Waterjet cut diamonds in my I-beam axle saturday!

Why take that chance?

 

the wheight it not the big issue here The problem is
the deflection in the axle going to consentrates to
the corners of the diamonds instead of spread over the hole axle
and workhardening the material in the corners and a crack
will build up heattreating it will not help the stress will
come while you drive it

try to cut a smal v i a round stock and bend it back and fourt
and se whats happen
thats why a polished conectionrod is stronger even though
you removed material

 

Hav

 

with all that being said, it amazing how water can cut metal, o, i forgot, thats how the grand canyon was formed

 

Why not change them to ovals( eliptical) being taller than wider. Have not seen that and should cure the problem.

 

I wouldn't even drill holes in axles. If you must, those hole diameters should be no more than 1/3rd of the height of the web, and spaced 2 diameters apart, minimum, edge to edge. Anything more than that and you're inviting trouble, imo. Yes, I'm an engineer, and I like safety factors.

 

Simply solution , fellows, get your grinder out and radius the sharp angles, just like you do on the cranks.
But a 1/2" burr on the grinder and relieve the stress point.

TraderJack

 

I wouldnt worry about to much, all the sudden everyone is the safety police, you'd think this was Volvo message board. Everyones always worried about shit braking and it always happens to their brothers, uncles, roomates, friend but not one person ever posts a pictures of broken parts.

Jim Weimer was selling these Lucky-7 forged axles with a diamond pattern.

 

And you do the same thing when you drill a hole at the end of a crack, don't you?

TraderJack

 

Yea those are rounded corner diamonds... like several other were talking about. His are sharp pointed.....

 

Given the ability of the water jet, you could put all sorts of designs in the hole should you decide to do so.

TraderJack

 

If the diamond hole is subject to form cracks,then why even put a hole in the beam to start with ? If the hole made it stronger id say ok but you cant tell me the hole makes it stronger, if it did it would have most likely been made that way.But itsa design.It is in a I beam and have seen many shapes made in I beams,roof trusses ect.I tend to think also his friend has built lots of things to have equip like that and knows what hes doing.If it was a flat pc id agree,but I beams are realy strong +hardened steel.Im NOT an xpert just my 2 cent ........................................YG

 

In the pic by Beatnik,,,The sides are rounded but the top looks realy pointy,cant see the bottom..............YG

 

Nice! I'm about to buy a Flow 7 axis robotic water ject cutter.

 

Thats is better patern but still not good just beacuse somebody
sells it dont meen it has to be good. Anyone can drive with wath they
want for me. Make the frotaxle out of carrots if you want i dont care
but its gona crack i dont know how soon or if ever the car is
going the get driven so much. And yes its amazing that water can cut
steel.....so can twisting back and fourt

 

if you dont round it out you got a crack..i would make em holes
if your just building a trailer queen, well..even looking at those sharp coners on a trailer would be wrong.

 

yardgoat the ibeams is not hardened and hardening
in most cases had made the problem worse

 

I gotta agree with you.
Anyway the I-beam idea is that the strenght is in the flanges not the web. That's why you can put holes in them in the first place.

Hey Drifter, What are you going to do with the slugs? Should be something cool to weld them on to.

 

Most of the strength is the height of the beam, not the thickness of the web, so it's not that bad a place to have a hole.
However, a diamond has even worse corners than a square/rectangle.

No reported failures?
Very few dead people come back to explain what stupid mistake killed them.
What's the first commercial jet airliner, and why don't we see more of them?
De Havilland Comet, and it had square windows - and they exploded.

You probably won't have any problems (no wheelies, it's not a 2 ton truck), but don't hit any curbs.
At least polish the edges of the holes so you have a reflective spot to examine for cracks.

 

or paint the holes white then you see
the cracks easier as a black line

 

90% or more of suspention travel is linear, and twisting is minimal, also the area between the wishbones/hair pins has minimal stress. The area from the wishbones to the spindle takes all the weight and stress, and on a stock or factory dropped axle there is more leverage and the little bit of twisting or backwards flex, as in heavy braking will happen there.

 

Exactly what I was thinking! It creates a stress point and will eventually crack. Thats why airplanes have rounded windows, Looks cool though...

 

X2 what Antny said. It's a bad implementation of a bad idea.

Yes, the axle looks cool. So hang it on your garage wall, mount it on a doodle bug where it can't get into very much trouble, or sell it to someone building a show-only trailer queen.

The safety concerns are real, and no we alre not becoming a bunch of Volvo fraidy cats. If you put that thing on your rod you are just advertising to the world how badly it is engineered.

The custom motorcycle world is chock full of bad ideas. Parts that look cool but that can cause all sorts of problems, like offset neck bushings that can lead to unstable handling due to bad front end trail.

 

It's not the twisting force that is the issue.It's the harmonics of driving that will cause the cracks.

 

Blah blah blah cool blah blah blah but blah blah dumb blah blah round blah blah blah stress.

Yes blah blah blah I'm blah blah engineer, blah don't blah do blah that blah again.

 

you are either the smartest guy in this thread,, or the dumbest

 

Very well said!

 

Yes, but I wouldnt run that axle. Look great on the wall though.

 

Check out the axle on this roadster. This is an original hot rod from the 60's, the cars been running that axle since then with no problems.

 

There you go. Definitive proof that pointy diamonds cut into your axle will never crack.

Does the expression 'breathing your own exhaust' ring a bell?