Tubing size recommendations??

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S

Soul_Man

Joined
Apr 17, 2003
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Location
Jacksonville, FL
Looking to buy some tubing to have on hand for fabbing things.

First thing I want to do is ot make a bicycle :D , and also have material on hand to fab up various (non-roll cage) things for the 'Cruiser and around the shop.

Local guy will order for me, but I don't know aht to get in terms of wall thickness.

The dies I have (as of now) for my bender are 3/4" and 1 1/4". What would be good tubing to order for light duty things (bicycle frame, grab handles etc)?

Also, I want to get some flat stock. What would be the most handy size? I was thinking of gettting 1/8" or 1/4" thick and about 2" wide. What would you all recommend as good sizes to have on hand? I can't get too many different sizes, and re-ordering something specific will be a PITA so I need something versitile.
 
Anybody?:confused:
 
OK. I'LL PLAY

i use mostly 1/4" plate 2",3" and 5" widths and 20' lengths

tube i use is 1.5" and 2" always .120 wall mostly HREW.

i use this for sliders and building up my rigs

depending on what your building, you already had bending dies, so use that size tube.
unless you need something different. buy only as needed

jim
 
Thanks for the replies!
 
Couple other things:

PinHead, the bike I'm going to make is going to be a beach cruiser. Nothing fancy, so I don't need to build it real light or anything (but don't want to be OVERLY heavy). Is the 0.045" thickness recommended for the 3/4" or the 1 1/4" OD? (or wold it be OK for both).

If the 4130 is expensive, what would be a good alternative? Can I get just "mild" stell or do I need to ask for specifics??

I've been looking at tubing etc. on McMaster-Carr, but I don't really know enough to know what I should be looking for :crybaby: (I do see that 4130 is "Easy to weld Aircraft Grade Alloy Steel" and that is is easy to form and easy to weld, two good things for me, but is looks to be almost 4x as expensive as "general purpose low carbon steel" :eek: ).

Just to give an idea of what I want to make (besides the beach cruiser), the only other project I have planned right now is to make wheel chocks for my dirtbike trailer. Basically those are the things I'll be doing, no bumpers, sliders, roll bars or anything like that

Oh yeah, do the same alloy recommendations also go for the flat stock?

And I 'm planning on getting mostly 1/8" flat stock rather than 1/4" since most of my projects will be low-demand and I think the 1/4" may be overkill/too heavy. What do you think of the 1/8" flat? (probably get 2" and 3" wide as a start)

If I went with something like the "general purpose low carbon", would I need a thicker wall to get equal strength?

I'm not going to be buying a ton of it, so I could probably suck it up and get the 4130 (or perhaps some of that to do the bike and then low carbon for the basic "around the shop" fabbing?)
 
McMaster has "Multipurpose 4140/4142 Alloy steel also called "Chrome-moly" steel...."

They do say the 4130 is "very similar to 4140, but has a lower carbon content giving it better weldability...." so I guess 4130 is a Chrome-moly. That may be overkill for the things I want to build, even the bicycle.

Still don't know what grade of steel or wall thickness to get :-(
 
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