Cage material

[extreme96xj]

The reason why you don't use square is becasue it has too manny straight lines in which to break on. Thats why washers for bolts are round not square. Thats why when you make fish plates theres no sharp intersecting points they are rounded diamond shaped. The dome or circle shape is far more superior than a square. Thats why when you run square tubeing over a distance it deflects more than round. But if you were to lay the square on edge it wouldn't defflect cause you have the triangle effect going on. Basically to keep it simple use round tubing for your cage it will look and function much better then a welded and plated up square tubing one

 

[BRIANHO13]

To me the biggest hurdle to a square tubed cage is the bending.
Bending square tube causes the sides to collapse, killing the strength. I suppose you could cut, miter, and weld every "bend" but that would be a rediculous waste of time.

BTW, putting down an idea, or worse, putting down the person who asked about it, without knowing why is far stupider (yea, I know, stupider isn't a word but it fits here) than asking about an idea in the first place.

I visited a customer this week, and they were bending 2X2X1/4 square tubing. They had a sweet set up, CNC benders, and were doing some crazy bends, and get this it wasn't crushing the tubes. I wouldn't hesitate to use tubes bent like this on my rig.

I have no idea where the "extra" material was going, the guy giving us the tour was a sales guy so he had no idea.

 

[Zebaru]

The reason why you don't use square is becasue it has too manny straight lines in which to break on. Thats why washers for bolts are round not square. Thats why when you make fish plates theres no sharp intersecting points they are rounded diamond shaped. The dome or circle shape is far more superior than a square. Thats why when you run square tubeing over a distance it deflects more than round. But if you were to lay the square on edge it wouldn't defflect cause you have the triangle effect going on. Basically to keep it simple use round tubing for your cage it will look and function much better then a welded and plated up square tubing one

Awesome first post...

• The reason a washer is round has nothing to do with the bending capacity of a beam.
  
• In pure bending, a square or rectangular box section is far superior to circular. There are weaknesses to the square tube (see badron's post for instance), but bending resistance is not one of them... (i.e. it will not deflect more than round when spanning a distnace)
  
• The moment (bending) capacity to (plastic) deformation of a square section loaded 'through the points' if you will is about 2/3 of that same section loaded 'through the flats'. (i.e. it will deflect more when put 'on edge' than when oriented normally)

Travis

 

[Dirk Pitt]

Awesome first post...

• The reason a washer is round has nothing to do with the bending capacity of a beam.
  
• In pure bending, a square or rectangular box section is far superior to circular. There are weaknesses to the square tube (see badron's post for instance), but bending resistance is not one of them... (i.e. it will not deflect more than round when spanning a distnace)
  
• The moment (bending) capacity to (plastic) deformation of a square section loaded 'through the points' if you will is about 2/3 of that same section loaded 'through the flats'. (i.e. it will deflect more when put 'on edge' than when oriented normally)

Travis

Yeah, but you have that "triangle effect going on".

:gag: