So do you *guys use ERW or seamless on your chassis? I'm trying to price up a chassis but material choice is proving too difficult for someone of my indecision!

*generalising massively there!

Square tubing is very hard to find seamless and IMO isn't necessary.

don't know anyone who has used seamless tubes on thier chassis, its just not necessary. Mine is erw

i'd def go for seamless on wishbones, but for chassis ERW is fine

having said that, roll cages are made from CDS (cold drawn seamless?) i think, as such, i think my whole chassis is, although i didn't make it

CDS is about 10times the price of ERW for a start! And ive never heard of CDS in square.
- My wishbones, which are westfield OEM, are all ERW. They dont even have the seem orientated.


Daniel

[Edited on 25/8/2010 by dhutch]

Well that settles that then! Cheers!

Though it's not as expensive as you say - random example price:
ERW 1"/16swg £25 for 6m
CDS 1"/16swg £35 for 6m

[Edited on 25/8/10 by coyoteboy]

£25 for 6m seems expensive to me...

where abouts are you in the country?

last time i order some it was £9, has it gone up that much ?

Yeah I was looking more at the price ratio than the actual price (though I suppose the company could make a profit on the plain steel to suplement the cds). I'm in Glasgow, still tracking down local suppliers and their price lists - they seem reluctant to web-ise their lists and I'd like to see their selections and prices before I start my design process.

Hube Tubes Paisley (aka Hub-Le Bas or Le Bas Tubes)


http://www.hublebas.co.uk/Paisleylocation.htm

Phew... I thought this was going to be an 'ali space-frame' thread and I'm clean out of popcorn!

quote:

---

Originally posted by scootz
Phew... I thought this was going to be an 'ali space-frame' thread and I'm clean out of popcorn!

---

Ivan... I said I don't have popcorn! You can't do this to me buddy!

No, my first design is staying way away from Alu. My welding and heat treating abilities are not up to that sort of scratch, and frankly I think I can do better with fewer worries with some decent steel tubing No need for popcorn!

Cheers for the link, I'll check them out - they're pretty handy for me.

God it's hard work trying to get tube prices, apparently I have to tell them exactly what I want rather than getting a price list. What a backwards way of working. How do I plan my design unless I have the prices of the tubes to include in that design?

I'm severely tempted to submit a quote request for one of everything in their ERW stock, see if they notice.

Excellent, they provided me with some guide prices, much better. Now I can crack on with designing. Not sure I've any need for enough metal to meet their minimum order amount (£75) though. How does anyone else deal with that? Or do you all have about 20m of spare steel hanging around?

Haha i know i have a lot of extra tube hanging around! But i know ive also had to order a load more other things!

See if you can try and look as far ahead in the project as possible, and try and get round tubing for wishbones, steering extensions etc, steel plate, steel sheet, and alu sheet if you can get it and store it safely until you need it! If they can supply all that, it will definately be over the £75

edit to add, i hope the alu tube chassis was a joke ivan! or at least you have appropriate facilities and expertise for such an undertaking ;P Oh and that you dont plan on trusting any welds for extended periods of time

[Edited on 2/9/10 by hellbent345]