Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I've been a Tig welder for quite a few years now and I've always liked to explore the web and see just what the really good fabricators get up to.
I've seen a couple of guys doing standout stainless fab and Engloid is probably the best all round Tig welder I've seen particularly on exotic materials.
Well, there's a new guy on the block, John Marcella of Marcella manifolds and he's without a doubt the best Aluminium Tig welder I've ever seen.
Check the pics below, I think you'll agree his work starts as fabrication and finishes as art work.
Regards Andrew.

pretty trick work

It is work like this that keeps me pushing myself to develop my own skills. I think good fabrication is higher order than art as it is functional too!

Look for work by Dump on OFN, awesome 4130 work.

Thanks for the images.

cheers bru

awesome stuff!....as big kev would say..........i'm excited!.........

bru21 wrote:It is work like this that keeps me pushing myself to develop my own skills.
Look for work by Dump on OFN, awesome 4130 work.
cheers bru

I feel exactly the same way when I see work like this. Interestingly, John Marcella uses a 200 amp Dynasty machine which I thought would have been marginal especially for welding the thicker sections. But, when I checked out his photobucket pics I noticed he was mixing Argon with Helium to get the heat range up to where it was needed.
"Dump on OFN" Is this the same fabricator who built the "Terrible Herbst" buggies? If so, yes your right, beautiful work. I especially liked his use of "backstep" welding to help control distortion on the long fabricated suspension arms.
Regards Andrew.

Andrew - Seeing some of your own work and looking at creations like these, I come to realise that saying "I can weld" is a slight overstatement - I think I may just alter that statement to "I can stick metal together and sometimes it stays stuck"

that is sooooooo nice - most fabricators would clean up and smooth the welds, but if they looked like that i'd insist on keeping it as is!!!

im in LOVE.

those pics are pure fabrication PORN!

Jes

top work

That's incredible.
So what do you think he's used to clean and polish it afterwards?

Being able to weld like that would be sensational, especially if he can control warping like you say.

He certainly has an excellent TIG hand, the patience and craft that needs to go into some of those welds once the manifold has been assembled is phenominal.

The fabrication is also exceptional.

I think I will take some of these pics down to the boys and tell em they are all getting a pay cut until they can do as good

Cheers

Of course the part designs are also excellent.

Not much wow factor if you have exceptional welds on something ugly that'll never work.

That's awesome work. Interestingly though, lots of alloy bicycles have beautiful welding on them too.

As Jimmy Nylund one said in Fourwheeler magazine about 25 years ago:

Not everyone who can weld has the descision making skills to know what to weld. (or somehting like that,) which relates to your point Kiwibackon - design is about as important as execution.

I'll also refer to what I call the "solidworks phenomenon" - the moment someone draws something in solidworks, it looks cool, even if it's a bad idea or badly designed or impossible to actually build. It's one thing to draw something in solidworks, it's entirely another thing to design somehting that is functional and able to be manufactured.

This guy's clearly all over it though.

Steve.

Gwagensteve wrote: I'll also refer to what I call the "solidworks phenomenon" - the moment someone draws something in solidworks, it looks cool, even if it's a bad idea or badly designed or impossible to actually build. It's one thing to draw something in solidworks, it's entirely another thing to design somehting that is functional and able to be manufactured.

This guy's clearly all over it though.

Steve.

And beneath the solidworks phenomenon we have the "sketchup phenomenon".
Below that we have the "paper napkin".

Having someone skilled enough to make a design come out like that is the ultimate.
The rest of us can stick to CNC and bolts.

awill4x4 wrote:

bru21 wrote:It is work like this that keeps me pushing myself to develop my own skills.
Look for work by Dump on OFN, awesome 4130 work.
cheers bru

I feel exactly the same way when I see work like this. Interestingly, John Marcella uses a 200 amp Dynasty machine which I thought would have been marginal especially for welding the thicker sections. But, when I checked out his photobucket pics I noticed he was mixing Argon with Helium to get the heat range up to where it was needed.
"Dump on OFN" Is this the same fabricator who built the "Terrible Herbst" buggies? If so, yes your right, beautiful work. I especially liked his use of "backstep" welding to help control distortion on the long fabricated suspension arms.
Regards Andrew.

That's the one! There were several welders working on those 3 buggies.

As far as I can make out Dump did the design / part assembly procedure and plenty of welding. On each rear diff he spent 4 hours welding the inside with a mirror! Every component has a part number and every tube is laser cut. Each component like a lower A arm for example - has an entire folio that starts with drawings, cut files, assembly procedure, weld order, stress relieve procedure and serial number. I love it! The body design was drawn and machined with a 5 axis mill out of foam!

bru21 wrote: That's the one! There were several welders working on those 3 buggies.

As far as I can make out Dump did the design / part assembly procedure and plenty of welding. On each rear diff he spent 4 hours welding the inside with a mirror! Every component has a part number and every tube is laser cut. Each component like a lower A arm for example - has an entire folio that starts with drawings, cut files, assembly procedure, weld order, stress relieve procedure and serial number. I love it! The body design was drawn and machined with a 5 axis mill out of foam!

Got a link for this machine? Enquiring minds need to know more.

KiwiBacon wrote:

bru21 wrote: That's the one! There were several welders working on those 3 buggies.

As far as I can make out Dump did the design / part assembly procedure and plenty of welding. On each rear diff he spent 4 hours welding the inside with a mirror! Every component has a part number and every tube is laser cut. Each component like a lower A arm for example - has an entire folio that starts with drawings, cut files, assembly procedure, weld order, stress relieve procedure and serial number. I love it! The body design was drawn and machined with a 5 axis mill out of foam!

Got a link for this machine? Enquiring minds need to know more.

is this it?

Hi all...If the fabrication work is rough as guts,the weld will be rough as well.
When your in the loop of specialized welding[pressure welding,xray ect],you soon realize there is a huge shortage of specialized welders.But there are plenty of them about.Some of the best welders ive seen are the Koreans.If your a subcontract welder you can earn big big bucks.

Those are definately nice looking welds.

http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31417

heres a link to some of his work on race dezert . com

he's a bloody fine fabricator

Bogged thats the old buggy (truggy) the land shark. Its now black / monster energy.

the 3 buggies I am talking about were built for the herbst brothers to race each other - rather than sharing the same car.

There is plenty about them on off road fabrication network (OFN above)

look for a thread called wishbone 101 or trailing arm 101 or similar.

cheers bru

Bluefreak wrote:Andrew - Seeing some of your own work and looking at creations like these, I come to realise that saying "I can weld" is a slight overstatement - I think I may just alter that statement to "I can stick metal together and sometimes it stays stuck"

I would have to agree with that statement too!

Some of thoes welds look like its been done by a robot!

So smooooooooooth......

I've cracked one I also have a thing for ridiculously beautiful fabrication shame i'm not capable of it

ive been tig weldiing for 12 years sheety by trade have my pressure ticket in tig and like to think im fairly neat but dont even come close to this guy he is quite simply amazing its the consistency that sets him apart didnt see one stop start mark out of place

Damn! That's some mighty fine work there. Is this the equivalent of fab porn?

This reminds me of this old Korean bloke that works for new world engineering at the refinery where I work. He tigs aluminium and stainless just as good as the stuff pictured, his stuff always has this cool criss cross pattern though so you can always tell its his at a glance and out of the thousands of welds I've seen of his I've never seen a stuff up. In korea just welding itself is something like a 7 year apprenticeship and you have to get 30 od years experience before you're considered competant. There are some guys who've been qualified for 15 years working for New World who just grind everything for the more experienced guys to weld.

I have a chubby.

I'm also in the "I can stick metal together" group and that's only with a mig.

Absolutely beautiful welds...thanks for posting them.

i'm a multi skilled metal stick together'er.

i can do it with stick, mig and oxy.

though my stick together'ing goes as far as the boss trusting me with his rollcage and the rear end work on his drag car.

i still don't call myself a welder though.

Awsome work right there!!! Troy treapanier from Rad rides is i beleive on par with that sort of quality.

I farken love threads like this! Even though I know I'll never get anything near that level, stuff like that is such an inspiration.