when it is gone, the knowledge in this thread is useless.

Attachments only. FAQ

[needsomehelp]

Wow thanks guys for all of the quick replies

I am located in Calgary.

The units will be for sale and we will be ordering a yet to be determined quantity (depends on final pricing), but we need to have a single prototype built first so we can make sure the dimensions are good and it's comfortable for long races.

The first few fabrication shops we went to said they could do it, but it's been a few weeks and we still don't have pricing back from a couple of them, and the other one said it was too complicated and they would have to farm a lot of it out.

I found another shop that can do it but they cannot bend pipe, weld, or do the powder coating in house. They suggested another shop for the bending but when i called them, they said they don't cope, they just bend.

In a perfect world it would be nice to find one shop/person to deal with but I'm open to dealing with multiple people if that's how it's done.

I've attached an image that shows the dash, center console, pedal rest, etc. There are a bunch of sheet metal parts that need to be made as well but so far that's been easy for me to get pricing on. From my understanding the sheet metal just goes into a cnc machine and when the parts come out they're bent into shape. I've found a few places that can do all of this part for a reasonable price for even a single unit.

We also have a stand that holds three TVs that will need to be made but we can deal with that after we get the simulator figured out.

[LKeithR]

That would be right up our alley but we're not exactly in your back yard and I've always felt that, especially when you're doing "development" work, it's better to be able to work face to face.

Since it is just a simulator I see a few places where you could simplify the design a bit without losing the desired "look and feel"--would make fabrication simpler and help to reduce costs...