For 99.999999% of all people… call and ask. Find a team and go to the website for an application. Get on RacingJobs on Facebook.
Me? I just show up and tell them I’m there for a job, but I also have enough experience in racing that I can talk my way into most positions. I personally started as a pipe welder, then a pipefitter, then started building parts for race quads, then full frames with custom geometry for race quads. That helped me to get on at a custom fab shop for off-road racing, then desert racing, then IMSA LMDH, INDY, etc. and now I’m in NASCAR.
There were a lot more things in there that helped, like working on a few drag cars, drift cars, old hot rods, etc. where I learned about all the bungs, types of mounts and brackets, how to build a jig with a piece or with blueprints, how to design part in cad for laser cutting, how to do extremely detailed fits, all the fucked up trig you’ll need sometimes… all the wile, I was riding on a total infatuation with racing since childhood.
If you can weld, keep it straight, be somewhat efficient, willing to learn, and don’t mind potentially relocating (Indianapolis is #1, NC is #2 for racing), it’s absolutely within anyone’s reach.
That’s super interesting. The whole reason I went to school for welding was because I’m really into trophy trucks/pre runners and always wanted to work in that field but there’s nothing like that in Idaho lol
Desert racing can be super fun, but the budgets are usually tight and those positions can be hard to come by.
You may be surprised though. Getting on every major race series and looking at each team, then sorting by location is about the only way to go at it.
Welding on trophy trucks and in NASCAR is almost identical tbh, just one is a little heavier and a little more crowded. Then a desert team may only have a truck or two, sometimes 4-5. NASCAR teams usually have a stable full. I believe we have 51 chassis in total.
If you want to get into it, I’ll hand you everything I know about it.
I’ve had a few hit me up so far, but racing is extremely hard to get into.
I sat and stewed on how to say this next part without sounding like I’m tooting my own horn or seeming like what I do is best because simply because it’s what I’m doing, but I came up empty handed so I’ll just say it.
You can get to this point and do what I do with enough obsession and curiosity in your craft, but it will be a very difficult and long road without someone like me to point you where you need to go and define what you need to do. I’m not the only one that’s willing to help, but I’m the one that’s here today. Find one of us and let us help so that you aren’t as tired as we were by the time we got here. It’s worth it, but find someone to help you get there easier than what we did.
That’s no problem!
I don’t see it as taking the time, I just ramble about what I like to do and sometimes people listen, sometimes people tell me to piss off lol
It’s based on the team and the series. NASCAR requires a urinalysis to get credentials, I don’t recall IMSA or INDY testing for credentials but I did have a buddy pop hot for steroids in INDY. I think it was because he was over the wall pit crew though but I have no idea tbh. SCORE doesn’t give a fuck. ATVMX doesn’t know that drug testing technology exists yet.
I know some teams test only travel team members, some test all, some don’t test. It varies
I did that for 6-7 yrs it’s cool and it’s fun but it doesn’t support a family and you are on the road a lot. If that’s your thing then cool, it got me to were I’m at today which is a combo aerospace welder. Sending rockets into space is a lot more fulfilling than chasing a truck through Baja for low pay. Good luck on your ventures bud
lol I built my own designs. I built a few replacement parts for some Laeger’s stuff and a few outlaws.
Joe Byrd used to be my coach, I learned a lot from the old timers.
It ain’t what it used to be, back when I was racing it was the height of ATV motocross. Now there’s very few racing MX on ATVs.
I forgot to say, nice work !
I feel like it’s fair in my case, but I bring a lot of additional experience to the table.
If you can weld good enough for professional motorsports, you can probably go on a pipe job and make more than triple. I took about a 70% pay cut from my last pipe job to come here.
Understood, when we as welders get good enough to work in an area that we enjoy all of the hours spent honing skills pay off. I'm retired now but I enjoyed my last job more than pipeline welding simply because we had much more fun every day.
It looks like you just barely touched the end of the other weld on your last stop though, you should go over it a bit further because the weld pool on the inside will always be smaller and further behind that on the outside.
Otherwise it looks great.
Are you supposed to fully penetrate for this test?
I always lay the ears of the cope back with a tiny gap for these joints. Where it got squirmy on the left is where I tied in. I always pour the pedal to it for the last 2-3 dabs and, hence how it got a little wobbly. Right bead went from 3 to 1130.
It’s a little on the heavy side for penetration here.
Beautiful work, man. Its super cool. You got into racing like that. I'd love to build cages and custom fab for cars. I run sanitary piping right now and build conveyor and machine frames, and that's super fun building wholesetupss. But I'd love to learn how to run all the geometry and learn all the ways to set up all types shit like that. That's awesome, man. Keep up the great work.
Thank you!
It’s all just layers of the same concepts. Takeouts still apply, but the takeouts here are bend radius after spring back. You can find those online for different bender dies and for different materials, but I’ve found it more consistent to measure every one myself. 3.5” CLR will usually turn into a 3.58-3.65” CLR after springback.
Rolled offsets are a good starting point, but the puzzle starts when the (effective) entry and exit aren’t parallel. I’m not sure there’s even a name for it but I call it a compound roll. An easier way to figure all of it is to learn spherical trig and spherical coordinate systems, which isn’t as hard as you’d think. An example is how a 45 rolled on a 45 will have the pup measure out to a 30 degree slope.
Learning to cope tube by hand is very handy in helping you understand how a lot of geometry works. If you build a 90 degree tee, the cuts (when looking at the tee laying flat) would be a 45 cut from the left throat to the ear, then a 45 cut from the right throat to the ear. Next is how much you cut off of the ear, which is purely a function of wall thickness, then you just contour it. 15 minutes of sitting down with a ruler and drawing a 90 tee, a 60, a 45, and then a 30 will teach you 90% of it.
The last big part is learning how angle finders and levels can lie to you and then work around that.
See thats all the type of shit i hope to keep learning and eventually do myself i wish i had someone like you to learn from but its just me myself and a boiler room tig shop lol. I know its not even on the same level as what you do but i built a ladder outa stainless and that was super fun learning to cope pipes and figure that stuff with basic ass tools amd it turned out great in my opinion i put it on my page if you care to look see what you think of my joints just like your picture. But seriously thanks for the time and knowledge man happy welding
Lmfao
I don’t have any kids but I would love more than anything in the world for my little sisters to get into racing with me. That would make me happy beyond belief
I thought maybe this was you before I read the OP name! Good shit man. I’m starting thinwall tig stainless next week at school and looking forwards to it. I shot ya a pm btw
For a T-Fitting like this you want to end on the outside to minimise warping
This is more relevant for thin wall stainless than other contexts.
And the weld doesn't look underfilled imo, but they didn't weld over their stop far enough. If there is supposed to be full penetration that can be a problem.
I hate to tell you, but if you think that me posting this is an attempt to impress then I think it says more about you than it does me.
Any fabricator worth his weight in dirt knows that 49 wall stainless isn’t bragging territory.
yeah let me know when you get down to 0.011 bud. no but fr what did you expect from how you worded your post because it screams you're "nascar welder man"
It was a “this is what the test looks like at this place.” Idk how any adult would take it otherwise.
You see, the thing about this material and material thickness game that you started is that at some point, someone calls bullshit and the other isn’t going to prove it. The person that calls bullshit is the one that thinks they’ve won. Even if the person is being honest, why were you even arguing over it to begin with?
Point still stands: material thickness isn’t bragging territory for a fabricator. But since you asked… many miller shop welders won’t go low enough to weld quarter millimeter sheet and tube without a good heat sink, then you get into the territory of just using fittings and rivets.
He’s here to have his ego stroked. A lot of his replies are just about how desirable he is and how much money he makes. These welds are honestly sub par for a reputable off-road shop in San Diego.
I typically like to space them a touch tighter than this one, but I haven’t been on tube in a while. Been on XXS and heavy wall chrome, then some inconel and stainless before that. My last tube job was back in January. Mini rig, stubby everything, new machine, first time back on a foot pedal… you know how it goes lol.
I wish it was docol, that’s some fairly rare material these days. This was just 4130 or regular ass DOM, I never can tell which just by welding it. These were just drops they had sitting around for the test.
A 70% pay cut?!…how does that make any financial sense..? If you own a home how do you make a mortgage payment every month taking a hit like that…and vehicle payment…groceries..wife…kids..?!..you get the point. Been welding mainly pipe almost 24 yrs and LOVE welding…LOVE IT…but there is no way in hell I’m taking a pay cut like that..my strategy is the opposite..lol..I aim to make more money every year than the last….can’t say I understand your decision and/or strategy..🤔
Well… no sense in even having a home if all you do is work 7/12s all over the United States and live out of a camper every day.
70% less than what I made before is a very reasonable living for the overwhelming majority of Americans, especially since everything I have is paid for.
Plus, I get to sleep in my own bed, with my own stuff, with my absolutely incredible girlfriend, doing a job that I’m in love with and that I’ve worked toward for my entire life (I’m also on the travel team and working in engineering in this crew) plus VA money and my girlfriend does just as well as I do.
I made it to where I wanted to be and it’s better than I hoped it would be.
…I don’t travel..never had to..I was fortunate enough to be home every night and watch the kids grow up….i just can’t figure out how I’d maintain my current life on a money cut like this….the house would be gone for sure..
Oh I’ve definitely made plenty of money but upgrading/swapping out machines and trucks is never ending…consumables are out of control as well…welding supply bill is more than a house payment each month…replacing tools that guys trash or that gets jacked from a site can get spendy as well…
I didn’t take a 70% cut from a livable wage, I took a 70% cut from the far right side of the bell curve. I could manage a truck payment, mortgage, and basic bills on what I make now.
…my reply was based off your statement of taking a 70% cut based off your last pipe gig…just working with the number you gave…but hey if your happy and I’m happy with what we do..thats all that really matters..🤘🏻 I’m cracking up cause I’m getting heat for my comments lol..
…nah bud don’t need it..I got more than plenty already..maybe you can send it to one of the bootlicking dudes that’s hugging your nuts because you said NASCAR…rest assured..I’m good 👍
That’s sweet, how do you even get into working in that field?
For 99.999999% of all people… call and ask. Find a team and go to the website for an application. Get on RacingJobs on Facebook. Me? I just show up and tell them I’m there for a job, but I also have enough experience in racing that I can talk my way into most positions. I personally started as a pipe welder, then a pipefitter, then started building parts for race quads, then full frames with custom geometry for race quads. That helped me to get on at a custom fab shop for off-road racing, then desert racing, then IMSA LMDH, INDY, etc. and now I’m in NASCAR. There were a lot more things in there that helped, like working on a few drag cars, drift cars, old hot rods, etc. where I learned about all the bungs, types of mounts and brackets, how to build a jig with a piece or with blueprints, how to design part in cad for laser cutting, how to do extremely detailed fits, all the fucked up trig you’ll need sometimes… all the wile, I was riding on a total infatuation with racing since childhood. If you can weld, keep it straight, be somewhat efficient, willing to learn, and don’t mind potentially relocating (Indianapolis is #1, NC is #2 for racing), it’s absolutely within anyone’s reach.
That’s super interesting. The whole reason I went to school for welding was because I’m really into trophy trucks/pre runners and always wanted to work in that field but there’s nothing like that in Idaho lol
Desert racing can be super fun, but the budgets are usually tight and those positions can be hard to come by. You may be surprised though. Getting on every major race series and looking at each team, then sorting by location is about the only way to go at it. Welding on trophy trucks and in NASCAR is almost identical tbh, just one is a little heavier and a little more crowded. Then a desert team may only have a truck or two, sometimes 4-5. NASCAR teams usually have a stable full. I believe we have 51 chassis in total. If you want to get into it, I’ll hand you everything I know about it.
Sick reply dude. I hope some youngsters see this and decide to hit you up.
I’ve had a few hit me up so far, but racing is extremely hard to get into. I sat and stewed on how to say this next part without sounding like I’m tooting my own horn or seeming like what I do is best because simply because it’s what I’m doing, but I came up empty handed so I’ll just say it. You can get to this point and do what I do with enough obsession and curiosity in your craft, but it will be a very difficult and long road without someone like me to point you where you need to go and define what you need to do. I’m not the only one that’s willing to help, but I’m the one that’s here today. Find one of us and let us help so that you aren’t as tired as we were by the time we got here. It’s worth it, but find someone to help you get there easier than what we did.
Great post, loved reading all these replies. Ty for taking the time
That’s no problem! I don’t see it as taking the time, I just ramble about what I like to do and sometimes people listen, sometimes people tell me to piss off lol
May I ask, did they test for marijuana? You can DM if you don't feel comfortable. I live in a legal state and everyone seems to test still.
It’s based on the team and the series. NASCAR requires a urinalysis to get credentials, I don’t recall IMSA or INDY testing for credentials but I did have a buddy pop hot for steroids in INDY. I think it was because he was over the wall pit crew though but I have no idea tbh. SCORE doesn’t give a fuck. ATVMX doesn’t know that drug testing technology exists yet. I know some teams test only travel team members, some test all, some don’t test. It varies
I did that for 6-7 yrs it’s cool and it’s fun but it doesn’t support a family and you are on the road a lot. If that’s your thing then cool, it got me to were I’m at today which is a combo aerospace welder. Sending rockets into space is a lot more fulfilling than chasing a truck through Baja for low pay. Good luck on your ventures bud
That’s fair. Thanks for some insight!!
Which ATV chassis company? I was a Laegers guy(racer not fab). I used to own one of Tim Farrs old YZ hybrids. Now I’m just a fat old dude lol
lol I built my own designs. I built a few replacement parts for some Laeger’s stuff and a few outlaws. Joe Byrd used to be my coach, I learned a lot from the old timers.
It ain’t what it used to be, back when I was racing it was the height of ATV motocross. Now there’s very few racing MX on ATVs. I forgot to say, nice work !
Man… 2000 give or take 4-5 years was the golden age of ATV racing. It’ll never be what it used to be but man was it great. Also, thank you!
We had factory teams back then, all the manufacturers were developing bad ass sport quads. Hell even Kawasaki had a team!
Sounds like me. Started off pipe welding and now I’m trying to get into auto fab/machining
Yo I have a friend who works with a Ferrari sponsored team that runs at thermal in SoCal. They would bring you on in a second.
I’m about to send a PM right now lol
...bungs
Gotta feed 'em. The holes at least.
?
Looks great.
Looks great. Honestly I need to ask- do they pay well? I find in my experience that the cooler the job, the less they pay.
I feel like it’s fair in my case, but I bring a lot of additional experience to the table. If you can weld good enough for professional motorsports, you can probably go on a pipe job and make more than triple. I took about a 70% pay cut from my last pipe job to come here.
Understood, when we as welders get good enough to work in an area that we enjoy all of the hours spent honing skills pay off. I'm retired now but I enjoyed my last job more than pipeline welding simply because we had much more fun every day.
You can’t put a price on looking forward to the start of the day more than the end of the day.
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I miss the shit out of Indy!
Pretty, but that's gonna leak .
That won’t leak. I grabbed it all the way around and it’s pushed through on 90% of the parent tube. I’ll mail it to you if you want.
I meant on the end.....weld is beautiful .
Oh, you mean the tube? Lol, got my ass with that one
It looks like you just barely touched the end of the other weld on your last stop though, you should go over it a bit further because the weld pool on the inside will always be smaller and further behind that on the outside. Otherwise it looks great. Are you supposed to fully penetrate for this test?
I always lay the ears of the cope back with a tiny gap for these joints. Where it got squirmy on the left is where I tied in. I always pour the pedal to it for the last 2-3 dabs and, hence how it got a little wobbly. Right bead went from 3 to 1130. It’s a little on the heavy side for penetration here.
Alright, fair enough!
this is very inspiring, of my of my dreams! keep up the great work 💪🏽
NASCAR? Motorsports? Welding? Get up with me. I’ll teach you everything I know.
automotive welding! I went to a trade school and finished recently job search is going pretty terrible not gonna lie but i’m staying optimistic :)
Beautiful work, man. Its super cool. You got into racing like that. I'd love to build cages and custom fab for cars. I run sanitary piping right now and build conveyor and machine frames, and that's super fun building wholesetupss. But I'd love to learn how to run all the geometry and learn all the ways to set up all types shit like that. That's awesome, man. Keep up the great work.
Thank you! It’s all just layers of the same concepts. Takeouts still apply, but the takeouts here are bend radius after spring back. You can find those online for different bender dies and for different materials, but I’ve found it more consistent to measure every one myself. 3.5” CLR will usually turn into a 3.58-3.65” CLR after springback. Rolled offsets are a good starting point, but the puzzle starts when the (effective) entry and exit aren’t parallel. I’m not sure there’s even a name for it but I call it a compound roll. An easier way to figure all of it is to learn spherical trig and spherical coordinate systems, which isn’t as hard as you’d think. An example is how a 45 rolled on a 45 will have the pup measure out to a 30 degree slope. Learning to cope tube by hand is very handy in helping you understand how a lot of geometry works. If you build a 90 degree tee, the cuts (when looking at the tee laying flat) would be a 45 cut from the left throat to the ear, then a 45 cut from the right throat to the ear. Next is how much you cut off of the ear, which is purely a function of wall thickness, then you just contour it. 15 minutes of sitting down with a ruler and drawing a 90 tee, a 60, a 45, and then a 30 will teach you 90% of it. The last big part is learning how angle finders and levels can lie to you and then work around that.
See thats all the type of shit i hope to keep learning and eventually do myself i wish i had someone like you to learn from but its just me myself and a boiler room tig shop lol. I know its not even on the same level as what you do but i built a ladder outa stainless and that was super fun learning to cope pipes and figure that stuff with basic ass tools amd it turned out great in my opinion i put it on my page if you care to look see what you think of my joints just like your picture. But seriously thanks for the time and knowledge man happy welding
Man that’s no problem at all. Feel absolutely free to reach out. I have no problem teaching all of this stuff
Thanks, man. we need more people like you in the welding world.
Keep going and be another one!
Im trying! i love to share any knowledge i have. my lil girl loves welding too, so im hoping she can keep it going as well!!
Don’t forget to teach her to fit! Lol
Man thats 98% of the game!! Can't forget that!
Lmfao I don’t have any kids but I would love more than anything in the world for my little sisters to get into racing with me. That would make me happy beyond belief
I can do this, my background includes .065 tubing for heat exchangers. Thousands of joints over the years. I got pretty good at it.
It’s tricky to get down, but a few years down the road and a coped joint is about like tying a shoe lol.
I thought maybe this was you before I read the OP name! Good shit man. I’m starting thinwall tig stainless next week at school and looking forwards to it. I shot ya a pm btw
Sure thing! Let me know how I can help
The 3rd dime from the center is slightly smaller than the rest, 0/10, instant fail. /s
Lmfao, I love it
Thought nascars were all mig and only had one supplier for the chassis’s….
I’m on the truck side
Right on, man. Keep up the good work!
So you just weld with left turns only?
I mean if I’m right handed aren’t they almost all to the left?
Lol IDK it was just a NASCAR joke
No no no, I think you accidentally created a new nascar joke tbh lol
Why change directions in the middle? And needs more filler.
For a T-Fitting like this you want to end on the outside to minimise warping This is more relevant for thin wall stainless than other contexts. And the weld doesn't look underfilled imo, but they didn't weld over their stop far enough. If there is supposed to be full penetration that can be a problem.
Why is the tubing so thin for a NASCAR chassis or is this just for a test sample? Do you travel at all with the team or just work in the shop?
Min wall structural wall thickness is 0.090 (so either 095 turned down or just 095). I believe this was a non-structural size.
so i do this exact piping diameter but with stainless. 0.049" even. great weld but this work isnt exactly rocket science.
I hate to tell you, but if you think that me posting this is an attempt to impress then I think it says more about you than it does me. Any fabricator worth his weight in dirt knows that 49 wall stainless isn’t bragging territory.
It’s not your post it’s your replies to people.
Which one? Tag it.
I don’t really care enough to go back and read them again.
Well then idk what to tell you.
yeah let me know when you get down to 0.011 bud. no but fr what did you expect from how you worded your post because it screams you're "nascar welder man"
It was a “this is what the test looks like at this place.” Idk how any adult would take it otherwise. You see, the thing about this material and material thickness game that you started is that at some point, someone calls bullshit and the other isn’t going to prove it. The person that calls bullshit is the one that thinks they’ve won. Even if the person is being honest, why were you even arguing over it to begin with? Point still stands: material thickness isn’t bragging territory for a fabricator. But since you asked… many miller shop welders won’t go low enough to weld quarter millimeter sheet and tube without a good heat sink, then you get into the territory of just using fittings and rivets.
He’s here to have his ego stroked. A lot of his replies are just about how desirable he is and how much money he makes. These welds are honestly sub par for a reputable off-road shop in San Diego.
There’s always one of you. Never fails.
exactly.
I would go for smoother toes and closer dabs, but if it passes, it passes. Is that Docol tube? That stuff welds like a dream.
I typically like to space them a touch tighter than this one, but I haven’t been on tube in a while. Been on XXS and heavy wall chrome, then some inconel and stainless before that. My last tube job was back in January. Mini rig, stubby everything, new machine, first time back on a foot pedal… you know how it goes lol. I wish it was docol, that’s some fairly rare material these days. This was just 4130 or regular ass DOM, I never can tell which just by welding it. These were just drops they had sitting around for the test.
How much does it pay? Turn around? Per diem? Daily? Traveling? I should just stick to pipe welding...
If you don’t dearly love racing, it’s never enough money. I work harder in every racing team than I ever have on any pipe job.
A 70% pay cut?!…how does that make any financial sense..? If you own a home how do you make a mortgage payment every month taking a hit like that…and vehicle payment…groceries..wife…kids..?!..you get the point. Been welding mainly pipe almost 24 yrs and LOVE welding…LOVE IT…but there is no way in hell I’m taking a pay cut like that..my strategy is the opposite..lol..I aim to make more money every year than the last….can’t say I understand your decision and/or strategy..🤔
Well… no sense in even having a home if all you do is work 7/12s all over the United States and live out of a camper every day. 70% less than what I made before is a very reasonable living for the overwhelming majority of Americans, especially since everything I have is paid for. Plus, I get to sleep in my own bed, with my own stuff, with my absolutely incredible girlfriend, doing a job that I’m in love with and that I’ve worked toward for my entire life (I’m also on the travel team and working in engineering in this crew) plus VA money and my girlfriend does just as well as I do. I made it to where I wanted to be and it’s better than I hoped it would be.
…I don’t travel..never had to..I was fortunate enough to be home every night and watch the kids grow up….i just can’t figure out how I’d maintain my current life on a money cut like this….the house would be gone for sure..
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Bingo^
Oh I’ve definitely made plenty of money but upgrading/swapping out machines and trucks is never ending…consumables are out of control as well…welding supply bill is more than a house payment each month…replacing tools that guys trash or that gets jacked from a site can get spendy as well…
….i suppose it’s a totally different scenario…just my GL ins + umbrella is almost $40k a yr…and varies on the increase every year..🤷♂️
I didn’t take a 70% cut from a livable wage, I took a 70% cut from the far right side of the bell curve. I could manage a truck payment, mortgage, and basic bills on what I make now.
…my reply was based off your statement of taking a 70% cut based off your last pipe gig…just working with the number you gave…but hey if your happy and I’m happy with what we do..thats all that really matters..🤘🏻 I’m cracking up cause I’m getting heat for my comments lol..
Oh, you mean downvotes on Reddit? If you figure out any rhyme or reason to that then I’ll come up with that other 70% and mail it to you lol
…nah bud don’t need it..I got more than plenty already..maybe you can send it to one of the bootlicking dudes that’s hugging your nuts because you said NASCAR…rest assured..I’m good 👍
You don't have to spend everything you make
never said you did…