Uses of "structural tube" with thick walls

As part of that lot of steel stock that I bought recently, there was a big bundle of "structural tube", which is steel tubing 2-6 inches diameter, with walls 1/2 to 1 inch thick.

I hae to admit that I have neer seen them used anywhere, other than in airports. What are their uses, exactly?

My second question is, if I want to weld a tube to a plate, do I need to bevel the tube for a proper joint?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus19840
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"Ignoramus19840" wrote in message news:G7SdnVv1CPC-E5PMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

I've made lathe spindle adapters and custom automotive tools from solid stock that big, and wished I had thick-walled tubing instead of hydraulic cylinder rod cut-offs to start from. The extended mast I made for my truck bed crane is a piece of heavy tubing.

The Bailey paper catalog here shows DOM tubing to make hydraulic cylinders with walls as thick as 1/2", though most of theirs is thinner.

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You could weld two test coupons in a tee and bandsaw through the weld to see how deeply it penetrated. jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I've used lots of it in custom farm equipment.

Lots of it used in industry to mount heavy manufacturing components. For example, mount an industrial robot upside down over an assembly line.

You can make a great jib crane with it. Or anything else where you need a lot of force.

I grind to 1/8" remaning when i need to weld for high force area. Then use 7011 rod and several passes. Then the weld is stronger than the orginal metal.

Reply to
Karl Townsend

I'm not a mechanical or a structural engineer, but I am an engineer that designs stuff. So I can tell you with 100% assurance, that the answer is "maybe".

If you're welding a plate onto the bottom of the tube to act as a footing where the tube-plate joint is absolutely guaranteed to be in compression, then you only need to make the weld strong enough to keep the tube from slipping sideways off of the plate.

If you're welding the plate onto the end of the tube, then bolting the assembly in someplace where the tube is being stressed in tension to a significant fraction of its ultimate strength, then you need to make the weld really honkin' strong, probably with at least as much weld as there is metal in the tube.

If you're going to have the tube horizontal and you don't want much deflection, and it's really long (i.e, twenty feet long or some such), then you'd be loading the joint in shear, and with much less force than the "tension" case. In that case, you probably wouldn't need much of a weld to hold to the point where the tube starts to permanently deform, although you may want as much weld as there is tube wall so that if someone does go and try to load the thing too much it'll all buckle in a controlled way instead of tearing apart.

You have to think about this stuff if you're an engineer, because if you over-specify 1000 joints then it can cost a whole bunch of unnecessary money in the welding (even more if you call out matching X-ray inspection). If you're not an engineer and you're making a one-off and you have any questions, I'd suggest you just make sure that your weld is at least as thick as the tube wall (and make sure your plate is that thick, too). You'll spend a lot more on welding, but it'll be a lot less likely to break unexpectedly under normal loads, or inconveniently under abnormal loads.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Angle grinder, plasma cutter or a quick pass through a lathe.

Id probably use a lathe simply because I have one big enough between centers and swing. And its Fast.

And remember...1/16"- 1/8" separation before hot passing with 6010

Gunner

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Reply to
Gunner

Heavy tubes / pipes like that are used for car and truck stops - so you don't run through buildings / and the like.

Mart> >

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

Lots of places - For starters, any "Lally Columns" in the middle of your basement to hold up the house above you are going to be in the mid-range 1/2" wall range or thicker, with some matching serious beam saddles.

I could use a few chunks of it for replacement fence posts holding up the gate hinges - Make the car bounce off rather than bend the post.

In Chicago, the same thing for building a Snow Plow Proof mailbox post and arm assembly. Especially useful if you've got a renegade plow driver trying to snick the wood ones off on purpose as a sport...

Paint it wood brown so they can't tell, and you can hear the "CRUNCH-PTANG!" and "SCREECH!" of the plow spinning the truck around before snapping off instead...

They cheat and use Sched-40 Pipe and fill Crash Posts with concrete - but if you're dead serious about stopping a car before it hits something - like in front of a 2500 Gallon Propane Tank - that structural tube will do it if you plant it in enough footing concrete.

Depends on how the forces load it - but for ultimate strength yes.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)

Bruce, I was thinking about the same thing, to make a mailbox post from this tubing.

I believe this to be against the law, if I recall correctly, the mailbox posts are required to be not too strong and to collapse in a collision with a car, to save the driver. This actually makes sense to me. That driver may be someone's or my own inexperienced kid who is skidding on ice.

I had my own "snowplow and idiot driver problem". My solution was to build a mailbox that a) is highly visible and b) swivels away when hit. Actually since I made it highly visible, it has not been hit at all and it's been about 3.5 years.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus21956

"Ignoramus21956" wrote in message

Here is an idea for that tubing:

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Well, I already have an artillery shell casing...

But I am wondering, what is Gerald Bull's shit called?

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Reply to
Ignoramus21956

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I am thinking, this tubing is also good for making decorative cannons. This tubing is a little too short to make a space gun...

Reply to
Ignoramus21956

Mix some tube, some plate, a little plasma cutting and welding, and make the world's largest AK47 sculpture to put in front of your building...

Reply to
Pete C.

"Ignoramus21956" wrote in message news:P9edncCPZoIyMo7MnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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