What's it for? At the minimum I would be looking for 2x3 or 2x4 steel box tubing. Minimum .120 wall thickness.
It is called pipe for a reason. PIPELINE It has a different metalurgy, manufacturing tolerance, tensile and shear characteristics, etc. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.
When I was a kid the local racetrack was full of cars with frames and rollcages made of old waterpipe- I even built and drove a few of em.... That was 45 years ago. Thankfully we've evolved from that. I still make frames of tubing, but use the right stuff. For the labor involved, the cost of the proper material is a small item.
tubing yes,,though round edges make mounting something a lil harder than square really depends ..what kinda frame ?? and for what ?? View attachment 797205
Seen plenty of tube buggy rock crawlers and the like. You would be better off doing a Google search on it. Pipe for the most part is ridiculously thick for your application, C-channel frame rails aren't even that thick on most vehicles. I have no idea why you would want a tube frame under a hot rod but it can be done strong and safe. Pipe would be fine if done properly but a bit too heavy.
this is why i love this web site so much i have never built a frame and really want to do this all on my own for my 29 plymouth 4dr sedan i had a guy give me a bunch of .125 thickness tubing and i thought fro free why not use this i would have never thought of the weight thanks to all of you again for your help and support
What find of frame, what grade and size pipe, what geometric configuration? What does a load ****ysis show? I can make the generalization that, from a mechanical properties perspective, there are more efficient materials with which to build a frame, but that's about the only conclusion one can draw from the info provided. Bob
What does a 20-foot stick of 2x4x.125 or 2x3x.125 steel cost these days? There have been some tube ch***is built that were pretty impressive, but they get complicated and for that matter you really should have something that will fish mouth the tube ends and have a bender as well. Nothing wrong with checking to see if the free materials you got are useful. Do some searches for threads on frames. You will see that most people that build frames from scratch are using either existing rails and modifying them, or are building from rectangular tubing. The size of the rectangular tubing has been covered here multiple times as well. Just a grab a cup of Joe and start doing some searches. Some good stuff in the Tech Section of the HAMB as well. I believe it was Paul that did a great frame building tech thread, as well as many others.
Are you sure you have pipe? You might have tubing. There is a difference. Tubing yes, pipe no. ***uming you can weld.....
$72. My point exactly! Two sticks and you have more than enough for a frame and some leftover to make a nice end table out of! HAHA!
IF it is tubing then do it, NOT PIPE, there have been many good hot rods built out of tubing, search out jim sibley's newest creation on here, dragsters have ran tubing for quite a while, and as soon as my shop is finished i have something in the works too
not to mention most purpose built road race cars in all catergories use tube. There are certain stregths inherent with the round shape, namely less stress points since there are no corners, but benders, and notchers are needed to do it right. Here's a car that is well known for the tube frame
The Jalopy Journal
