jeepguy553

I am gonna just tough it out with the sawzall until I finish this project. I'll regroup and figure out another method before I start the rear bumper. If I suddenly get rich, I'll probably get a plasma cutter.

Fourtango

I use them at work all the time, they are incredible!!

jeepguy553

My dad was talking about buying a CNC table plasma cutter for his business in Oklahoma. He has a HUGE metal building that we call the 2nd barn that is anything BUT a barn. It is a man-cave from hell. If he actually goes through with it anytime in the near future, you can probably guess where my bumper parts will be cut out.
The thing about the sawzall that I like is that the cuts are really thin and I don't waste a lot of metal in the cuts. With the torch, the cuts would be a lot bigger and I would end up losing metal. I have the parts laid out on the plate so that I can use the same cuts for multiple parts that have weird angles. The top plates were laid out as mirror images of each other with at least one common cut edge so that I could start the cuts on the outside edge of the plate, make the angle cuts, then start a single cut to sever them from the base plate. With the sawzall, these cuts can be a real PITA to make, but the savings in steel is IMO well worth the effort. I doubt that my skills with a torch would allow me to do this.

jeepguy553

A couple of pics I took earlier.

Front profile of the bumper base. It is just kind of bolted to the frame to help with fitting up the top plates...and to keep it legal so I can drive the thing around


Here is the driver's side top outrigger plate being held up to show how the whole thing is going to start taking shape. The top edge extends back under the fender about an inch. The outermost pieces will probably be 5" high, 6" wide, and 2" deep. This size should allow for the use of some kind of round light on each side without interfering with a tire at full flex.

Fourtango

Any updates?

jeepguy553

Yep. I started another thread this past weekend called "Bumper progress pics" that has all the most current pics included. With any luck, the thing will be finished this weekend and I can start on the rear bumper and carrier. I also have another project in the works...home brew cargo netting for the entire Jeep (thanks to another user who had the idea originally).

fleetwood8890

you can also turn a regular blade (old one )backwards and use that its kind of noisy tho

jeepguy553

Something about cutting plate steel with another piece of plate steel spinning at 12000 rpm just doesn't set well with me. I know it is done but I don't think I'll be trying it. I like my eyes and my fingers where they are supposed to be.