What Alloy???

[nellster]

Sorry for the delay in the responce Tim,
PSU went bang on the computer!
I'm glad you're "not bothered", In general you're no help anyway!!

All the best Nellster

If l could be bothered then my responSe would be "to seek an answer then firstly one must understand the question"

[Mr.Mike]

riiiiiiight.... any way. I think you have a great question Nellster.

I have this great idea of building a 1/4 scale heli. Most of the parts will be purchaced of course, but some I will probably have to make my self. I work at a custom land rover shop so making things isnt out of the norm.

however... for the things I do make it would be nice to know what grade Alum to use for things...

Like landing skids for example. If I wanted to make my own I would want some thing soft enough to bend into the shape I want but not so soft that it kills it self every time I land.

or a bracket to hold a servo perhapse. I might want to tap out some holes to bolt the servo to, but if the Alum is too soft those will strip over time....

Again, I think this is a great shoot the poo discussion.....

Mike

PS.. I cant spell and I know it so dont bother pointing it out

[nellster]

Hi Mike , sorry for the delay in responding, I've been a bit busy!

I love Land Rovers, and a load of my friends and some family have them or Discos'. (I want a Hummer!!!!!!)

Like yourself, I am also planning to build a large heli, but most to all parts will be made by myself.

Probably the best "general material" to go for is Al-Cu alloy or 2000 series. It used to be called Duralumin. This alloy is used in aircraft construction and is a good all-rounder. I've used it in the past to make slab yokes and wide wheel spacers on custom bikes (a few show winners, I might add!) and also on rally cars.

It is a great material for sump and diff guards on the above. It stays bright, machines to a mirror finish and is as hard as hell (try cutting it by hand). If you try to cut a thread into it, use a lube for steel, because you,ll snap the tap. It's as light as aluminium, and as strong as steel.
Hope this has helped Mike.

All the best Neil..

[Mr.Mike]

What is the tubing used in the up grades landing skids for the electrics? I just got some tuff landing gear and that tubing would be perfect for custom landing gear. its pretty thin, but bendable yet stout enough hold its shape.

Rally cars huh? I was head mechanic here: http://www.teamoneil.com for 3 years. I miss rally racing ALOT! I also was a co-driver for 2 seprate Group 2 cars.

[nellster]

Hi Mike,
I thought you just had very big wobbly cars over there. I was shocked to see the link.

To be honest, I didn't think that rallying got out of europe. I'm amazed! the closest, I thought you got to rallying, was the Dukes Of Hazard " Daisy, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!".

It's a sport where men are men and the purple starfish is very is small and tight!. I had a Lotus 2.4 Sunbeam (British s!*t) and an ex-works TR8 (Triumph TR7- V8). Got lots of place wins and a few overall wins. I couldn't get a sponser so gave up and threw myself out of planes instead.

Back to what's important though, I'm not sure what alloy is used in tube. It's extruded, you know what I mean. A big lump of alloy is pushed through a small hole to form a rod , or if it has a centre die it forms a tube. I'll have to check up on what's available. Aluminium structure changes quite a lot if you push it through a small hole, I know it becomes highly stressed which would not allow it to be worked in any way. To be honest I don't know much about this subject it's completely out of my flying (crashing) field, but, I'll see if I can find the answer for you.

Get back to you soon,

Neil..