Where to buy aluminium tube?

[Soleair]

Anyone know a good supplier for aluminium tube?

 

Specifically, I'm looking for strut material, both 1" x 0.058" (17swg) and 1.25"x 0.058". Grade is 6061-T6, but 6082-T6 or equivalent would be acceptable.

 

The suppliers I've found so far don't give grades, so could be recycled beer cans for all I know. . .

 

All input gratefully received.

 

Bruce

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I have had good dealings with

 

Paul McGuire Aviation Parts & Equipment

 

117 Airport Ave Bankstown NSW 2200

 

02 9796 2733

 

 

[Guest Nobody]

Have you tried carpal?

 

http://www.capral.com.au/Tubes

 

They have so e tubes in that grade.....

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Airport Metals Australia - Stocklist - ex Melbourne

 

Performance Metals - ex Sydney - not as wide a range as AMA

 

Note from their product list you can also buy streamlined tubing in 4130 CRMO as well as in 6061T6, might be better for you. Depending on the design your 1" and 1.25" strut sizing (and wall thickness) sounds a bit minimal for buckling in compression unless they are very short and also have jury struts.

 

 

[Soleair]

Blimey! That was quick. Thanks, guys, I'll check these recommendations. I would prefer streamlined for the struts (though design calls for diameters given): I'll look into it.

 

Many thanks

 

Bruce

 

 

[ruffasguts]

Airport Metals Australia - Stocklist - ex MelbournePerformance Metals - ex Sydney - not as wide a range as AMA

 

Note from their product list you can also buy streamlined tubing in 4130 CRMO as well as in 6061T6, might be better for you. Depending on the design your 1" and 1.25" strut sizing (and wall thickness) sounds a bit minimal for buckling in compression unless they are very short and also have jury struts.

performance metals no longer handle aluminium

 

Mick W

 

 

[cherk]

performance metals no longer handle aluminiumMick W

Airport Metals are great to deal with but have a $minimum........~$100 from memory

 

 

[Marty_d]

The 701 plans call for round 4130N chrome moly, 1.125" OD x 0.035" wall thickness for the struts. Is there a conversion method to determine streamlined equivalent? (Airport Metals stock 1.145" x .515" in 0.035", then 1.660" x 0.710" and 2.023" x 0.857" in 0.049" wall thickness).

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

The Skyfox, Jabiru, and Seabird Seeker all use commercial grade extrusion, usually 6061-T6 or 6351 T5 or similar; but they proof-test EVERY lift strut to 1.5 times the limit load tension as the means of qualifying both the material and the assembly.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Have you tried carpal?http://www.capral.com.au/Tubes

They have so e tubes in that grade.....

I believe Capral do not sell aircraft grade tubing, and I know for a fact that if you even mention airplanes in a Capral shop you'll be shown the door...post haste!

 

 

[M61A1]

I believe Capral do not sell aircraft grade tubing, and I know for a fact that if you even mention airplanes in a Capral shop you'll be shown the door...post haste!

That has been my experience also, the bastards just hang up on you.

 

 

[Bob Llewellyn]

Blimey! That was quick. Thanks, guys, I'll check these recommendations. I would prefer streamlined for the struts (though design calls for diameters given): I'll look into it.Many thanks

 

Bruce

You could give Howie Hughes a call - google Australian Lightwing - I believe he has some unused strut extrusion, in 6061-T6...

 

 

[Ron5335]

Hi,

 

If your still interested, or for the benefit of others.

 

http://www.calm-aluminium.com.au/Contact.aspx

 

This place is huge and has everything in Aluminium, Tubes, Plate, Billets in every shape & form.

 

The good thing is T6 - 6061 is pretty common & the off cuts go out cheap.

 

1.5m x 100mm 4mm T6 $8.00

 

6061 1.2m x 600mm x .8mm $ 12.00

 

2.4m x 1.8m 16mm ( Milling Machine Table) $700.00

 

You could spend a day there, even better than Bunnings, as a matter of fact, they supply Bunnings.

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Handy to know; thanks.

 

However, as far as I can discover, they supply only commercial-grade material. That doesn't mean it's not good; but what it DOES mean, is that to use it in any aircraft structural application, the user may need to apply his own quality-assurance test.

 

If you buy aircraft-grade material, you are also buying the quality-assurance process. For example, 6061 is a commercial (SAE) alloy composition specification. T651 is a heat-treatment specification for cold-finished bar or plate. To buy 6061 T651 to an aviation quality specification, you need to purchase it with a release note certifying that it meets QQ-A-225/8 or AMS 4218. (This information can be found in Mil-Handbook-5, which can be downloaded.) You do not normally get that from any Australian aluminium manufacturer.

 

Particular care is necessary with aluminium extrusions, which can have a surprising range of defects; these mainly arise as a consequence of slag inclusions. The billet - called a "log" - of material from which extrusions are pressed, is made by a continuous vertical casting process, in which the slag continually rises to the top, and is

 

- hopefully - discarded. However if the supplier crops the log just a bit too short - and they naturally do not want to waste good metal - some slag can find its way into the material that is being forced through the extrusion die, and processes such as the QQ-A specifications usually require a "back-end etch" test of the cut-off piece to verify that there are no slag inclusions.

 

Another source of extrusion defects can occur when the log runs out in the middle of a run of extrusion, and another log is fed into the machine behind it - the two are supposed to weld together in the process of passing through the extrusion die. However, you do NOT want the piece of extrusion for something like a lift-strut to contain such a weld. For this reason, lift-struts made for Australian - certificated aircraft are normally required to be subjected to 100% proof-testing. One can do this for a lift-strut, because it is designed by the compression buckling case, and thus has excess tensile strength, so the proof-test need not subject it to loads that would damage it. Not so easy for most other components.

 

 

[Ron5335]

However, as far as I can discover, they supply only commercial-grade material. That doesn't mean it's not good; but what it DOES mean, is that to use it in any aircraft structural application, the user may need to apply his own quality-assurance test.

 

Not to sure about that statement, because when I go there with my wish list, they ask what grade would I like it in.

 

As for buying aviation grade material and also buying the quality assurance, one would like to think so, but in reality and going by the size of the aviation industry in Australia, who would bother to stock & sell it !!!

 

As long as you get their imported aluminium, then at least it complies with the U.S. standards, and that's way ahead of the AU ones.

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Try Airport Metals file:///C:/Users/Toshiba/Downloads/AIRPORT%20METALS%20Price%20List%20March%202012.pdf

 

 

[calmaluminium]

Hi All, I Googled our company name (Calm Aluminium) and came across this forum. I am not sure of the forum policies - I am not trying to post an ad - but I wanted to comment as our name was mentioned a few times.

 

We do stock a wide range of aluminium and other metals, but our core stock is 6061, 2024, 7050 and 7075 aluminium. The majority of that is sheet, plate and rod, but we do various sized tubes.

 

Re the "Quality" side of things, our Quality Management System is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and we are also independently audited to SAE AS 9120 (Quality Management Systems - Aerospace Requirements for Stockist Distributors) by some of our major customers.

 

As for the metal specifications, some of our stock (only a small percentage) is "off-the-floor" commercial grade (from local mills), but over 90% of our stock comes from mills across USA and Europe, and the metal is certified to the applicable standards. We will happily provide our own Certificate of Conformance and Mill Certificate if required.

 

Now, for the tubes, we have extruded as well as drawn tubes. The specification for the tube in the initial post would be AMS-WW-T-700/6 (Tube, Aluminum Alloy, Drawn, Seamless, 6061), typically used in aircraft and aerospace tubing applications.

 

Hope this helps, even though it's a long time since the initial post.

 

Michael

 

 

[facthunter]

Why not make your strut out of folded sheet Aluminium? It's been mentioned before, with a clever trailing edge design for streamlined section, or sheet over a round tube. Nev