A friend gave me several pieces of 1" tubing with approximately a 3/8" hole down the center that has been bored and threaded on the ends for 1/2" spherical rod ends. They came off his AA truck when he switched from IRS to a solid axle. I want to use them for the lower arms and the upper Y bar on on my rear. There is enough meat to thread them for 5/8-18 bushed adjusters. My question is, "What kind of steel tubing do I have?" I've never seen anything with those spiral rings on it.
Spiral weld seamed pipe. Similar to the longitudinal welded pipe (with a seam running straight down the length of it). Different to drawn tube, which has no seam weld. Cheers, Harv
Your picture does not look like spiral welded pipe. Spiral welded pipe is typically only made in large diameters starting around 6”, is submerged arc welded and the seam welds are very apparent. A 3/4” pipe would have an o.d. of 1.050” and there is no 3/4” pipe schedule that even comes close to a 3/8” i.d. I believe what you are seeing is just a spiral finishing mark sometimes seen on tubing from going through rollers in the finishing process. I would not be afraid to use it.
That's what I wanted to hear since I already own this tubing. The first I ever heard of spiral welded pipe was when Harv mentioned it, so I googled it. Most of what I found was written in poor third world English and I thought, "No go." After your post I went out and hit it with some 80 grit on a DA and the spiral marks disappeared. There is no sign of any welded seam anywhere on the tube. Finally got smart enough to use a bolt to reach past the counter bored end and measure the ID: 5/16" goes, 3/8" doesn't. Stout piece of tubing.
DOM. Drawn Over Mandrel. Non welded basically extruded cold rolled steel. Accurate diameters and concentricity. I belive you can get also in any of the better 4xxx grades and possibly SS also. Good stuff.
DOM is welded tubing according to the link below. https://www.industrialtube.com/blog/2020/07/08/difference-between-dom-and-cds-tubing/