I'm going to try to duplicate my old, hevily pitted ones out of heavy wall .145 tubing(1 1/2" sch. 40 pipe, 1.90 O.D.)cut down the length, with a pie wedge shaped piece of 1/8" steel plate to duplicate the taper. May use a different diameter pipe, haven't measured yet. Will this be strong enough, may also drill and sleeve plate, and mount spring perches to 'bones, suicide-style. View attachment WISHBONE.pdf
I personally wouldn't make anything suspension related out of pipe, it is the junk of steel. Your idea looks ok on paper, but I'd use a piece of 1020 mild steel tubing instead of pipe. I've drilled and sleeved several over the years, it works well.
I wouldn't call it junk, I am a pipe designer and we run thousands of pounds of pressure through that junk, but I will take your advise under consideration. I know it's real easy for me to get, almost all my friends are in the petro-chem industry. I don't have much personal knowledge about tubing, maybe somebody has some first hand experinence or has tested one against the other.
Down here on the gulf coast it's hard to find 20-year old stuff, let alone 70+ year old stuff, what with rust from the salt air. Most of the parts I've collected so far have had about 50% the cost in shipping.
My Dad uses oilfield tubing (really really strong pipe used on the drilling rigs), that **** is so strong they can hardly bend it for the projects they make with the stuff. Just a thought....it's not your standard ****py-steel pipe used in other industries. Gary
I grew up in Port Arthur. I know rust. I have no problem with your design. I have made parts from pipe more often than not. The bars on my roadster are heavy wall USED pipe that I got salvage. I drilled and taped them 5/8. The pipe is 1 1/8 OD by 1/2 ID. I would love to find some more! I have one suggestion. I would not split it all the way to the end. Leave a little to hold every thing together. You can cut it off later if you want.
Right-on! You read my mind about splitting almost all the way down. I need to revise my drawing. My buddy builds commercial diving habitats and can probably get anything needed.
Let's keep this one going. I really need a set of split bomes, but none to be found close by as yet. Roadsters.com has a link to some shiny billet steel repops, but $800 or so is too steep for me. I have considered fabing some out of chromemoly tubing, but getting the ascetics of the original tapered bones would be tough. I don't mind the work, mind you, I just haven't decided the outcome would be what i want, yet. Anyone seen any unusual ideas anywhere on this?
I don't get the 'can't find them' unless you don't want to pay more than $100 or are looking for '32 wishbones only. OR you just llike to build stuff which I understand also.bbI bought a '36 wishbone from the HAMB cl***ifieds here for $100. Put an ad in the Cl***ifieds, plus you can possibly get a HAMB relay if they're too far away.
I know of a PILE of bones and axles within 45 miles of Houston. When I asked I got: "already sold 'em to a guy but he's never picked them up" They are around here. Just go up to the swap meet at the horse track in a couple of weeks. there should be some there.
Many parts, including early frames, have been built over the years from round metal...stuff(?). When did DOM tube become easily available? My guess is that it would be more easily available in certain areas than in others...just like today. My feeling is that a quality mild steel, welded seam pipe is more than up to the task for many areas of car building. The biggest issue is in the DESIGN of the part. The person doing the construction has to have a good grasp on the strength requirements of what he's constructing. (Just like with DOM!) Pipe is usually thicker wall than DOM so the biggest penalty would seem to be in additional weight...not in strength. I wouldn't direct thread the ends for tierods or anything due to the possibility of splitting the untreated seam area, but for many other areas of building I would use it without hesitation. MANY non-professional personal Rock Crawling rigs use Schedule 40 or 80 pipe for their suspension links and even cages. The biggest issue seems to be the additional weight you carry from the thicker wall, especially where an exo-cage is constructed outside the vehicle. An elaborate cage from pipe can make a vehicle a little more top heavy than DOM but other than that the pipe cages have proven themselves up to the task. I think the bad name pipe has comes from people often confusing mild steel pipe with that cast iron "poop pipe" Plumbers used years ago! NOT the same thing! That stuff was as brittle as a rotten engine block...
Maybe I'm wrong here but I thought the spirit of the Hamb included building things yourself instead of running out and buying every peice to bolt onto your car. If I had some tube laying around and could build some wishbones for less money than I could buy some and then wait on shipping or whatnot I think I would build some too. Primo
Pipe has a different ASTM rating than tubing has. The grade of steel, weld type, etc is different between different ASTM ratings. I personally would just buy some tubing, it isn't expensive and that is what it is meant for. In your case though thick wall pipe will probably be fine. You said that you work in pipelines. Are you using high carbon oilfield pipe? Mild steel? Drawn, electric welded? There are a lot of different kinds of pipe out there. I wouldn't use any oil field high carbon pipe if that is what you have. It is meant more for burst pressure and wear resistance than anything else.
100% right...but is it really that big of a deal I wonder? Depending on your location, the price difference and availability between pipe and DOM can be dramatic! While wishbones ARE a high stress example and MUST be well thought out, there are many other parts that really couldn't care less if they were made of either. Note as well, that I'm talking basic, easily available, mild steel pipe thats available just about anywhere...not specialized high carbon stuff or whatever. Just your basic mild steel, mechanical seam-welded pipe, available from the building supply in every town across North America...
Methinks that the amount of weld that you will be required to put into a fairly limited cross section of material, is going to warp like hell, be it cheap pipe or high quality mechanical tubing.
I agree that standard mild steel pipe would probably be fine. If you were going to use tubing you don't need to buy DOM, you can buy electric seam-weld tubing. It is about half of the cost of DOM and is stronger than standard pipe.
I've mentioned it before, but I think that some forged 1967 to 1970-whatever Ford F-250 Twin-I-Beam axles could be pretty sweet in an application like this. The only question is where to cut and how to hook them to your front axle. .
step one I was going to use the cast peices from my original bones for the ends of this project but they weren't to willing to leave their old home on the axle as referenced HERE. So I talked to a couple of engineers where I work about using heim joints and built this during lunch. I can even adjust caster with it . Got aways to go but I'll keep posting progress. Primo
Check out the newest issue of SRM (the one with Foose's roadster on the cover), there's a guy that had built bones out of cheap A axles!
No offence to anybody, but I find that if there is a stronger version of 'stuff' available a lot of people will ***ume that anything else is just plain weak. Someone once gave me grief because I used angle iron for a bracket on my ch***is, until I pointed out that the angle iron is made of exactly the same mild steel that your average ch***is building box section or pipe is. Same with fasteners, most people are of the opinion 'oh, you HAVE to use grade 9 bolts on everything up to and including your cup holders, else your car WILL fall apart as soon as you hit a rain groove on the highway'.....
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