Anything welding

Bought this super cool and really decent quality bender for doing roof racks and smaller tubing. Using it for 1” currently. But the almighty problem is I don’t have computer software and this design idea I had looks way better on paper than person due to the 4Runner having a curved roof

now the almighty question is scrap the idea or keep on trucking and hope it comes together.

 

Fusion 360 for your CAD needs

It's free

 

I don’t even have a laptop/computer unfortunately

 

Shit...

This is where a small used laptop could be beneficial

 

It ain't free.

You gots to invest lots of your own time to use it.

Other than that, I love it!

 

Well I mean...financially it's free

But yes, more time spent the better the payoff!

 

I mean, any way you can just pick one up on sale at Best Buy?

I have an old Lenovo I use for CNC which also runs Fusion.

I'm using it now to revise something...

 

I’m iffy about that. Years and years ago I had a cheap laptop and I bought bendtech software and it couldn’t even really run it. So now I’m at that mental point where i feel like I have to buy a nice laptop so i can use it for multiple things and then it’s gonna be another grand or 2

 

Then just build a powerful PC for a lot less

Who knows, you might end up gaming on it

Next thing you know you're building stuff on CAD to add to that gaming experience

Not like anyone here has done that

 

$234 HP Portable Laptop, Student and Business, 14" HD Display, Intel Quad-Core N4120, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC, 1 Year Office 365, Webcam, SD Card Reader, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Windows 11 Home, Blue, KKE Mousepad

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Portable-Business-Quad-Core-Mousepad/dp/B0C9NS5SHH?crid=3UCJPL6KJW5K4&keywords=laptop&qid=1694489480&sprefix=laptop%2Caps%2C233&sr=8-1-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18630bbb-fcbb-42f8-9767-857e17e03685&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm

This would work great

 

Self taught fabricator here with no computers in my shop at all. Just a tape measure and some soap stone. I use a calculator for some of my more complex angles and cuts but that’s about it. You’re off to a great start. Looks very similar to the roof racks i make that are modeled after the Baja Racks flat design. I say keep going on it. You’re mostly done anyway. Worst case scenario you can live with it for a while and if you don’t like it, take what you’ve learned and start another.

Here’s a bumper I’m working on now for a third gen Tacoma that was built without a single computer.

 

Meanwhile I'm on computer



Minor adjustments made, without relief

 

You build nicer stuff than I do though so there’s that. Haha. Trust me, I wish I had a plasma table- im sure I could build some amazing shit with it. I just don’t have the real estate in the shop right now. I have three motorcycles in there now and damn near bought a 4th one this week.

 

Problem is I’m OCD and I hate wasting tube and doing stuff off the brain or off of rough sketches can waste a lot of tube lol. I really should just get a computer. But I get it.

Just hate whenever you have a vision in your head and it doesn’t satisfy you in real life lol

 

Mannnn. I need a computer lol

 

I'll take the compliment; just need to build the experience up at this point. Only going on 2 years now

 

It's convenient. I'm a nerd though so I've always had a computer.

 

So my garage got broken into and they took my old trusty m/t/s welder. Now that insurance has settled what's the best bang for the buck around $2k these days? I haven't had to research stuff in a while on this.
Thanks guys

 

Just depends on what you actually need.

Some people that own multi-process machines only utilize 1 or 2 processes at most.