Off road bumpers??

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'm pretty sure they're a full blown metal fab shop that does all work in house.

Yeah, a shear isn't that unheard of in a metal shop.

 

[ericbphoto]

Yeah, a shear isn't that unheard of in a metal shop.

I wouldn't run a fab shop without at least 2 shears - one small one for 16ga and under and a big hydraulic shear capable of working full sheets up to at least 1/4". Anything bugger or "non-straight cuts" gets cut with torch, plasma or the expensive tools. Of course, that all depends on the type of jobs the fab shop specializes in.

These days, though, all the parts for a bumper could be laid out on a single sheet of 3/16 and cut by CNC plasma or laser in just a few minutes. Cool, de-burr, pack and ship. All day long. Make that plasma table pay for itself.

 

[JoshT]

I was just throwing it out there as a possibility. The chinese do reverse engineer a lot of stuff, that's how OBX got the Torque Monster Header design among a lot of other things. They also like to copy designs that are legitimately sent over for manufacture. Seriously, if you send prints for something to mass manufacture on the cheap in China, expect to see a cheaper clone of it very in short order.

 

[JoshT]

These days, though, all the parts for a bumper could be laid out on a single sheet of 3/16 and cut by CNC plasma or laser in just a few minutes. Cool, de-burr, pack and ship. All day long. Make that plasma table pay for itself.

If only I has the space and the money. I wonder about the skill since I haven't had time to wrap my head around designing for the 3D printer, but then I see all these YouTube personalitlies programming and running plasma tables and arc droids with very little training and experience. If they're doing it, it couldn't be too hard right? I think my problem with the 3D modeling probably comes from trying to be too precise in measurements, combined with using free programs that aren't designed for precision.

 

[White_4x4Ranger]

Right on. Like has been suggested already.. save save save. Buying as quality of an item as you can really pays off in the end... Buy once, cry once and all that.

You're in a better position than me. I can't weld, but I have access to a welder. Back in tech school I had to take a welding class, the main goal of the class was teaching us to identify a good weld from a bad and spot problems. IIRC it was a tig welding setup and the instructor welding basically told me that it was a good thing that I didn't actually need to be able to weld. He said I could probably get it with enough practice, but there wasn't enough time alotted for the class.

Dad has a MIG welder I can use any time I need it, but any time I've needed something welded he typically just does it for something to do. I've done it a little, but not enough to get comfortable or confident in my welds.



Ok, so you are a high schooler and you learned in a high school class. That would imply that your school has welders. Are you on good terms with the shop instructor? Maybe you could use the school's equipment as an extra cirricular after school activity, if you provide the materials. We had a wood shop at my high school and the instructor would do stuff like that, but that was about 20 years ago.



Did they steal it, or is it the same bumper made with inferior metals and welds? The AOR website says built in USA, but that would be built in USA from Chinese parts. Some companies will out source material cutting and supply jobs like that overseas to save cost, then do welding and assembly in house for quality control. They could have sent the patterns over to be cut from material they specified. The Chinese could be throwing a cheaper metal on the samecutting table and having a kid in a sweat chop buzz it together with an under powered welder.

Not excusing the knock off, just saying...

I just started another shop class a couple of weeks ago when the 2nd semester started. Right now we doing a small engines unit but we should be starting a welding one soon. I'll talk to my teacher and see what he thinks. As of now, we are on good terms as I am one of the few kids in his class that actually pays attention and puts in work.

Given that info about how the bumper is a knock-off, I'm worried about quality, not to mention the obvious copying of AOR's design.

If I'm not able to use my schools welders I think AOR sells an assembled bumper, but its like another 200$ or something like that.

 

[Lefty]

My mechanic welded one up for me for a very good price.