Shopsmith Forums

Does anybody know what grade of steel the way tubes are made of ? Chrome Moly ?
Paul

masonsailor2 wrote:Does anybody know what grade of steel the way tubes are made of ? Chrome Moly ?
Paul

I do not know for sure, but I think it will vary with the vintage.

The reason I ask is I just left my metal supplier where I was going to purchase some 7' tubes. Wow. In chrome Moly it comes to $960.00 for two 20' pieces.
Paul

masonsailor2 wrote:The reason I ask is I just left my metal supplier where I was going to purchase some 7' tubes. Wow. In chrome Moly it comes to $960.00 for two 20' pieces.
Paul

Wow that sounds like a project! 7ft diam by 20ft long.

I recall something about the Way tubes having an increased nickel content? Not sure. The lower tubes aren't so premium.


Chris

I have intended to stretch one but that is just one of many things I have not done yet.
I have a metal lathe in the farm/mechanics shop and I just figured that I would turn a press fit internal coupling either out of heavy wall tubing or maybe even solid bar stock. The tube ends would need to be faced to be exactly square then I would weld the tubes together building it a little high then turn the weld beads back down to the original tube diameter.
It isn't a priority, just something I have wanted to do. Sadly that list is pretty long.


.

robinson46176 wrote:I have intended to stretch one but that is just one of many things I have not done yet.
I have a metal lathe in the farm/mechanics shop and I just figured that I would turn a press fit internal coupling either out of heavy wall tubing or maybe even solid bar stock. The tube ends would need to be faced to be exactly square then I would weld the tubes together building it a little high then turn the weld beads back down to the original tube diameter.
It isn't a priority, just something I have wanted to do. Sadly that list is pretty long.


.

Do you have a way to straighten the tubes after welding?

Mike

I'm pretty sure you don't need to get chrome moly for this application. This stuff is used in roll cages and frames in stock cars and other places that have pretty hefty requirements.

I found a stock car place that sell it in lengths for $9.35 a foot so 4 tubes of 7 feet each would be $261.80 + shipping and taxes. That is the 1-3/4 dia x .120 wall version.

Remember if you have to get 20 foot lengths 4 7 foot tubes will take two 20 foot lengths.......... you only get two 7 foot lengths out of 20 feet, so you are buying material that will be come "scrap" but the price per foot might be lower until you factor in the "waste". Now the scrap or waste could be another machine shorter machine or two or a source of cash if you find someone to buy it.

It is likely you can do better then this but start looking at places that do stock cars, dune buggies, racing and aviation type things.

Ed

oldiron wrote:

robinson46176 wrote:

Do you have a way to straighten the tubes after welding?

Mike

With the proper clamping setup and skip welding it may not need it but yes, I do have a hydraulic pipe press that is real good at such things.


.

Back in the day, youth has it days you know, I switched from a automatic transmission to a manual on a Comet. The drive shaft length was longer on the manual so I welded in a section of material to extend the shaft.

Used angle iron and clamps for alignment and tacked it and rotated then did short bursts to fill in all the while keeping it clamped in I think it was 3 pieces of angle iron. Since I wasn't really confident in it holding I had tacked in a short section of pipe inside so if the weld broke the shaft wouldn't just fall out.

It wasn't perfect but it came out better then expected. I was doing this a temporary solution until I came across the right one in a junk yard. Well I ended up using it that way for a number of years and even did a motor replacement and kept the drive shaft.

My brother had gotten me the car from a guy who had gotten insurance money for it as totaled and then got to keep the car for I think it was $50. We had to parts shop the junk yard so it had some parts from other years that were not matches but it was a car. Some years later while I was in the army my brother gave it to an uncle, well he did give it to me so I guess he thought he still sort of owned it??? Anyway the uncle needed it and I didn't so really no hard feelings.

So back to the point of the post. Yes you can weld tubing and even hand welding will work if it is clamped correctly and the welding done correctly as to not distort the parts. But having said that a welding shop that does tubing will have a set up where they can give you back your parts and have a hard time even finding the actual weld. Minimal cost and no work might be the way to go.

Ed