Hello people,
As everyone on here seems far more in on the locost gag than me I wonder if any of you can tell me if the material for the chassis is simply mild
steel or are slightly more exotic cro-molys like reynolds 531 etc preffered?
I am thinking about racing the beast when shes finished so it needs to be racing legal but neither 'the book' nor the racing regs appear to
specify the grade of steel that must be used....
Any help much appreciated...
[Edited on 2/6/03 by Afro]
It's usually just your common or garden, steel stockholder stuff, nothing to stop you using anything you want really.
Ask in the racing section tho....
Cheers
Chris
I've yet to see any widespread availibilty of chromoly tubing in square sections. (never seen any square chromoly at all to be honest....but,
I'm not saying it doesn't exist)
As Chris says ordinary mild steel is the usual way.
Sometimes chromoly is used on suspension parts...but always round tube AFAIK
Don't forget chromoly is about the stiffness as mild steel, but of course stronger.....it's big advantage is in PURE spaceframe without
bending loads where wall thickness can be reduced....or as a same weight substitute with improved crash strength....(although not always
desirable...crumple zones etc.).....
I could go on...but I won't...
HTH
quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
Snip
I could go on...but I won't...
HTH
Ah Terry, I see you have noticed my pet peeves and rants........
I know you like it really....
And, I'm only the 7th highest poster on here......must try harder.....
Cheers for the pointers, I think mild is the way forward.
Now I have the problem that all of the places I've asked for quotes on steel only do 2mm wall thickness and not 1.6mm on RHS unless I want to go
with ERW section which I don't think will be up to the job.....
Any opinions there and useful suppliers??
I've said this often before......
There is no such thiing as RHS below 2mm....
ERW is EXACTLY the correct material......
Not aimed at you Afro, but this "book" cock up has thrown many people....
Again, there is NO RHS below 2mm.....
I'll give Tiger their due, they call it ERW, so that's one thing that's better than the RC book. It's always slightly confused me
the difference between the two, since ERW = Electrical Resistance Welded (or something similar) and RHS = Rectangular Hollow Section, so is it not
possible to have ERW RHS? And indeed how is the metal joined in anything other than ERW?
Kingr
Exactly........RHS is indeed ERW'd....no other practical way to make it...
Just down to specs and terminology...
Steels can be spec'd two ways...by performance (strength, hardness etc) or by chemical composition......even for very similar products...they
will often display both, but be guided by one set of specs or the other....
Very confusing I know....
Cheers chaps..
This was getting confusing, I had thought that maybe RHS was a drawn section but now realise my errors, in which my dad took immense satisfaction!!
(I'm more instrumentation oriented and he's mechanical so he has been telling me most of this from the start!!)
... but then office
furniture spec steel didn't seem an obvious choice to take me over 100mph
Once again, thanks!!
[Edited on 5/6/03 by Afro]
Our steel stockist will happily supply 1"square 16 gauge, RHS or ERW. You just point to it on the rack and give them the money. They let you call
it anything you want because you are the customer. They will go into lengthy technical discussions and tell you anything you want to know about it but
eventually it is your choice. They can get thinner wall section tubing on special order but the book steel was easily available from stock when I told
them what I wanted. I was surprised how much lighter 16gauge was than the 2mm stuff for apparently little or no sacrifice in strength. The cold drawn
round tubing was more of a problem as there were a lot of different specs available.
yours, Pete.
Not wanting to be pedantic but the stuff we use is SHS rather than RHS "square hollow section" rather than "rectangular Hollow
Section".
Cheers
Chris
Well it would be if it existed in 16g...
Pete, it sounds like you have a good supplier....the naming thing doesn't matter until you come across picky jobsworths who will deny all
knowledge of a product unless you can name it letter perfect....electrical suppliers in particular used to be like this a lot I recall.......
They probably just didn't like your face Alan...
Nah...not possible..
It's happened to others I know too....maybe things have changed a bit in 9 years...who knows..
quote:
Originally posted by chrisg
Not wanting to be pedantic but the stuff we use is SHS rather than RHS "square hollow section" rather than "rectangular Hollow Section".
Cheers
Chris
Twiggs , Matlock. I said can I have a look through the scrap for some 3mm plate. His reply," We don't keep scrap". I said I meant the
pile by the door and he said " Oh, you mean the useable offcuts"..
I like a man with enterprise. Offcuts are sme price as scrap about 35p a kilo.
yours, Pete.
I haven't had much luck with getting scrap bits, there's two places that I can go to for steel, one of which does loads of machined
stainless stuff (great if you need a load of swarf or 2cm of stainless bar, not so great other wise) and one that does agricultural stuff (great if
you need offcuts of 15mm plate or 150mm x 10mm square section, no so great otherwise).
Kingr
quote:
Originally posted by kingr
quote:
Originally posted by chrisg
Not wanting to be pedantic but the stuff we use is SHS rather than RHS "square hollow section" rather than "rectangular Hollow Section".
Cheers
Chris
Well, I'll be equally if not more pedantic right back at you, and point out that squares are merely a specific form of rectangle, so in my view RHS is valid whether it has equal sides or not.
Kingr
)
I beg to differ, we have a couple of books at work that list RHS in 25x25 and other 'square' sections. It does form a square and I would
have though it to be SHS too but as british steel list it under RHS and they make the stuff who am I to argue... .... .... It's probably
purposely done so those not fully educated in the steel stockist code can also be mocked for their misquoting of 150x3mm flatbar as 150x3
plate...DOH!!
Anyway short of asking for 4 equal sided at 1 inch each folded section of 1.6mm thickness welded along one side, I think I've made enough of an
unknowledgable idiot of myself with the steel stockists who are probably dying for me to call them again to have the best laugh in weeks once more.
Its on order and that is hopefully the end of that..
cheers for the help and good luck to the next mug who ventures their way
Ah, but they probably mean the generic "rolled hollow section" (also RHS of course) terminology in that case, which includes rectangular,
square, and circular hollow sections.....
Damn, soooo confusing..
Certainly my old BSC charts do differentiate between square and rectangular......but hey.....don't suppose it matters really?
I'm sure I must have other things to worry about.......oh yeah, a car to finish.....
Happy steel buying...
I can't find my steel book waaaaaah!
I was going to post the two different pages - 1 showing SHS, and the other RHS,
It would have been a triumph, I would have bestrode this thread like a collosus!
but as i said I can't find it, you couldn't just take my word for it, could you?
No, didn't think so.
Cheers
Chris
My last post on this thread.....much as I'm enjoying it...
http://www.pulmans.co.uk/products_page.htm
This shows the basic materials names and sizes..
HTH