DIY Armor and Accessories

Any words of wisdom from your experiences?

 

First of all, love the original post from op. made me laugh. Second, chop saw is great and all but your gonna be grinding and brushing away a lot of excess left over after each cut, i personally love using a bench band saw, something like an Eastwood. IMO makes cleaner cuts and doesn't scare the shit out of me like chop saws, i've had 2 blades blow up in my face while cutting 2-1/2" .125in square tube, they were rated for it, but it seemed things got caught and heat was a big factor.

 

Comfortable safety glasses that you wear !!

I myself like ear plugs and just about have them in all the time.

I last used a Chop Saw about 30 years ago to limited it what you can cut with them .

Make a back stop for the sparks fires starting gets to be a pain.

Don`t ever go cheap on Blades the body parts you save most likely will be yours !!!

Bought my Carolina HD-10 Band saw and gave the chop saw to my least favorite person

Picked up a Milwaukee Deep porta band for the truck

Never touched one since

 

Im making all kinds of stuff for my truck, already finished rear bumper slider/steps and currently building front bumper

 

I'd buy that too...group buy???

What's/how's the learning curve for welding?

 

Let me know if you'd like to look at mine when you are all done to compare design and welds etc. Hopefully a Trail Gear rear bumper isn't too far around the corner for me and If you'd like to take a look at it and take some measurements etc. I'd be down to meet up with you at some point.

 

Sounds good! I plan the have the sliders and front bumper done or in the works by summer time it's pretty far away, but I'm not trying the rush, plus I got school eating up all my time so it's guna be a real slow process...

 

Chop saws are great for quick cuts, I love mine. Not everyone can afford a $1500+ horizontal bandsaw and, when used properly, a chop saw works wonders. I'm not sure what the fuss is about having to pull out the grinder and clean up some edges, especially if you're welding them because you're going to need a nice clean, shiny surface to weld on anyway!

 

Can do most all this work with 4 " grinder and cutting wheel

 

Yes that's true, I've tried multiple cuts with a cutting wheel on my grinder and they come out ok I have to straight them out a bit to look right. My concern is is hitting the correct dimension and making the cut straight as possible. I'd rather use one disc on the abrasive cut off than 5 grinder cutting discs.

 

Man, I wish I had a band saw! When I was in school, I used it all the time for projects! its definitely on my list to get someday!

 

Hell yeah! just used one yesterday at school ! Along with a lathe and a mill. I also get to play with edm sinkers and wire machines at work. I need to get a bigger garage!!

 

I hope this is unfinished.

 

I havent gotten one yet ill probably pick one up next week but the have a steel blade with diamond tips for 4" grinder that supposedly will make 100s of cuts as opposed to to the abrasive discs my buddy has one and swears by it ,i dohave a chop saw with 10" disc and a band saw but for smaller stuff i find it easierto have one 4" with a grinding disc and one 4" with cutting wheel

 

These are not sliders these are steps my truck is too nice to be sliding it on rocks and you are welcome to come and jump on these steps to see if they will move i guarantee they will not i can jack up the truck by these and they will not bend or move

 

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Those are more than sufficient for steps, I'm sure more than sufficient to even pivot your truck against a rock or tree even. Now to come down with all the weight of the truck on it against a rock in Moab, yeah it'd prolly bend. Sounds like for your use, these are plenty stout. Hell they're prolly plenty stout for 99% of the Tacomas out there.

 

Im 2300 miles from moab lol i only built these as i do not like any of the gaudy tube steps on the market ,i only copied the basic design of sliders because I liked the look ,will never see rocks that high on this truck

 

If you are interested in learning to weld, you better go for some welding course. Youtube and google are the best platforms to learn. But I would suggest that you will get more in depth knowledge through a regular course, taking help from qualified tutors. Initially, I used to refer youtube and google but I found that I lack perfection. So I decided to attend welding course (5 days), tig welding course in an institute. I found it interesting. I would suggest you also to attend some regular welding course.

 

Thanks for the input but currently don't have time for a class. I have experienced welders to go to for help. I pretty much have all the tools necessary for the project. But I know one thing.. you can buy all the nicest tools but if you don't know how to use them your project will end up like shhhit haha. Also in starting this project I know that as soon as I it was a diy all my welds will be inspected throughly.

So I plan on using most of my time on practicing and getting familiar with all processes involved