How strong is aluminum?

Am I off base in thinking column drops and floor mounts should be made out of steel and not aluminum? Arn't these steering components essentially? Not that I'm willing to pay 100 dollars for a column drop in the first place, but I'd rather have my steering components and the things that hold them to my car be steel not aluminum.

And I like adding weight to the anti-billet movement, that too.

 

Stronger than cardboard! Lots of high-stress items are made of aluminium, check out a top fuel engine.

 

what grade aluminum? 3003, 2024, 6061 t6 ? etc etc depends on what ya use

 

Dave

 

i used a homemade aluminum column drop for over 25years in my 39 lots of abuse and never had an issue with it until they invented the word billet

 

Ever seen these things call Airplanes?

 

Thas a pretty wide open question.Lots of structural airplane parts made out of aluminum.I would have to say they have lots of stress on those parts.Theres lost of grades for differant applications.

 

funny how when a guy whittles something out of a solid chunk of aluminum, its "RAD, *****IN, KOOL"

but when its called billit, its "SHINY, UGLY, USELESS"... hypocrites i say.

 

Billet is often poorly designed and fabricated out of ****py aluminum. Hand carved can be, and often is, just as ****py - but some stuff rises above the fray.
I think the pejorative "billet" speaks to an aesthetic more than a material. Good parts is good parts.

 

Strong enough for connecting rods in racing engines.

 

If I remember my metallurgy , aluminum is about 1/3 the strength of steel - so, in highly stressed applications, section size of aluminum part should be 3 times the section of steel . But it does somewhat depend on the grade of aluminum. That said, column drops are not that highly stressed, and there are thousands of them in service with no problems . So, your decision shouldn't be on strength - but steel column drops are cool also !!

 

It is such an easy medium to work with. This is O/T but a cheezy billet dash would just as lame if it was cut from steel. I have seen some really cool windsheild posts carved from aluminum. If the style was right, I would not look down on an aluminum column drop, or engine mount. But what do I know, I'm a FNG!

 

The links on my ride are aluminum. Should I be concerned?

Sorry I should have said what grade, 7075-t6.

I laugh at the steel over aluminum arguement. I'll take my 7075 over mild stell in most wall thicknesses. Ligher!

 

Aluminum runs anywhere from 28 to 42 ksi, versus mild steel's 55 ksi. So the short hand is: at least half as strong, but 1/3rd the weight. One issue that shows up is that it is less stiff...so you can find it flexes...watch the next p***enger flight you're on. as the wing lifts...and then the plane finally lifts off the ground. Amazing stuff.

See:http://www.americanmachinetools.com/tensile_strength.htm

 

That's kind of like asking: "How strong is a weld?"

It all depends man.

Remember, a spider web is stronger than steel if you want to look at it that way.

 

Words to live by....

 

2024 T4 is "aircraft aluminum" , use it if you can
6061 T6 is strong and will bend somewhat without taking a set
5052 is very strong but more rare
1100 and 3003 are lower strength but can be formed easily

 

Thats not exactly true...

2024 is an alloy of aluminum. the T4 designates it's condition of heat treat.

6061 is an alloy of aluminum, T6 designates it's heat treat.

5052 is an alloy, but it is not heat treatable.

the strength of any aluminum completely depends on it's heat treat and or cold work situation.

Generally, 6061 is what you get for structural AL as it is relatively cheap and good strength.
5052 is ~ 38ksi, 2024 T4 is ~ 64ksi, and 6061T6 is ~ 45.

If you weld something, it loses it's heat treat (the strength goes to ****) so thats why you wouldnt always use 2024. 5052 retains a majority of it's strength in the as welded condition whereas 6061 and 2024 goes limp.

2024 also doesnt weld very well - or so they claim. I've welded it visually fine but I didn't exaclty do any ultrasonic or xray inspection of my welds so it could have been microcracked to hell, who knows. It wasn't structural.

So really, it depends what you are doing. There are plenty of other alloys too, but these are most of the generally avaliable structural ones (3003 too, but that **** ****s)

 

Kind of funny, what do you bolt your column drop to? Sheet metal, with a reinforcement? Doubt your material matters much in this sense.

 

When was the last time anyone heard of
an Aluminum column drop breaking ?

Or an Aluminum steering box ?
Aluminum brake caliper ?

Designed correctly,it's not a problem.
Designed incorrectly,it doesn't matter what material you use.

 

they make connecting rods out of it, try to break one with your arms sometime

 

A connecting rod is not necessarily made from the same grade of aluminum as Joe-blow's home made column drop.

I think being concerned with the integrity of steering components is a good thing. This was more of a clarification thread; instead it turned into the "Timmy Toughnuts knows more about metal than you" thread.

How about being helpful instead?

 

As stated previously in this thread, how a component performs is related to design, material, and fabrication. Aluminum has its place in automobiles for sure, regardless if it is CNC'd from a solid billet or not. Where it gets scary is when its used in the wrong place, and its good to raise your eyebrows about that!

 

But my friend, billet can be steel OR aluminum.

 

6061 T6 Aluminum:
Yield strength 37,000 psi
Elongation at break 12%

7075 T6 Aluminum
Yield strength 67,000 psi
Elongation at break 11%

1010 steel
yield strength 44,200 psi
Elongation at break 20%

1045 steel
yield strength 73,200 psi
Elongation at break 12%

 

And you also collect Care Bears? The guy asked a loaded question, he got a few fun responses and a TON of good replies that went above and beyond answering his question. Lighten up Francis.

 

Cl*** 8 trucks use lots of Aluminum.
You can order them with an aluminum frame if your trying to keep the weight down. Lot's of Tankers run them.
A standard frame is 5/16's steel where an Aluminum frame in the same application would probably have about a 1/2 inch flange. You may only save a couple hundred pounds in weight but the added payload over several years adds up.

 

Don't forget about the added bonus of aluminum bieng corrosion resistant. A lot of trucks get a bunch of miles on them without the road salt getting washed off.

 

This is what a steel company has to say about aluminum
http://www.ussautomotive.com/auto/steelvsal/basicfacts.htm

 

Aluminum may not "rust",but aluminum is not resistant to"salt corrosion"! And in respsone to the column drop, my original steering column,from 1929 is attached to stamped sheetmetal,that attaches to wood and it lasted 79 years.