How to Build a Roll Cage

[TarheelRick]

On 3/13/2020 at 6:21 PM, CabDriver said:

I saw some of those fuzzy pipe cleaners at Target the other day and was trying to figure out a good modeling use for them...guess I found it!  Good tip Mike!  

Another use for these is cleaning the barrel and tips of your air-brush.  I will get about an inch wet with thinner/cleaner and run it back and forth through my airbrush.  Also works well for to clean tube on siphon feed brushes.  I try to keep a pack available at all times.

[OldNYJim]

27 minutes ago, TarheelRick said:

Another use for these is cleaning the barrel and tips of your air-brush.  I will get about an inch wet with thinner/cleaner and run it back and forth through my airbrush.  Also works well for to clean tube on siphon feed brushes.  I try to keep a pack available at all times.

GREAT idea!!!  Definitely need to pick up some of these now (soon as everything reopens, anyway ?). Good tip, thanks Rick!

[Bernard Kron]

I love fabricating tubular structures in my modeling and I'm posting on this thread because the information shared here is invaluable. I hope to see more valuable suggestions like what's been shown so far.

I was comforted to know that my approach is surprisingly similar to JC's, which, given the quality of his results, is encouraging. I note that in JC's attached video the builder is, in fact, using Alan's technique, which is one I've used, too. Drilling into the underlying structure (floors or frame rails) simplifies construction because it allows you some "wiggle" in lining everything up and determining clearances. It's very string and rigid, too.

Like everyone else, I work from side-to-side, making a pattern out of the prototype side and then duplicating it for the other. The idea of using soft jeweler's wire to prototype is genius and will definitely be something I try. I have also begun to use a lot of butyl covered wire, mainly, so far, for exhaust work, but occasionally for more finicky bends in structures. It's available from Plastruct (see: https://plastruct.com/collections/all/butyrate#MainContent ) and is really handy for this kind of work. The downside is you can't fish-mouth it. The butyl paints up like styrene.

Like JC, everything I do is eyeballed and I sometimes will just cut a V into my rod end and let the solvent glue I use (I generally use straight MEK) do the work of fish-mouthing. But where I'm concerned about exact fit I will use a round rat-tail needle file and make a full fish mouth. For mild bends I use by fingers and let their warmth help me work the plastic. For larger bends I will look around my bench for a shape that's close (paint jars, nails, marker pens, pencils, etc.) and improvise a bending jig.

This is a project I finished last fall. The "chrome" hoop is removable and made from aluminum tubing polished with Simichrome. The firewall and rear mains hoops are butyl-coated wite. The rest is styrene. The joints are "welded" with MEK. The butyl bonds with the styrene. If there were joints that were butyl-coated wire to butyl-coated wire I would have had to use 5-minute epoxy (I'm highly allergic to super-glue). Along the lines of Alan's suggestion, I drilled directly into the Ford Model A main frame rails to establish the front and rear hoops, then "eyeball engineered" the rest of the structure. This is an open car so it was far easier to do than if I was fitting a coupe or sedan.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Bernard Kron