I am looking for someone who has / has access to a metal lathe. I need to have some steel bar stock turned down. I believe I will be starting with 2 - 2.5" steel bar stock and need to have a 2" section of it turned down to 1.75". I need to have two pieces done. If anyone is able to do this let me know.
well My neighbor can if you cant find anyone closer then Princeton. He has a mill and a lathe and does really good work. john
Thanks, thats good to know. I would like to find something closer than Princeton, but we will see. I might be in touch about it in the future, if I cant find anyone closer.
I could probably help you out. I work in a machine shop in plym and live in crystal. I would have to do it on my own time, so how soon would you need it done?
Well there is no real time line. But it would be nice to have something in hand by mid to late march when it is starting to get warm out again. The parts are for my project vehicle which hasnt moved in a long time. I havent picked up the bar stock yet, but that will just take a trip to discount steel.
It will be about 5" total, and the bottom 2" need to be turned down. Here is a picture of what I am trying to do.
Ok, what type of steel do you want to use? I assume you wouldn't want use a mild steel for suspesion components. Probably a cro-moly? (4130)
^ To be honest I have no idea. This piece only has two functions. To act as a spacer between the knuckle and the strut, and to hold the knuckle and the strut together. So it will need to withstand the shock of the vehicle coming down on it vertically, and wheel/tire pulling down on it if the tire comes off the ground. There will be 0 to little side to side forces on it. Perhaps something alittle stronger than mild steel, but it doesnt need to be indestructable, as the strut tower will probably rip out before this piece would ever break. From DiscountSteel's website it looks like they offer 1018 cold rolled steel bar or A36 hot rolled steel bar. People have used schedule 40 galvanized pipe to do this as well, but it requires strange sizes.
Anyone else feel free to chime in on this! I agree with most of the force being vertical, but you also have to factor in hard cornering. That would have a lot of force since there is no upper arm in a strut set-up. Also, I would assume you need the other end bored out to fit the strut too?
These are for an off road rig, so there will be very little hard cornering. If I have to do any hard cornering, I am sure that I will have many other things to worry about before the strut extensions, lol. That is true. The other end needs to have a 1.75" hole bored into it. This is not as much of a concern as I have access to a mill. I just need to figure out how to set it up to bore a hole.
There will be a bending moment placed on it when cornering or sliding. There is nothing wrong with using mild steel if there is enough material for the job.
agreed. you do not want to go with a material that is too hard either. I would rather have a component bend instead of shatter
Ok, thanks for the adv. guys! I've never seen 4130 shatter. Haha- Thought it was for a tarmac car! Dynapar, let me know when you have everything worked out including exact demensions you want. I could do the inside bore for you too, because doing that in a mill would be difficult without a rather large offset boring head.
I wasn't saying 4130 would shatter, just saying in material selection to keep in mind not going with something very strong but too brittle
Yes, Thanks indeed for the input. FastMatt: If I do go with 4130 (probably will, unless there is a reason not to) would you be able so get your hands on some, as I have no clue where to get it? I will figure out the final dimensions sometime this week and shoot you a pm when I know what they are. Thanks a bunch.
Yes, I could. Expensive stuff, but I'll get you price when you give me dimensions. Might want to check out other material options too. -Matt
My dad owns a machine shop in plymouth. He is usually very busy but maybe I could convince him to help you.. We could possibly trade services also. Im a soobie noobie in need of some tips and whatnot.. and help working on my car also. Or just cash or something. PM meh if anyone needs this service prolly could do it in the off hours or something easily
You could make that thing from aluminum and it wouldn't break. Just make sure you have no sharp inside corners and you would have a heck of a time breaking it. That's what i would do. chromoly is overkill. Just get some mild steel - whatever is cheap. EDIT: IIRC, discount right now has some aluminum extrusions which would be perfect for this job. I think it's like 1"ID and 3" OD. I paid 35 bucks for 12" last time i bought some.
To be entirely honest, as long as this piece is made out of metal, I highly doubt it will break (at least before something else critical does, like a ball joint or CV joint). So I am thinking about going with a softer metal (ie mild steel, probably not aluminum though), mainly from a cost stand point. I just had the brat up in the air and got the final dimensions. It looks like it will be alittle bit bigger than I thought. Being 6.5" long and 2.75" in diameter, let me know if this causes any issue. Below is my awesome technical diagram of what I need.
If the aluminum is cheaper, go for it. Just use the cheapest material you can find. With those dimensions you could use it to lift a 747, with the added advantage of not rusting. For your app you could make it from nylon and not worry about it.
haha! yeah it is a pretty beefy design. The weakest part is where the sides drop to 1/2" thickness, which is still fairly thick, but there should be very little side to side play at that point. Making this piece much stronger than the strut would be in the same situation as it is only some thin walled metal tube. Thanks for the input!
I'll try to remember and get you some prices tomorrow. The steel will definitely be cheaper, but I'll get a quote on 6061 too.
Why make it so hard? Get some 1-3/4" diameter cold rolled rounds, cut at 4-1/8", then get some 2-1/2 OD 3/8" wall DOM in 4-3/8" lenghts, slip the DOM over the rounds and weld a bead on the outside of the join. It will be plenty strong still (you could do 2-1/4 OD 1/4" wall DOM too, but I'm not sure of the availablity of it). No machining at all. Actually you could probably even swap the rounds for 1-3/4" DOM with 1/4" wall and save a little more.
^ that is true. My initial route was to use schedule 40 or 80 pipe. However I ran into some issues with size availability. This way I know that it is the right size and will work, and I dont have to run all over the place to find what I am looking for. Plus it has a certain bad ass factor to it
Cause it's not as fun, he probably doesn't want it sitting on a weld bead (the nuckle joint), also bar stock is cheaper.
