Anyone on here build a set of Vanguard chambers?

[kpke]

That is some beautiful work oxford. It must take extreme patience to do all of that welding. It is like fine art.

I am curious if you were to sit down and do that amount of welding on those header pipes approximately how long would it take?

[oxford]

Finish is surprisingly pretty easy, get your settings dialed in on the machine, mash the pedal and have at it.  I would say 1 hour or under per header on actual finish welding if you did your part on the fit-up.

Fit-up and tacking sections together takes much longer.  You essentially need perfect alignment and zero gaps, any less and you have to "deal with it" one way or another.  I really need a 3rd or 4th hand when doing it.  You are trying to hold the pieces together tight and in alignment with one hand and the torch in the other.  Sometimes one hand on the pieces isn't really enough and there isn't a good way to clamp/fixture it down so you have to deal with it.  It would also be nice to have a piece of filler rod in your hand incase a hole starts but that also isn't an option.

The bigger radius on the headers (and belly pieces) are also a little tricky when tacking as you essentially have an open corner joint so you only have the little bit of material down in the root to hopefully fuse and have the top melt before you make a hole. This is a place where a dab of filler would be nice to get them melted together, once they are it's not as big of a deal.

Any pieces that are a little out of alignment you need to watch when tacking (and finish welding) and pay attention to torch control.  You really need to start an arc on the low piece and wash up into the one that sits higher, if you don't you will have a hole.

I put my fair share of holes in those header pieces putting them together, some of them was just being out of practice, others remembering what to do and not do, others were maybe unavoidable for the situation.  Key is how you deal with it when it happens.

Most of the above is where a thicker gauge material is a lot more forgiving. 

[m in sc]

im assuming you did the '3 tacks per joint' then went back and did the finish welds? iv emade good use out of a set of v blocks doing similar type work. 

[oxford]

3 would probably work if every piece was perfect.  You need to put as many as needed if you have to pull pieces together to get them into alignment with each other.

[Dvsrd]

full plans/specs here

https://vanguardcycles.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/how-the-vanguard-v1s-are-made/

The dyno curve indicates that these should be excellent street pipes, that do not push peak power rpm too high for reliability/ longevity. At least that is how I interpret it. But how do they compare with for example JL and Spec 2 below 5500 rpm?

[oxford]

Since this thread came back to the top.  Here is the finished product of these.

Finished chamber thread