RE: [now] Offroad buggies [was] new guy chimes in

From: Joseph A. Orsini (Joeman@gbonline.com)
Date: Thu Aug 04 2005 - 12:32:51 EDT


Yeah that is what it was! Thanks for refreshing my memory! Yeah most cages
these days are mild steel, but there was a period (mid late 80's?) guys
were making cages from chrome moly and some things got ugly. I am glad your
welds are holding up!

-Joe

> chromo is more sensitive to heating and rapid cooling than mild steel.
> has to do with the low carbon content.
>
> if the welds are not "strain relieved" the material is far more brittle
> than it would otherwise be in the heat affected zone, and can crack at
> the edge of the head affected zone relatively easily.
>
> this year's car was my team's first attempt at chromo and we used the
> proper filler rod with our TIG but did not heat treat the welds in any
> way. So far so good, but it's definitely a good idea to do so, it will
> make the car more resilient to stress and strain.
>
> Most race cages are made of mild steel to avoid the brittleness issue
> of chromoley tube. In our case when limited to a 10hp spec engine,
> weight is pretty much everything so as long as it's legal, chromo it
> is.



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