C section

[wesley]

Hi all , well at last l have the drawings to build the donkey steam engine and the first problem l have is finding 24" of 1 3/4"x3/4" c section alloy or steel with 1/8" walls , have looked in my normal supply books etc and as normal over here in the uk ,unless you buy a truck load l can not find any ,so are there any uk members that no where l can get some please , other than this l can find every thing else.
regards wes

 

[Jasonb]

You are unlikely to find it in Channel at those sizes. 40x20 is made in steel if you can go that small but you would likelyhave to get a 6.15m length. But you can get 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 x 1/8 square hollow alloy which could be split down the middle quite easily. M-Machine do it, bottom of page 7 This would have square internal corners so a bit of JB weld or plastic metal will be needed to give the right radiused look.

http://www.m-machine-metals.co.uk/Catalogue_doc_MAY_2008.pdf

The other way would be to take some 1 x 1 x 1/8 steel angle, cut a bit off one leg and weld them together

 

[tel]

Probably wouldn't be too hard to cast some.

 

[rcmadness]

Wesley, do you have "welding or fab" shops in the UK. I 24" piece of c iron is pretty much junk to most shops and they would typically sell it to you cheap. You may have to do like Jasonb suggested and buy square tubing and split it.
I go by the salvage yard about once and month and see what they have. I can buy it by the pound which works pretty good.

Just a thought.

 

[cfellows]

How about slicing 1 3/4" square steel tubing down the middle?

Chuck

 

[Jasonb]

We don't have 1 3/4 (44mm) square tube here so thats not an option, 40mm and 50mm are the standard sizes both in square and C section, thats why I asked if wes could go as small as 40x20 channel. Also square tube would have rounded external corners which are harder to fix than square internal corners if you want teh section to look correct.

Alloy is still sold in imperial sizes thats why I suggested square 1 3/4" alloy.

40x20 is seldom used here so chances of finding any off cuts are slim even if the size were OK.

Jason

 

[hammers-n-nails]

just a side question. why is metal sold in 6.15m standard lengths in the UK? it seems like an odd length, i could see if mabey if it converted to some even number of feet.

 

[Jasonb]

That will be the metric 20ft lengh :

J

 

[tel]

Indeed it is, the alternative is 8m lengths that work out at 26.25 feet - go figure. We just live with it.

 

[Lew Hartswick]

People that insist on using metric tooling and material should buy metric drawings.

...lew...

 

[bob ward]

25 x 25 x 3mm angle. Mill one leg to 3/4" the other to 7/8". Weld 7/8" legs to form a channel.

 

[te_gui]

Im assuming you may be building Bill Harris's donkey? I milled my frame channels out of solid hotroll bar stock.

 

[wesley]

Thanks for your help , have been playing with some 40mm x 70mm thick walled box section , may cut that down then mill it up , looking at the drawings am thinking l can get away with 40mm high but could always put a build up strip on it so it works out at 1 3/4" , but will also give te_gui way of doing looking at as l have a good length of solid 2"x2", will keep you posted.
regards wes

 

[hammers-n-nails]

sorry about that, i came up with 6.15m=23.somethingft yesterday for some reason