I cut my steering column tube last night to shorten it. When I cut it I realised it is a solid 15mm bar not a hollow tube. I'll be sleeving it with a tube which gave me an idea. Rather than sleeving the bar with a short length of tube, why not cut out most of the original bar and replace it with a longer tube. It will only save a small amount of weight but it is a saving that is easily made. Can anyone see a problem in doing this?

nope. seems fine. what i'd do though is sleeve it and weld it, but also maybe put a bolt through it too?

Yes, I could drill each end and put a piece of small diameter bar through the sleeving tube and stub end of the old column. A bit of weld on each end of the small diameter bar will hold it in place and will act as a mechanical fixing in case the worst happens to the weld.

If you cut the tube at 45° or more, then you'll have a wider area to weld and therefore more strenght.

HTH,
James

I could cut it at 45° from both sides so that each end has 2 points and two concave curves. It will have more weld area and even if the weld breaks it won't be able to turn freely without splaying open.

Similar to James' suggestion ^^ one that I saw recently had two V cuts in the tubing. Means there is a positive length and greater area for welding.
HTH.
Cheers, Pewe

Repalcing with tube sounds like a good idea.

If you weld it properly there is no need to worry about back ups if the weld breaks, if you can't weld it properly you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

I'd only worry about the weld breaking if I was welding exotic materials and didn't know the correct procedure.

Just my 2p's worth

Davie

I'm just about to re-do mine.

The original one had a 3mm slit in each tube and 3mm strip inserted to give mechanical connection between them. It then had the two edges welded together around the 3mm strip. Then a sleve with 45 degree cuts on each end was welded over the top.

The one i'm about to redo will be similar - if the weld ever fails then hopefully the mechanical joint will hold long enough to get me to the side of the road safely.

Just to get this straight.... You trust your welding enough for a chassis and even wishbones... but not for a steering column?

Angled cuts are never a bad idea. As it spreads the load. But imho drilling holes and/or slots for such "mechanical" connections will most likely weaken the column. And therefor not that a great idea....

Just my 2 cents

My 'slot' is inside the welded section - ie i make the original tube longer than needs to be so i'm not weakening the structure at all.

As for trusting .... i bought my wishbones as they have one point of failure. The chassis is lots of linked points and the welds are over 4" each time.

The steering column takes a high loading and any failure is VERY serious - therefore i'd like to try to reduce the chance of failure. Seems sensible to me.

Thanks for the advice guys. I cut a slot in the original bar and in the new outer tube for a piece of 16x2 steel at each end. Should the welds fail the flat bar is a mechanical link that should help maintain some direction. The flat bar is welded too so it doesn't fall out.

As for failure severity. Wishbones or balljoints are highest for me. No steering or braking. At least with a column failure you can still brake hard even if you can't choose what you hit.