Buying Steel... (Calling Welderman!)
scootz - 15/5/12 at 12:49 PM
Aaaargh... if I had hair on my head I'd have pulled it all out by now!
4130, T45, CDS, ERW!? Tube or Pipe!? OD's, Inches, Fractions, Decimals, Swg's!?
FFS, I just want to buy two 1.5m lengths of steel to make my front suspension beam with. Something like this...
It needs to be strong as the whole front suspension effectively hangs off the ends... lighter would be good, but no unobtanium (as I'm skint!)!
The biggest PITA in the whole process (apart from me being a complete and utter bunghole) is that the only thing that's important to me is the ID
of the tube / pipe... and yup... no suppliers list the ID of their steel!!! Buggerations... I wish I'd paid even a teeny weeny bit of attention
in maths classes!
I need 49.5mm (or nearest size available) ID for the bottom tube and 45.9mm (or nearest size available) ID for the top one
Can anyone who knows their (steel) onions help out Mr Thicky MacGump!?
A 10% discount on any (of the inevitable) future Scootz Sales awaits! 
Joe... Joe...Joe...JOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
designer - 15/5/12 at 01:11 PM
Couldn't you adapt an old VW Beetle front end?
scootz - 15/5/12 at 01:40 PM
quote:
Originally posted by designer
Couldn't you adapt an old VW Beetle front end?
I could... but it would be a faff, so I won't.
welderman - 15/5/12 at 02:00 PM
I is without intenweb at work so on mi eye phone.
Will see what eye can cum up wi
bonzoronnie - 15/5/12 at 02:03 PM
Pipe is measured on its inside diameter & tube is measured on its outside diameter.
What sort of wall thickness material are you looking for Scott ?
I can look it up in my ASD metals book if I can get some rough parameters of what you are looking for
scootz - 15/5/12 at 02:11 PM
quote:
Originally posted by welderman
I is without intenweb at work so on mi eye phone.
Will see what eye can cum up wi
U is a star!
scootz - 15/5/12 at 02:13 PM
quote:
Originally posted by bonzoronnie
Pipe is measured on its inside diameter & tube is measured on its outside diameter.
What sort of wall thickness material are you looking for Scott ?
I can look it up in my ASD metals book if I can get some rough parameters of what you are looking for
Thanks Ronnie... I'm probably looking for a 2-3mm wall thickness.
welderman - 15/5/12 at 02:18 PM
STAINLESS 304 = 48.4id / 50.3od and 45.1id / 48.3od
MILD STEEL = 49.92id / 50.398od and 45.52id / 50.8od
scootz - 15/5/12 at 02:24 PM
You typed all that on an eye phone!? Good work fella!
The mild steel options look the closest size wise, but the walls are prolly a wee bit too thin. 
Thanks for having a look though mister!
welderman - 15/5/12 at 02:32 PM
i think maybe could get thicked wall, will check
scootz - 15/5/12 at 02:40 PM
Cheers (and no panic Joe... there's no rush!).
Would 'mild' be ok for the application?
Steve Hignett - 15/5/12 at 02:55 PM
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Cheers (and no panic Joe... there's no rush!).
Would 'mild' be ok for the application?
"Could" be better...
bonzoronnie - 15/5/12 at 03:11 PM
Drawn a blank in my little book Scott
Plenty of round section in there but only gives the wall thickness's & outside diameters.
Me too dumb to work out the inside diameters
I am sure Welderman will come up trumphs
scootz - 15/5/12 at 03:23 PM
No probs Ronnie. Thanks for trying!
iank - 15/5/12 at 04:33 PM
Inside Diameter = Outside Diameter - 2*wall thickness
scootz - 15/5/12 at 04:43 PM
quote:
Originally posted by iank
Inside Diameter = Outside Diameter - 2*wall thickness
I'm not that thick Ian 
I've been skittering about various suppliers. Some are using inch fractions, others mm's, others swg. There's even a few who use a
mish-mash of all three!
I'm just struggling to find two tubes of the same grade of material that get within a mil of my requirements.
I'v attached the pic below of a VW beam, so folks can see the relevance of the ID above all else.
T66 - 15/5/12 at 05:29 PM
I can dodge down to my local metalsupermarket, who has a fairly big stock of tube.
What exactly do you want ? If you get a decision Im happy to go measure and buy on your behalf. Will be next week ...
Youve seen my tubes, you could hang most things off them. 38mm cds
[Edited on 15/5/12 by T66]
scootz - 15/5/12 at 06:29 PM
Cheers Ivo... will give you a bell.
T66 - 15/5/12 at 08:46 PM
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Cheers Ivo... will give you a bell.
Im in at work the next 2 days - take your pick when you ring, if I dont answer Im out, and will ring you back. . I could go down on Wednesday next
week...
To save on the heavy postal costs, probably easier if I post it up to you in 6" lengths ? then just weld it back together..
slingshot2000 - 15/5/12 at 09:06 PM
quote:
To save on the heavy postal costs, probably easier if I post it up to you in 6" lengths ? then just weld it back together..
Almost spilt me tea there !
Would have been even cheaper if you had done this before the Royal Mail put up the price of 1st class stamps by almost one billion % !
scootz - 16/5/12 at 06:11 AM
quote:
Originally posted by T66
To save on the heavy postal costs, probably easier if I post it up to you in 6" lengths ? then just weld it back together..
Great thinking Batman!