Where to buy 4130 tubing

[Marsh]

Does anyone know of a good place in Canada to order 4130 Chromolly tubing?

[ice/solo racer]

So Marsh ya puttin in a cage to keep the half snapped firebird drivers from getting thru the lude?

[Marsh]

No I'm the in charge of suspension design on this:
http://www.engga.uwo.ca/sae/2002Pics/Toronto%20Shootout/Marsh%2001.jpg
http://www.engga.uwo.ca/sae/2002Pics/Competition/Competition2002-23.jpg

Unfortunately nobody stocks the tiny 5/8" - 0.035" wall tubing that I need for the A-arms.

[dwarf750]

You can get it mail order from Aircraft Spruce, although the shipping may be a little steep. $US 1.74/ft according to the catalog. Local aircraft supply shops should have some too. Leavens Aviation in Mississauga www.leavensaviation.com also caters to the aircraft building market.

[dwarf750]

Hey Marsh,
Since you're an official FSAE Suspension Expert™, I have a question. I've noticed some of the SAE cars use some little bitty adjustable mountain bike shocks. Do you know where these can be obtained, how much they cost, and how they perform? TIA

[pokey1]

Have you tried:
http://www.mckinneycorp.com/tubing.htm
http://www.aedmotorsport.com/
http://www.dialtube.com/aircraft.htm
http://www.metalspecialty.com/pages/productsAircraftAlloys.html
WWW.shapirosupply.com

Or for a local guy:

EMJ Metals 905-564-0866 ask for Jennifer Bawn

Let me know how (if?) this was of help.
W.

[Marsh]

Originally posted by pokey1
Have you tried:
http://www.mckinneycorp.com/tubing.htm
http://www.aedmotorsport.com/
http://www.dialtube.com/aircraft.htm
http://www.metalspecialty.com/pages/productsAircraftAlloys.html
WWW.shapirosupply.com

Or for a local guy:

EMJ Metals 905-564-0866 ask for Jennifer Bawn

Let me know how (if?) this was of help.
W.

That's great thanks. I did ask Leavens Aviation for a quote, still waiting for their reply. It turns out that Canada Steel can get it pretty quickly and they are based here in London, so it appears we will go that route.

Kevin,

We use the Fox Vanilla RC mountain bike shocks. They retail for $550 here in Canada. Adjustable rebound and compression. They work relatively well, but shocks are a bit of a week area for us. We have yet to do some really good analysis. We know from the experience of the other teams that they lack the high speed damping for our purposes, but it's an acceptable trade. The biggest teams usually rebuild the shocks them selves. The problem with rebuilding is that anybody that would know what they are doing for an asphalt aplication has never seen the mountain bike shocks before. The primary reason we use the mountain bike shocks is the size. You simply can't buy a better shock that will weight less than these.

The Fox Racing Shox dealer in eastern Canada is Velo Cycle in Montreal.
http://www.velocycle.com

There is also one in Edmonton:
http://www.cycleworks.com

[ice/solo racer]

Thats cool Marsh,I'm glad to see someone in school for something useful,so has your team nominated a hot shoe driver or our they just gonna let the cocky guy drive?(couldn't resist!):)

[Marsh]

Originally posted by ice/solo racer
Thats cool Marsh,I'm glad to see someone in school for something useful,so has your team nominated a hot shoe driver or our they just gonna let the cocky guy drive?(couldn't resist!):)

Actually the way the rules are layed out we require 4 drivers for the competition. There is an acceleration event (drag), skid pad, autocross and endurance. Each event requires 2 drivers, no driver can compete in more than 3 events and the endurance counts for 2 events (there is a fuel economy competition tied in with it.

I'm currently the #1 autocross driver (no surprise there), last year we had two drivers that were a little slower than me on fastest lap, but on average they were just as fast doing hot laps and they were both gentler on the car, so they drove endurance and I drove autocross with the #1 endurance driver. I also drove skidpad with another team member. Acceleration was driven by the a remaining 4th year student as well as the lightest team member. Nobody gets to drive unless they have worked on the car all year, so ringers are only allowed if they are legitimate team members. We've been lucky that we have almost always had either one experienced Solo-2 driver or one or more naturals. I'm hoping that I get to drive endurance this year, because I never have and it's my last year. Plus I'd like to think that I'm now the fastest driver on the team, but that has yet to be proven. We have a new guy that has more natural skill than any person I've ever seen. One year of Solo-2 and he would be winning any class of his choosing in regionals.

BTW last year I missed appearing in this article by less than 2 tenths of a second:
http://roadandtrack.com/technical/articleDisplay.asp?articleID=384

So this year I'm on a mission...