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Steel vs. Aluminum in flexability

PB Forum :: Dirt Jumping & Street
Steel vs. Aluminum in flexability
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flag lumpy81
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 1:12 Quote
ricar wrote:
TIG now called GTAW (gas tungston arc welding) is simply the most controllable form of welding. It puts also more heat into a peice than any other form of welding. That sounds bad but what it means is you can get in and out before the heat spreads. To get the basic idea of how to TIG weld hold a pencil above a line on a peice of paper. Move the pencil across the line about 1/4" off the sheet. About every 1/8" touch the line with a marker. DO NOT touch the pencil with the marker, touch the line directly below the pencil, DO NOT touch the paper with the pencil. If you can do this TIG welding is about 100 times harder. It is the scalpel of the welding world.

Normally you weld with DC straight, steel ect.. A/C current is Aluminium alloys and sutch. DC reverse is for things like pop cans and tin foil.

As for mig I don't think you are using the right filler. Flux core wire would torch the tubes I use in a heart beat and it's not the strength of the filler that is the problem. The problem is the high carbon content of the steel. When you weld 4130 you get too much carbon in the weld. Carbon is brittle and it will crack. You need a filler like stainless that will dilute the carbon. Still only 310 and 312 stainless. Non stainless, ER80S-D2 is the best. Sure a MIG welder can do great things but I've never seen a MIG touch a pop can (not the rim, the middle). I am not some hard core welder but my teacher is, the only stuff I have spent time welding is thin wall 4130.


EDIT: as for the tungston, you ues pure tungston to weld ALU and 2 percent thoriated tungston is the most common for everythingels, but the dust is radioactive.
Someone knows their stuff. I'm a fabricator/mechanic and I wouldn't use anything but a tig welder to build a frame.
flag doctorz
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 5:09 Quote
yes but if its all you can afford ,you'll really try your best , i made motocross part before and custom car parts before and i use mig and they end fine for years never had a return so i trust my handy work
btw nice choice the suburban look sweet
cheers
flag BMX8000
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 7:57 Quote
What color frame are u going to get?
flag nwatkins
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 15:03 Quote
BMX8000 wrote:
What color frame are u going to get?

Lime green with white seat, grips, pedlas and I might paint my fork wite. Everything else is black.
flag BMX8000
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 16:38 Quote
SavageMountainAnimal wrote:
BMX8000 wrote:
What color frame are u going to get?

Lime green with white seat, grips, pedlas and I might paint my fork wite. Everything else is black.
Sounds good, this summer when i get some cash i'm going to go with a similar color set up but i'm going to get a purple BMX frame.
flag nwatkins
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 at 16:43 Quote
BMX8000 wrote:
SavageMountainAnimal wrote:
BMX8000 wrote:
What color frame are u going to get?

Lime green with white seat, grips, pedlas and I might paint my fork wite. Everything else is black.
Sounds good, this summer when i get some cash i'm going to go with a similar color set up but i'm going to get a purple BMX frame.

That should be sick, i wish my bmx had some color. its just a gray frame with black components.
flag GodMode
Posted: Feb 3, 2008 at 17:35 Quote
shacabahalla wrote:
Charmander-mtb wrote:
Titanium!!!! It flexes like steel and weighs less that aluminum!!! .....its just really really expensive

Titanium does not weigh less than aluminium

Some aluminium frames are designed to be more flexy than others.

Titanium is renowned for its abilty to cut the out trail buzz.

Your best bet if your back is on the way out, is stop ridin hard or switch to a full suspension bike

yo, titanium is lighter then aluminum, and stronger then steel. that is y its so damn expensive .... and hmm arent titanium bike light then aluminun ....... i think so, so rethink you idea of aluminum being lighter then titanium.
flag pbuser102331
Posted: Mar 3, 2008 at 7:31 Quote
aluminum is lighter than titanium,but ti frames are lighter than ally frames due to the amount of extra material needed to make a strong frame.

ti is not exspensive because it is a better material it is exspensive because raw titanium is super hard to work,and therefore you need to add extra materials i.e 6.4 is 6% ally and 4% vanadium.

also steel is stronger than titanium,just titanium has a better fatige life,when was the last time you heard of a titanium drill bit you don't because ti is also soft in comparison.
flag Jolaleye
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 9:29 Quote
Ok well I am thinking of getting a specialized p2 later this year. Would it be better to get crmo or alu?
EDIT: it would be for dj and street. BTW sorry for going a little of topic
flag taskmgr
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 10:56 Quote
huckoveraduck wrote:
well steel frames can melt at the welds if you use them for excessive downhill. But aluminium is pretty flexible too, which means sometimes if your not careful it will rust where it bends or flexes.
lol. welds melting because of dh!
flag Jolaleye
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 14:21 Quote
SavageMountainAnimal wrote:
cromo
Ok thanks.
flag taskmgr
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 14:58 Quote
Jolaleye wrote:
Ok thanks.
what kind of reply was that? most useless reply of the year award. the guy was clearly expressing his preference. if you can't understand that then you definetly deserve the award.
flag nwatkins
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 15:36 Quote
cromo is better = fact
flag ricar
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 at 18:32 Quote
All this and STILL people come up with un educated thoughts like that. It depends on what you want to do. If you go BIG, big big not 8' doubles but 20-30' doubles, steel has a better mode of failure. Alu will tear and steel will tend to bend. That being said an ALU frame that is past it's life expactancy may fail over something stupid. So don't buy a used ALU frame.

After saying that there are guys that do go big on ALU frames and they come out fine, I had a 125 for years jumping my 8-18' gaps and a tad bit of street. I was fairly smooth though and it was a good frame. They are stiff though and for some things that is better. Peddling steel you waste more energy than with Alu and it does wear better. Alu is really bad with abrasion.

So for those reasons you will never see an Alu BMX frame marketed for street, and IMO the same should be said for MTB type frames. Now if you peddle distances an Alu frame might be what you want. Strictly for street, Steel is the way to go. I don't ride with you so I can't tell you what you would like best.

 


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