What's new
What's new

Need New Tubing Vendor

Rogue_Machinist

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Location
Oregon, USA
Anyone have a reliable distributor for some .625" x .188" wall DOM 4130n Tube. The ID of .247 to .253 is critical. Customer doesnt wanna pay for gun drilling and reaming. Our current distributor cant produce the tolerances.

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk
 
don't have a source for you, but to get the best info, you need to specify what quantity you buy. (obviously you arn't talking mill run amounts) who are you using as a distributor currently, and who have you tried? why are you specing DOM instead of seamless in that?
 
Not sure if they have that size, but my only local supplier for DOM is Metal Supermarkets in Richmond Virginia.
 
If there's a Kilsby Tube Supply out there in the Aland Islands, I have always had good luck with them. They had an outside sales lady who was super sharp.

But +/- .003 on the bore, good luck with that.

Yeah im actually in Pennsylvania. dont know why it showed canada. Yeah we have called over 20 different places and all but one said no about the .249 id. I dont understand how anyone can claim milspec on something they can provide. especially when youre paying an extra $6 a foot for that tolerance.

Im guessing were gonna have to tell the customer the cost is going to increase because we have to get the material gun drilled.
 

At one point though it wasnt a rare size. Its aircraft grade seamless tube. But about 10 years ago that ID spec sort of went out the window and nobody was able to provide it any longer. So our final customer is rather cheap and doesnt wanna pay for the gun drilling operation. but the part that goes inside the tube needs no slop.
So hence why the ID is super critical. I just figured id ask if anyone had a supplier they knew of that could handle this request.
 
Yeah im actually in Pennsylvania. dont know why it showed canada. Yeah we have called over 20 different places and all but one said no about the .249 id. I dont understand how anyone can claim milspec on something they can provide. especially when youre paying an extra $6 a foot for that tolerance.

Im guessing were gonna have to tell the customer the cost is going to increase because we have to get the material gun drilled.

Seems to be several gun drilling shops in the NW Pa area.
The local hi-pressure companies sell "pipe" that is simply barstock gundrilled.

Was talking to one machinist, they sold "3-090 pipe" which is 3" o.d. barstock
with an .090 hole thru it.

IIRC 3' lengths.
 
Yeah this jobs been a pain in our ass for 30 years. For 20 years we had no problem getting the spec. But now since most of these tubing mills are offshore. And they just dont have the quality.

Yeah were gonna have to call the customer once McKnight gets back to us on this bad batch of tube. To start getting stuff gun drilled.

The photo is what we have to make 330 of for april. And 10,000 by the end of 2022.
America needs to start getting on their game and make this tubing within the +/- .002 tolerance again.
7f4bbc77c5fe079b30db59867489aa44.jpg
c32db54269eb5c0d2911fb8154e92283.jpg


Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk
 
Cost comparison to 4130n? Were going to need initially 209 feet. But over 11,000 feet for the total order.

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk


I haven't bought any yet myself, but my friends who use it say the cost is comparable at small quantities (100-200 feet)
 
Did you try Superior Tube? They would have been able to supply what you need back when, don't know about now, and don't know about minimum orders or sales only through distributors. My dad was an engineer there from about 1963-2012, and I worked there a couple of summers, plus tagging around after my dad at other times.
 
I find it sad that since all this material is made offshore now there is no consistency. One batch might be in tolerance and one batch later jts .030" over

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk
 
Another choice

We get chrome and tubing from teamtubellc, out of Chicago. Give them a try. teamtubellc.com
 
Anyone have a reliable distributor for some .625" x .188" wall DOM 4130n Tube. The ID of .247 to .253 is critical. Customer doesnt wanna pay for gun drilling and reaming. Our current distributor cant produce the tolerances.

Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk
You might try Tioga pipe they have surprised me with different materials over the years
 
The standard tolerance for seamless 4130N seamless tube in that size is +.007"/-.002" OD and +/- 12.5% (or .024") wall thickness, so you could be about .030" from nominal. I too have played the "find stock material the needed size" game, but with an uncommon size, your options are probably limited. You can try EMJ, TW Metals, Castle Metals, and Tube Service. I know of two US manufacturers of 4130 tube - Plymouth Tube and Webco. If you wanted a mill run, you could ask them about holding the ID tolerance, but I wouldn't be surprised if they balk at that.
 
The standard tolerance for seamless 4130N seamless tube in that size is +.007"/-.002" OD and +/- 12.5% (or .024") wall thickness, so you could be about .030" from nominal. I too have played the "find stock material the needed size" game, but with an uncommon size, your options are probably limited. You can try EMJ, TW Metals, Castle Metals, and Tube Service. I know of two US manufacturers of 4130 tube - Plymouth Tube and Webco. If you wanted a mill run, you could ask them about holding the ID tolerance, but I wouldn't be surprised if they balk at that.
Milspec std should be +/- .002" its what we always bought. Mills are incapable of holding that now. So we bought .625 round bar and were gonna gun drill in house. Ended up twisting the gun drill bad. So we decided to drill from both ends undersize and ream to size. Customer doesnt want the cost passed onto them.

And my peck cycle has maintained almost perfect alignment. Plus I made a custom spindle liner to maintain the round bar straight to the jaws and drill.

The reamer reams perfect alignment.
6c084aff15141b73c5e1f02485b25640.jpg
9db977cb0859d92b3a24ee2119890c93.jpg
d5d628687e01c67f3853e365b115e92d.jpg


Sent from my HD1925 using Tapatalk
 
The only military spec for 4130 tubing that I am aware of is MIL-T-6736 which references MS33529 for tolerances. Those are +/- .005" OD and +/-15% wall thickness. The tolerances I gave in the post above were from ASTM A519. I don't have a copy of AMS2253 but I'm sure the numbers would be similar. Perhaps there is some kind of high precision tubing, but regular tubing is nowhere near that kind of tolerance.
 








 
Back
Top