Welding Jig for MSXIV Documentation

Owned by Tommy Tran
Last updated: May 25, 2020
3 min read

The decided method of welding the entire Chassis involved welding the tubes in stages.

  1. Weld simple groups of tubes, e.g. flat planes

  2. Create a general jig to weld the large group together

  3. Create jigs for additional attachments afterwards

Winter 2020

Welding the Flat Planes using MDF Scraps

Flat planes can be identified on the Chassis near the front, middle, and back section (relating to the A pillar, B pillar, and C pillar). The design of this jig involved assembling MDF scraps to mimic the arrangement of the tubes within these flat planes. This sheet is then placed on a CNC Machine (located in E5 Wood Shop and accessed through Brian from E5 Machine Shop) in order to create the cavity that would hold the tubes in place during welding.

 

Front Plane Jig

Middle Plane MDF Jig

Back Plane MDF Jig

 

Completing the Welding on the Front Section

Front Plane Section Diagram

The front section of the Chassis needed further welding in order to be completed as a group. The highlighted green areas have been welded using the MDF and CNC Machine method described above. The highlighted orange areas were welded together as another independent group using the same MDF and CNC Machine. The highlighted pink areas were welded onto the highlighted green front section using 3D printed jigs. 3D print jigs allowed for ease of manufacturing complicated structures to hold the tubes.

Additional Independent Group (Highlighted Orange Area)

3D Print Jigs Used to Hold Tubes while Front Plane Rested on Flat Surface

Overall Jig Assembly

After the large groups of tubes were welded, a large inventory of 80/20 Aluminum Extrusions were used to design an overall jig to hold the large groups of tubes together. Tube Clamps were designed in order to mount the tubes onto the Aluminum Extrusion Tower.

File Name: JIG-ASSY-MASTER

Folder Path: GrabCAD\MSXIV\Development\Chassis\Welding Jig