Wheel Bearing Housings and the price/availability of steels

[Chris Lane]

Gday Everyone,

Just after some suggestions for how to get around a problem I am having.

It has come time to fabricate our sheet steel uprights, and I am unable to source the steel I originally wanted to use for the wheel bearing housing.

With the price of steel (and specialty steels even more so) on the rise (more than 50% here in the last couple of months), is there any alternative materials that can be successfully used for this part of the upright?

[Chris Lane]

Gday Everyone,

Just after some suggestions for how to get around a problem I am having.

It has come time to fabricate our sheet steel uprights, and I am unable to source the steel I originally wanted to use for the wheel bearing housing.

With the price of steel (and specialty steels even more so) on the rise (more than 50% here in the last couple of months), is there any alternative materials that can be successfully used for this part of the upright?

[Drew Price]

So what alloy were you considering, and why? You might be able to buy larger diameter pieces of tube with heavy walls to make bearing housings from to avoid all the waste of cutting them into shells, the common structural alloys will probably be the easiest to find in this form.

Were you looking for like a 4130 or 300M to do these out of?

Depending on what you do to the rest of the upright all the alloys will have to be compatible with each other in terms of filler selection and heat treat processes.

Best,
Drew

[Chris Lane]

I was going to use hollow bar 4140, as it is still machinable after heat treatment.

[exFSAE]

I'd get something a little free-machining, or corrosion resistant, than 4130. Particularly for such a lightly loaded part (relative to say.. Champ Car).

But that's just me.

[John Grego]

We make our sheet steel uprights and bearing housings out of 4130. It's easy to get in a wide variety of sizes and, since this material is used everywhere on our car, our guys can weld it up with their eyes closed.

[Composites Guy]

4130 Steel Sources:

Wicks aircraft and Aircraft Spruce are good for common sizes, with no cut fee.

FactorySteel.com is good for odd sized steel. The size selection is amazing but the cut fees are ricidulous.

Mcmaster-Carr has some stuff, and comes next day where I live, for standard shipping costs. Prices are high.

I hear good things about Dillsburg Aeroworks but haven't gotten anything yet from them. I will probably order most of the long lengths (20 footers) for the frame from them as they are cheap and local for me.