Cutting steel for the Chassis
 

Just having seen that Twin got all his steel for £70 quid I am starting to think that I should cut my own, - I had originally intended to buy one of the pre-cut kits.

I don't currently have any thing more than hand saws and a jig saw at home so need to weigh up the cost of potential new cutting machine(of some kind) in relation to the saving made in buying my own steel and cutting myself.

It would be nice to say I have built the car all myself - but the idea of buying a precut kit also is quite appealing.

I was wondering what folk have used to accurately cut the steel for their chassis ?

You can do it with angle grinder, its noisey and takes a while, I bought a rage saw that cuts metal quite well that sped things up a bit. Think my steel cost just over £100 the first time round the saw was about £70 plus some other consumables, you not far off a kit from talon or handy.
The second time round I bought the pre cut kit, partly becuase i like my ears to work and secondly I thought the neighbours would go mad, I fond I couldn't cut anythign in the evenings so had to wait for weekends.

Its only a small cheat!

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-0143.aspx

The "Rage" range is a lot more expensive than the "Fury" range from evolution. Even then the "Fury" is £100. it will cut up to 3mm mild steel.

Somone got some free blads out of doing a chassis from evo.

http://www.evolutionpowertools.co.uk...a_hussain.html



Personaly, the cost of the steel + equipment + time + risk to health + annoyance to neighbours + having 6 7.5M tubes to sort quickly + others quantifiables. added up to me not seeing self cut as a better idea than a flat pack.

TT

I am more or less with MikeB on this one.

So many variables to give an exact answer :)

Have you priced the steel at your own local stockists ? , was thinking about building another chassis for my own build last year ( Not happy that my chassis had become rusty because of a long period of illness )
I was quoted £155.14p inc vat, Febuary last year & know that prices have increased a fair bit since then.
That was just for the square tube alone but it did include £10 for delivery !!

As for cutting, a simple hacksaw fitted with a good quality blade will get the job done, going to be slow going & quite hard work.

If you are going to start laying out on the likes of bandsaws or compound mitre saws, then it is a bit of a no brainer really, may just as well go the flat pack route ( Unless you have future plans for them ) .

No idea of your background ( Engineering wise ) If you are not used to working with metal it may be a golden chance to learn some new metalworking skills :cool:

Having worked with all things metal for over 40 years the novelty of cutting steel has long since worn off, I now view this as an evil task that needs to be done before I can start doing the fun stuff :D
That said, I can still see the attraction & sense of achivement it will give to the novice.

My own chassis was square cut in the bandsaw & all of the angles were cut with my trusty hacksaw & lightly fettled with a flap disc in the grinder.
Could have cut most of the angles on my bandsaw but found out that by the time I had adjusted the cut angle, it was just a quick to use the hacksaw !!

Flat pack was not an option when I started my build over 3 years ago, I had no choice.
If I had to build another chassis it would be flat pack for sure .... It will save so many quality, sometimes precious build hours & removes the constant double checking, have I cut this right, why is this wrong, not to mention the potential heartache of cutting the compound mitres ;)

The chassis is just a component of the build.

You won't be building the engein from scratch, or the steering wheel, or the brakes. It's possible to do it if you realy wanted to though and have a car you totaly built yourself.

The time saved from doing the steel cutting could go into the manufacture of ali pannels rather than glass ones, which can save a few hundred pounds!! and will probably be more satisfying as it's on show.

TT

As all above have mentioned, there are alot of points to consider whether to cut your own or a kit pack........BUT

which ever route you take you will enjoy the building of the chassis, & know that the forum is always there to assist if you come across a "hiccup", I found that getting the chassis into a 3D item really is a most satisfying part of the build, it sort of "comes to life" :)

Whichever route you take, may I wish you all the best for your build, its great to have another Roadster being created:cool:

cheers
andy

just my two pennies worth...

I bought my steel in 7.5 metre legnths and i cut them as i need them.
I worked out that i could buy a nice rage mitre saw and bits and bobs such as hacksaw blades and grinder discs for the same price as a precut kit.
I decided to go down this root because i really didnt want to make an error in my measurements ( im more of a blacksmith than an engineer:p ) and end up with a piece of steel that was say 1.5mm short and have no steel left to remake a tube(although i have been known to bridge gaps with weld, not reconmended;) ).

With regards to cutting i have cut most of my tubes with a hacksaw and iv only used the rage once and that was for the evil 74 degree cuts on the bottom of the frame and the compound mitres on the front frame. I could have done these with the hacksaw anyway so i suppose iv wasted a £120 on the chopsaw.

The precut kits available from a couple of guys on here are well renowned for being spot on. I suppose if i had known how long it takes to cut the tubing and how knackered i am from hacksawing i might have bought one, but i feel i have accomplished a great deal from turning a few legnths of scrap into a sportscar chassis.

So in the end cost wise it doesnt matter wether you go for a a precut kit or cut your own. The chassis is the most important part of your build, yet the cost of the chassis is a fraction of the cost of a fully built roadster. Going with a precut kit will save you a lot of time, wheras cutting your own steel will take more time, but you could use the savings for other bits, but you may end up with carpul tunnel syndrome like me!!!

hope this helps

nathan

I got my steel at cost, due to my mate being in the trade ;)

I was set to get a flat pack but my lad wants driving lessons & a car :(

When I purchased my steel it came in at £118. I decided to go down this route as I already had a Rage3 chop saw that I bought to build a deck 2 years ago, so I didn't need to factorin the cost of it. Must admit though provided you don't try to force it it cuts it well, but is limited to 45 deg cuts so anything over and above its' get the hacksaw out.

I also have the Evolution Rage3 compound mitre saw, and the reason I bought it was that it would be very useful for all manner of DIY jobs after the chassis was finished. Just like Arf using his for a deck first and chassis later.

A metal cutting bandsaw is just that, but the versatility of the rage tool is what made my mind up.

I've cut loads of 3mm plate on it with no problems, and it has enough reach to cut my side panels too.

I used a clarke 14" abrasive cut off saw which i had from a previous job, 4.5" angle grinder, metal protractor and a tip ex pen. worked a treat, all angles measured were cut spot on. the cut off saw was a luxury as was only really used to speed up cutting to length, and the 45 and 90 degree angles. a 4.5" grinder will do everything you require on this and can be purchased cheaply. Good luck!

forgot to add this, It's worth bearing in mind that in a pre cut pack if you balls the welding up and have to remove a member chances are that when you come to welding it back in you may discover that its too short! then you'll have to muck about trying to find a little bit of steel to replace said part, as buying a 6m length for 200mm would be rather annoying

I,ve followed this thread & agree with you all of the ways that a kit can be cut etc, I,m the first person to support anyone who wishes to cut their own chassis, I try to help "Any" builder....

But with the above quote... I,d like to beg to differ.....

My chassis kits INCLUDE a spare length of steel cut to the longest length of each box tube size used in the chassis, so that if a builder makes a mistake they have the steel available to re cut a new section,
plus if a builder needs more steel to be supplied due to running out of "Spare steel", if the kit was purchased from me then they just need to get in touch & i,ll supply the offending part , ready cut for just the cost of postage.

I never try to "hard sell " my kits but like to offer full support to anyone who decides to go the flat pack pre cut route :cool:

cheers
andy

Well you can't beat that service ;)

Sorry! was not aware of this, when i began building i didn't even know there was a flatpack kit.

No problem , :)

I just didn,t want to give the wrong impression that buying a pre cut kit from me meant the builder was stuck in the scenario you mention :cool:

Twin.... thanks for your kind words

cheers
andy