origins of square tubing

I'm trying to build a period piece from 1953. Does anyone know for sure when square tubing first became available to the public?
Thanks

 

Haha, What exactly are you trying to build and what do you mean by square tubing?

 

i've seen square tubing used on old stationary balers we used in the 50's

 

Square steel tubing has been around at least as long as cars. Should be safe.

 

A period piece needs reference material from that period and that usually means forking over the green for rod or custom magazines from that period. Invest a few bucks in a few magazines or other books from that period and study the cars in them. From that period there is also a difference in cars from Southern Cal, Northern Cal and the East Coast so you have to factor that in.
Guys then just like guys now used what was and is available.

 

I have seen it used on equipment that dates back to the 30's.

 

Funny this thread should pop up today. I pulled up to my shop this morning to find a big pile of 4" x 4" .125 wall tubing my neighbor hauled in for s****. 10 foot lengths and perfect! Told me to take as much of it as I wanted. I've been building **** out of it in my mind all day. 4x4 is an odd size, but there's enough of it there to build 10 cars.

 

Sounds like a great size to build a sturdy frame table out of..

 

What kind of period piece are you building, a Tampax dispenser?

Bob

 

nope, that would be round pipe

 

i dont know?i always try to put the square peg in the round hole.

 

With enough force it will fit.

 

That's a good question that I would like to see 'referenced' before making a flat out statement based on conjecture.

Of course my memory might be failing me, but I don't recall seeing square tubing in raw form where you could buy it at retail until sometime in the '60s. The reason I don't believe it was is that back in the day I recall a lot of farmers go to extraordinarily methods to fabricate 'square' posts for stake pockets in their farm trucks. I recall the use of 'flat' and 'angle' for some cobbled up affairs. It seems to me that square tubing had been available they would have used it??

If earlier, does anybody have any reference that would back that up?

 

I believe they show it being used in the old Spot lite lil books in the Ch***is Suspension book

 

I did some googling for this a while ago. Best I could find was RHS (rolled hollow section) - first produced around 1959?

Tubular steel however, used in bicycles since the 1800's? And furniture since the Nineteen-teens?

Here's an S43 - produced since 1931. Wouldn't suggest cutting these up to frame out a body though...




Whilst we're at it:-

Phillips screw. 1934.

 

the 1959 Kellison catalog has some pictures of the rectangular tube frame they sold for their body kits. 3x4x.095" tube for the main members.

I would be less concerned about what was theoretically available, and more concerned with what was commonly used in 1953 to build hot rods

 

29 Nash Farmers used whatever they had on hand or could scrounge up and make work.

 

I'd stay away from square tubing for a race car, no sanctioning body will let you make a p***. As far as i know the only race cars that used square tube were not professional built and even illegal 'back in the day'. I made a front axle for a square tube altered for a fella that wanted to restore it and the whole ch***is was crooked as a snake. When you weld thin wall square tube the heat distorts the tube uneven (because of the square corners i think) and you just wind up with a mess, if you use heavy wall it dosn't make for much of a race car does it.

 

1928 Encyclopedia of Engineering shows DOM (drawn over mandrel, seamles) tubing in several shapes. I'm sure tubing formed from flat stock was way before DOM.

 

The earliest refrence that I have seen was it being used on a car built in 57... possibly late 56....
I believe it was only one bar...maybe headlight bar?

it seems to be that I recall the guy making a big deal out of the fact that he used it ..... like it was a new thing??

could have been earlier as I think it was used on WWII airplanes to some extent... but main widespread use doesnt seem to have been untill the late 50's-60's

 

While square and rectangular tube was available in the '40s, I beleive its use was in the industrial world-jigs, fixtures etc. Later it became very popular for automation frames, and mechanized material handling equipment. If any of it was used in hotrods as early as 1953 it was probably "backdoored" out of some shop involved in heavy industrial equipment. A look thru my 1953 HRMs reveals no use of rectangular/square. (Lots of double round tube frames) I remember even in 1960 or so that the stuff was very expensive and if you didn't have a "connection" you didn't use it.

 

I believe that to be incorrect based on the use of thinwall square tube in the construction of many road racing car ch***is'.
The Lotus 7 ((present day "Locost" and Caterham) and Jaguar XKE (I believe?) come to mind.
Also, most all Pro/street ch***is suppliers for both street AND strip offered thinwall rectangular tube main rails...most likely still do.

Warpage comes from incorrect welding procedure...

 

Square/rectangular tube seems to be ok for frame rails, but not for roll bars/cages.

 

The main frames for Farmall Regular and Farmall F-20 tractors from the 1920's and '30's was 2x4 rectangular tubing. Also Allis Chalmers tractors of the 1940's used 2x2 square tubing extensively on both tractors and implements.
V/8

 

The Lotus super 7 used square section tube for their frames from 1957 on. I believe the earlier Lotus Mark 4 (1954) used square tube also. Many formula Ford and sport 2000 are square tubing. Round section tubes are used for roll cages in these cars.

 

Yep. Didn't know the way to the store....Ha.

Actually I been there, done that! ........
that's why I don't think it was available at the lumber yard or any other retail outlet until sometime later, AFTER I left the farm in 1955..............

 

Here is a tidbit. Look at ASTM A512, 513, 519 standards. Been around along time.

 

I have a 1949 edition of the American Ins***ue of Steel Construction manual and it does not list any square tube steel. Just angles, cee channels flat plate and I-beam.

 

It wasn't used in building construction in the 40s then....

 

For a short time in 1957 The Stahl brothers held the top MPH record with a dragster that had a square tube frame, and Allison power.