Making a Twisted Cage...

[SKIP]

With a hard bashing weekend coming up, my buddy is dying to fly his new SS without fear of damaging the engine.. I havent made a cage in quite some time cuz the hand made mounts were taking a long time.. So I had a few made and I am fabing one up for him.. I thought I would share the construction of the Twisted half-back cage with you so those of you that like to fab your own parts, you can get an idea how I do mine.. Its really not all that hard if you have cutting grinding and welding experince..

Some say these style cages are ugly... maybe they are.. but you can not agrue that they are the answer to the hardest of hardcore basher..

I start with the steel tube that the ID is the same as the OD of the plastic solid rod.. Sometimes you have to sand down the rod because the OD tolerance isnt as good as the ID of the sleeve.. I cut the sleeve at a very steep angle and cut the lengths of rod to 19" (for 1.5" ext and 18.25" for the 1" ext/LCG)..

I then tack weld the sleeve to the mount... The side with the pipe takes the most set up time.. Place the mount on the truck and put the sleeve up there wheil you put set marks so when its on the table you can line them up when you tack weld this one.. With a 1.5" extention there is plenty of room.. If your running LST shocks the back sleeves will be set as forward as they can be set...

Bolt the mounts on the truck.. Take the rod and bend them as you want.. I use a heat gun and make sure the rod is heated all the way through.. There is a fine line where that is.. Too little and you'll get a white stress mark on the bend.. Too much heat and it will thin out and get bubbles.. TAKE YOUR TIME...!

One you get one side bent up, you now have reached th hardest part of this fabbing... The bending of the other side.. bending isnt all that hard, but getting the other side to be a match to the one you already bent is tough to say the least..

Now you can work on the cross braces.. these need to be notched for proper structural integrity.. You can use a .5 butterfly drill and drill down the center of the rod.. That gives you a notch like you want..

These are not a metal cage that doesn't flex.. these cage are designed to flex.. So give your self some room for it to flex.. This is about the best I have found as far as flexxing room..

Thats where i got to in 2 hours.. I will finish it up today... more pics to come and if there is a step that you want to see, just ask..

 

[beason]

make me one??? please?? lol great job man I've been wanting one of those..

 

[SKIP]

The thing is that you have to run an extended chassi.. So its either the 1.5" extended or the 1" exstended LCGs... Thats the catch to this design..

 

[beason]

oh i got regular..

 

[Candyman]

How about making a simple jig so you can duplicate the bends time and time again on the Delrin? I would think something as simple as a couple dowels pegged into a 2x4 to bend it around or something like that.
BTW, the cage looks great. I've seen what you put them through and they stand tough.

 

[SKIP]

Thanks Canyman... The issue with a jig is that these are not just bent on one plate.. There is compound bends involved with my design.. Otherwize yes.. I would make a jig.. but it may be possible in some way.. I just have a system that works for me so I stick with it..

 

[Candyman]

That's cool. I'm just tossing out food for thought, that's all.

 

[SKIP]

That's cool. I'm just tossing out food for thought, that's all.

Cool.. I appreciate it cuz these things still take me 6-7 hours to build one.. Any thoughts are a blessing...

 

[SKIP]

oh i got regular..

I would say this is the best design for a stock length cage.. Its is made by Blade.. I am very impressed with his design..

 

[tannera]

here's my design
i must admit i had to drill some holes in the truck.
if you do it right you can get it looking good but i messed mine up a bit.
still strong as hell LOL

 

[SKIP]

Yea tannera, I am very impressed with your design.. I know from experiences with that material you will have no worries about launching your rig off a building.. LOL

 

[tannera]

I would say this is the best design for a stock length cage.. Its is made by Blade.. I am very impressed with his design..

i am on a different forum as well so this one and the guy that built that is on it lol.
he has a guide on how to build it.
i will go and find the link.

here it is
http://www.gotnitro.co.uk/showthread.php?t=647&highlight=derlin

 

[evan811]

those metal cages must make they truck weigh a ton!

 

[SKIP]

those metal cages must make they truck weigh a ton!

They do untill you take them back off so you can send it back all bent up.... :jk:

 

[B-MasteR]

i just signed up as someone told me my cage was posted on here and there is some nice word ... so i thought i woudl post a quick reply to say thanks for all the kind works on my cage

it took along time to make and design but its still going very strong after some crazy jumps and bad landings but with no engine damage so all is good

here is a couple more pics of the cage ( hope i am not jumping on any ones post here)

MY halfback cage with lots of hopups and atom rc alu (only the best for my savage)

hope you enjoy the pics


ohh i woudl just like to add this cage we designed with windows "paint" program and made on my kitchen floor with a hacksaw/files/drill/sandpaper and it took along time hehehe

 

[SKIP]

Awsome man.. I am glad to get you on here.. My cages only work with extended TVPs.. and so your cage is the answer for the stock length crew.. If you want a CNC version made of that, I can do it and give you all the credit as I dont want the credit, I just want people to have something that is worth the $$$$.. if you want to talk give me a buzz...

[email protected]

 

[B-MasteR]

hmmmm very intresting mate i will have a serious think about that i added you to MSN messanger maybe we can have a chat about this project and some others i am considering designing