Newbie

[Jateu_01]

Hi All,

Just new to all the kit car making experience! can anyone advise me on best 25x25 and 19x19 to use ie mild, stainless steel and what best wall thicknesses to go for from what i understand 1.6mm wall is sufficient. Anyone getting good weld results pls can you tell me what mix of gas you are using! im using a mig at momnet 75/25 has been recommended for allround use with steel.


Thank you for time and help

James

[Chris Gibbs]

Welcome James!!

You need 16 SWG ERW (electrical resistance welded) mild steel tube which has a wall thickness of approx. 1.6mm. I use CO2/argon, but I can't remember the mix.

There are loads of expert welders on here so you should get a definative answer soon.

Cheers

Chris

[AshG]

25x25 mild steel ERW 16 gauge
19x19 mild steel ERW 16 gauge

Gas 5/93/2 (usually called argoshield light/ or ferroMax7) the 2% is o2

75/25 will do if thats what you have.

Originally Posted by Jateu_01

Hi All,

Just new to all the kit car making experience! can anyone advise me on best 25x25 and 19x19 to use ie mild, stainless steel and what best wall thicknesses to go for from what i understand 1.6mm wall is sufficient. Anyone getting good weld results pls can you tell me what mix of gas you are using! im using a mig at momnet 75/25 has been recommended for allround use with steel.


Thank you for time and help

James

[Hoybi]

Welcome to the forum James.
I've included a picture showing one small change to the steering column support that is useful to know (also the gearbox support is somewhat stronger) and two pictures showing that the chassis is really light, even if the tubes are 2mm thick.

[AshG]

eddy you have made a mistake. the steering collum support.












its on the wrong side!

[squbti]

hi james & welcom , i´m using 25x25x1.5mm because we dont have the 1.6 in sweden & i didnt want to use 2mm. as for the welding, i´m going with the tig welder because i use tig at work all the time & i feel it gives the best result all around , the down side is it takes a little longer but the result is worth it.
Samy

[alga]

squbti, 25x25x1.5 is actually exactly what's specified. Turns out the sheet metal gauge is a bit different from wire gauge. 16 gauge sheet is 1.52 mm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_metal#Gauge Note that the tolerance range is 1.39 through 1.64 mm.

Having said that, did you measure the thickness of your tubes? Mine are somewhere around 1.7, even though nominally it's 1.5.

[squbti]

hi alga, i´m almost sure that 16 gauge is closer to 1.6mm which as it turns out we dont have here so i had to choose between 1.5 or 2mm thick but maybe i just dont understand what is meant by 16 gauge!! is it not the thickness?