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tubing
10/16/13
tubing
Remember that even DOM tubing is electrically welded and has a seam running along its length. This weld bead is pushed flush with the inner and outer tube surfaces by drawing the tubing through a series of mandrels. The seam is still there, just flattened. People often use the terms Strength and Stiffness interchangeably but actually the words describe two completely different things that should not be confused. In the design of a frame or fork assembly the objective is to create Stiff structures. Youll often see chat room posts that go something along the lines of: According to the specs I saw that 1026 DOM had a tensile strength of 80,000 pounds and 1010 ERW was only 50,000 so I built my frame from 1.25 DOM so it would be almost twice as strong as the ones built from 1.25 ERW. Notice the words strength, and strong were used but nowhere was a mention of stiffness. In fact the statement isnt true at all to begin with since a DOM frame isnt any stronger than an ERW frame when it comes to bending resistance so long as the same grade of tubing steel is being used. Comparing 1010 ERW to 1026 DOM is like comparing apples to oranges. Comparing 1020 DOM to 1018 ERW is much more akin to comparing apples to apples. Both of these grades of tubing are very commonly available and very widely used in the peformance frame building industry. The various Grades of steel used in tubing are established by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and are expressed with a series of numbers that represent the chemical composition of the particular alloy. For the tubing that is typically used in racecars and bikes, mild steel carbon tubing, the first two digits (10) of the designation signify that the material is indeed Carbon Steel.
Table 3.1 - Composition of Common Tubing Steel Grade Carbon Manganese Sulfur Phosphorus Silicon Nickel Chromium Molybdenum
1006 .08 max 1010 .08-.13 1018 .14-.20 1020 .17-.23 1026 .22-.28 1030 .27-.34 1040 .35-.44 4130 .28-.33
.80-1.10
.15-.25
If you look at the column labeled Carbon you can see what the next two digits describe and thats the percentage of carbon a particular alloy contains. As the amount of carbon in the alloy is increased the stiffer the steel becomes but it also gets more brittle and less ductile. Most mills manufacturer about sixty grades of steel but the ones contained in the table above are very common and readily available almost everywhere. We threw 4130 Chromo in there for reference.
Table 3.2 - Grade Properties Grade Tensile Strength Yield Strength Allowable Stress Modulus of Elasticity
55,000 psi 55,000 psi 60,000 psi 65,000 psi 75,000 psi 100,000 psi
45,000 psi 45,000 psi 50,000 psi 55,000 psi 65,000 psi 90,000 psi
22,000-31,000 psi 22,500-31,000 psi 25,000-33,000 psi 27,000-36,000 psi 32,500-43,550 psi 45,000-60,000 psi
If we look at the data contained in Table 3.2 we can see that the various grades of steel have different structural properties. Tensile strength is merely a term that describes how much force it takes to pull a billet of steel apart just before it starts to completely fracture. Yield strength is a term that describes how much force is needed to pull a billet of steel until it stays permanently deformed and wont spring back to its original shape once the load is removed. The modulus of elasticity, typically called Youngs modulus, is a term that describes the relative stiffness of a material. Virtually all carbon steels fall within a very narrow band that ranges from 29.2 to 29,500Ksi. (29,500,000psi). Silicon bronze has a modulus of 15,000Ksi while pure Copper has a modulus of 16,000Ksi. Aluminum has a modulus of only 10,000Ksi. Most standard engineering formulas use a value of 30,000Ksi (30,000,000 psi) as the modulus of elasticity for all carbon steels including 4130 chromoly. The two grades highlighted in red are what we recommend as the minimum tubing specifications for the average Chopper frame. The column that tabulates the Allowable Stress is one that most people dont like to talk about since the numbers dont look quite as impressive as those in the Tensile column but these are the numbers you have to use when you finally get down to the mathematics of calculating tube sizes and materials. Most tubing manufacturers publish their own table of allowable stresses for their products but when this information isnt exactly known engineers will generally set this value to a figure that ranges from 67 to 50 percent of the tensile strength. Basically this is the Safety factor you often hear about. In addition, by using the Allowable stress figures in your calculations youll almost always end up with a steel tube selection that wont have any significant long-term fatigue limitations. After reading all of the above you should be better prepared to properly describe a particular type of tubing to be used for a project such as: ASTM-A-513-, Type 5, grade 1020 DOM or ASTM-A-513, Type II, grade 1020 CREW, (As Welded, or Normalized) mechanical tubing.
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10/16/13
tubing
Youll often hear people tossing around phrases like I make all my frames from DOM tubing. Now that youre armed with information you know that such boasts dont really mean very much on their own. If the guys using 1020 DOM for instance its actually no better than regular old 1020 CREW. Just so you know, for future reference, 1020 DOM is a very common and readily available variety of mechanical tubing and if you just ask for DOM at the supplier this is what theyll probably sell you. The good stuff is 1026 DOM and its pretty expensive and much harder to find since there is little demand for it. If your builder says hes using DOM ask him what grade and ask to see the receipts showing that its really 1026. Another thing you often see quoted on the Internet is tensile strength used as a reference for the suitability of one type of tubing over another. In actuality the tensile strength has little to do with determining the proper size of tubing to be selected for a particular application. The initial resistance to bending of all carbon steels is almost exactly the same. It makes little difference what the grade is or what type of process made the tube. It all has nearly the same modulus of elasticity and in most applications is equally as stiff. Put another way all carbon steel tubing, (of identical size) whether it is lowly 1010 CREW or top of the line 1026 DOM have almost identical initial strengths when they are used to build a frame or a set of forks. If it takes, say, 500 pounds of force to deflect a section of ERW tube, the same force will deflect a section of high quality DOM. And put even another way we can say that all carbon steel tubes (of identical size) are equally as strong (or weak) with respect to initially resisting an applied load. Once the load exceeds the yield point, for a particular cross-section, the tube will start to bend. How far it bends; and how far it bends before fracturing; is determined by the physical dimensions of the tube and the grade of steel used in the tube and this is actually where the tensile and yield strength come into play. All carbon steel will deflect the same amount under identical loads but steels with higher yield strengths will deflect to a greater extent before the reaching the elastic limit and become permanently deformed. This is the single most important fact you must come to grips with in order to make intelligent choices about frame or fork designs. In other words if two pieces of tubing, one being 1018 and the other 1026, are subjected to the same static load, they each will deflect an identical amount. It is only when they deflect enough to approach the elastic limit that the difference in tensile stress comes into play as shown in figure 3.28 below.
Figure 3.28
As steel is subjected to stress it will begin to deflect in a more or less linear fashion as the stress increases. As long as that steel is not stressed past the elastic limit point it will spring back to its original form once the load is removed. If the stress is so great that the steel moves past that point it will remain bent after the force is removed. The socalled high-tensile steels will simply bend further before becoming permanently deformed which is no big deal to begin with since the objective in frame design is to make a structure that has ZERO deflection to begin with. High tensile steels offer no advantage to initial bending resistance in the normal range of applications for typical Chopper frames. Dont let anybody tell you that a tube with 60,000 psi of tensile strength is structurally stiffer than a tube with only 40,000 psi of tensile strength because it just isnt so. Both grades of tubing are equally as stiff with respect to initially resisting bending forces. In fact in some cases for both bike and car frame construction the lesser grade of material with a lower tensile strength is actually a better selection for some applications. Any piece of steel tubing becomes worthless, structurally speaking once it reaches the yield point, which as you can see in the tables, is significantly below the ultimate strength. If you crash a 1026 Dom Frame and another identical frame made from 1018 ERW they will both sustain the same amount of damage but the amount of deflection in the crushed and bent tubing will be different. The members of both frames will begin to deflect under virtually identical loads. What is misleading when we banter around these structural terms is that they arent brought back to a comparison in the real world. For instance when we talk about a force of, lets say 20,000 pounds per square inch, needed to bend steel we dont mentally equate this to what it actually means. It sure sounds strong, but we have to remember that this reference number applies to a piece of steel thats only one inch long by one wide by one inch thick and thats why it takes such tremendous pressure to bend it. If you look at a piece of one-inch steel bar thats 12 inches long it only takes a small fraction of this force to bend it completely in half. Reality, and not Internet gossip, tells us that if DOM is so much stronger then CREW why dont we need special high-powered tube benders to handle it. If youre bending DOM, it will take slightly more effort in a hand powdered bender for sure, but that extra resistance is due to the more uniform wall thickness of Dom as opposed to ERW and not any special strength DOM has over ERW. All carbon steel tubing has the same initial resistance to bending regardless of the grade or process used in making it. Raw materials in their own right really dont have any practical strength so to speak. Its only when these materials are given shape that
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10/16/13
Raw materials in their own right really dont have any practical strength so to speak. Its only when these materials are given shape that we first begin to see practical strength become a reality. For instance raw steel is pretty worthless in its billet form from a structural application standpoint but once its formed into beams or tubing it starts to become useful for building things and is given some basic intrinsic strength purely due to the various forms it is shaped into. This is all well and good but we need to remember that strength and stiffness are two different things entirely. Raw strength comes from the material and shape of the structural members themselves but stiffness comes about from the arrangement and design of those members. For a motorcycle or chopper frame (or forks) what we want is stiffness in the assembled component. What materials we use really doesnt make much difference as long as each individual segment has enough basic cohesiveness not to fail in its individual role of being one part in the many. As the designer of a frame or a set of forks we all have to arrive at a finely tuned compromise and balance between strength, stiffness, weight, practicality, workability (bending, welding or machining) and even costs and availability of materials. Its a tough row to hoe in most instances, as there are dozens, if not scores, of variables to consider. What makes the matter even more complicated is that, with respect to building a chopper, were trying to create a mechanical piece of rolling artwork that has to appeal to the visual and emotional senses and these factors cant be explained mathematically.
tubing
One of the easiest ways to add stiffness in any structural member is to simply make it bigger, but not necessarily heavier. We do this by
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10/16/13
One of the easiest ways to add stiffness in any structural member is to simply make it bigger, but not necessarily heavier. We do this by moving the surfaces of the member further away from the intersection of the x and y axis of the particular shape were working with but we dont change the thickness of these surfaces. For example we can increase the rigidity of a simple I-beam just by making it taller and wider but the thickness of the flanges and web can remain constant and in some cases can even become thinner. For tubing we can just go with a larger outside diameter while keeping the same wall thickness. Again, in some cases we can even use a thinner wall. Thanks to science we have a very convenient tool at our disposal that we can use to estimate the differences in relative stiffness between various types of sections that have different dimensions and this tool is called the Moment of Inertia, written with the capital I in most equations. All that I signifies is the cross-sectional area, in square inches, of the member in question, to the fourth power. So its actually just Area4. There is nothing mysterious or special about the moment of inertia, its just a mathematical convenience but for frame or fork builders its really pretty useful. The moment of Inertia tables can be thought of as a fabricators interchange book. Members that share similar Moments of Inertia also share similar structural characteristics if used in identical applications. For instance we can see by looking at table 3.3 that 1.125x.134-inch tubing and 1.25x.083-inch tubing have nearly identical I values so can be substituted if need be. The advantage is that the larger diameter, thinner walled tube saves a bunch of weight. For us Chopper builders the Moment of Inertia is extremely helpful since we can use it as a gauge against what has been successfully or unsuccessfully built in the past. We know from history that one-inch diameter (.120 wall) frames are marginal at best with power plants up to about 70 horsepower if ridden hard so we need to build above that baseline at least. In a similar vein we know from history that very long Springers with up to 40-inch legs, built with 1.125 solid 1018 bar stock have survived the ages with few failures. We can use this data as a benchmark and move forward without trying to reinvent the wheel.
tubing
Figure 3.29
Even a brief examination of Figure 3.29 gives one a pretty good idea of why forks can withstand the loads that are imposed on them since 90% of those loads involve curbs and potholes where the force is largely a compressive impact. Sure there are some bending loads depending upon the angle of the impact but by and large the major stress is one of tube compression. Nobody in their right mind expects that forks should withstand direct impacts against building walls or cars or even hard-hitting wheelies. Before we build a strong set of forks we have to go back to the beginning of this section and decide on exactly what we expect those forks to do. Do we want them to withstand massive repeated wheelies? Do we want them to withstand 12-inch deep pothole encounters at 90 miles per hour? Do we want them to handle typical road conditions and bike-use that most people encounter on a day-to-day
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tubing
basis? Your particular expectations for the forks usage make a huge difference in how they are designed. In other words you get what you ask for, or in another manner, what you pay for. Cheap gets cheap, stock gets stock, custom gets custom. I have no way of proving this, but Im beyond being pretty sure, that no fork maker out there today has ever paid an engineer to actually review, structurally, what it is that theyre selling. The actual variables and dynamics are just too huge to be encompassed in a few calculations. The closest structural analogy I can envision is trying to calculate the strength needed in medieval jousting poles. The poles have to be light enough for the Knights to handle yet strong enough to pierce steel plate armor; said armor having unknown deflection angles, density, approach direction and velocity and hundreds of other factors that have to be considered. If we look at fork strength from a simple mathematical standpoint everything that results is massively heavy, virtually impractical and unusable. The old tube in a bench vice routine doesnt begin to tell the real story.
Tubing data
The table below lists some of the more commonly used sizes of Mechanical Tubing that most large suppliers keep in inventory.
Table 3.3 - Tubing Dimensional Data Outside Diameter Wall Inside Weight Sectional Area Moment of Inertia (I)
3/4" (0.75)
.083 .095 .109 .120 .125 .134 .156 .172 .180 .188
.584 .560 .532 .510 .500 .482 .438 .406 .390 .375
0.591 0.665 0.746 0.807 0.835 0.882 0.990 1.063 1.097 1.186
0.079 0.196 0.220 0.238 0.246 0.260 0.291 0.313 0.323 0.332
0.010 0.011 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.013 0.014 0.014 0.014 0.015
7/8 (0.875)
.083 .095 .109 .120 .125 .134 .148 .156 .180 .219 .250
.709 .685 .657 .635 .625 .607 .579 .563 .515 .312 .250
0.703 0.792 0.893 0.969 1.002 1.061 1.150 1.199 1.337 1.242 1.335
0.092 0.232 0.262 0.284 0.294 0.312 0.338 0.352 0.393 0.451 0.491
0.016 0.018 0.020 0.021 0.021 0.022 0.023 0.024 0.025 0.027 0.028
1 (1.00)
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.120 .125 .134 .156 .165 .172 .180 .188 .219 .238 .250 .760 .750 .732 .688 .670 .656 .640 .625 .562 .524 .500
tubing
1.128 1.169 1.239 1.406 1.473 1.522 1.576 1.630 1.827 1.937 2.003 0.331 0.343 0.365 0.413 0.432 0.447 0.463 0.479 0.536 0.569 0.589 0.033 0.034 0.035 0.038 0.039 0.040 0.041 0.042 0.044 0.045 0.046
1-1/8 (1.125)
.083 .095 .109 .118 .120 .125 .134 .156 .180 .188 .219 .250 .313
.834 .810 .782 .764 .885 .875 .857 .813 .765 .750 .687 .625 .500
0.813 0.918 1.037 1.112 1.288 1.335 1.418 1.614 1.817 1.881 2.119 2.336 2.710
0.272 0.307 0.348 0.373 0.379 0.393 0.417 0.475 0.534 0.553 0.623 0.687 0.798
0.037 0.041 0.045 0.048 0.049 0.050 0.052 0.057 0.062 0.063 0.068 0.071 0.076
1-1/4 (1.25)
.083 .095 .120 .125 .134 .156 .180 .188 .219 .250 .313
1.084 1.010 1.010 1.00 .982 .938 .890 .875 .812 .750 .625
1.034 1.448 1.448 1.502 1.597 1.823 2.057 2.132 2.411 2.670 3.126
0.304 0.345 0.426 0.442 0.470 0.536 0.605 0.627 0.709 0.785 0.921
0.052 0.058 0.069 0.071 0.074 0.082 0.089 0.091 0.099 0.104 0.112
1-3/8 (1.375)
.083
1.209
1.145
0.337
0.071
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1-3/8 (1.375)
tubing
.180
.188 .219 .250 .313
1.015 2.297
1.000 0.938 0.875 0.750 2.383 2.704 3.004 3.550
0.676
0.701 0.795 0.884 1.044
0.123
0.127 0.138 0.147 0.160
1-1/2 (1.50)
.083 .095 .109 .120 .125 .134 .156 .180 .188 .219 .250 .313
1.334 1.310 1.282 1.260 1.250 1.232 1.188 1.142 1.125 1.063 1.000 0.875
1.256 1.426 1.619 1.769 1.836 1.955 2.239 2.526 2.634 2.996 3.338 3.959
0.370 0.419 0.476 0.520 0.540 0.575 0.659 0.746 0.775 0.881 0.982 1.167
0.093 0.104 0.116 0.125 0.129 0.135 0.151 0.166 0.170 0.186 0.199 0.220
Solid Bars
0.625 -
Keep in mind that this isnt a comprehensive list of tube sizes just the more commonly available size combinations that work well with most Chopper fabrication work. Just for reference note that the solid 1.125 bar stock that many Springers are made from only has a moment of Inertia of 0.079, which is roughly comparable to 1.25x.156-inch, tubing which is considerably lighter. If youre wondering why manufacturers use what appear to be some strange dimensions for wall thickness these values actually correspond to the comparable BWG (Birmingham Wire Gauge) sizes. Nobody knows exactly how or when these gauges came to be adopted but it appears that they were in common usage by as early as 1735. Table 3.4 below lists the conversions and even today many fabricators specify both tubing and plate stock by the wire gauge and not the decimal equivalents
Table 3.4
6 7
.203 .180
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7 8 9 10 11 12 14 16 18 20
tubing
.180 .165 .148 .134 .120 .109 .083 .065 .049 .035
I would like to remind readers that at least 85% of all chopper work is an exercise in artistic expression as opposed to an exercise in engineering theory. As a result what we often build is done on the fly in back shops late at night where we have to rely on empirical knowledge gained through decades of experience rather than textbook fundamentals to guide us. If you are not 100% confident in your judgment based upon those same past experiences or in your skills as a fabricator I urge you to have the design and fabrication work done by qualified professionals. Building Choppers is a dangerous enterprise as the variables are largely unknown until the project is finished and those of us who do build choppers recognize that there are serious consequences associated with the work we do. If you build a bike you have to be personally responsible for that creation during your entire lifetime so you better be sure you know what youre doing because somebodys life will depend on it someday.
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