Technical Tube axle thickness

This will be somewhat of a general question, and hoping someone can have a good idea, I’ll explain a bit later.
I have a dropped tube axle for a 46-8 Ford car. I’m going to weld spring perches on it to use it on my ‘32 Dodge PU. The axle was/is chromed and is flaking off quite a bit all over. My guess is it’s probably at least 30 or so years old. The reason I’m curious about thickness is, I’m going to Tig the pads on it to look a bit nicer than I can do with Mig.
My Tig experience is limited, I’ve only done like kind material and thicker for sure than a tube axle would be.
So if I had an idea of how thick a 30 years old tube axle would be, I can do some practicing on materials to mimic it, and get a good grasp so I don’t burn through the axle.
With a Mig, I’d have no issue with thin to thick material.
Make sense enough for the question?

 

I don't know the answer but, thinking you could drill a small hole into the axle, at a pad location and check that.
The pad would cover it when done.

 

If it is a Superbell or Magnum, they were 1/4" thick DOM tubing.

 

I stick welded the batwings on my 27 year old ( at the time) tube axle ,without problems , it was a Mr. Roadster axle , if I had to guess , judging by the weight , I'd say 1/4"..

 

I went through the same thing a year ago while helping a friend build his coupe. Used an unknown old drop tube axle that was originally set up for transverse spring, and he wanted to go coilovers. I was uncomfortable mig welding it, and didn't think I should be practicing my tig learning on something so important safety wise.
So I did aas mentioned above and drilled a small hole that would be covered by the weld to check thickness. Then I used my mig welder to tack on all the brackets. Once tacked on, we loaded it up and took the axlee to a guy I know whose a very good tig welder. Left it with him, and 2 hours later he called and told me it was ready to pick up.
It's well worth the peace of mind for me to know that it was tig welded by a professional with lots of experience.

 

I would not even look at an axle that was not .250.

 

Obviously you would never drive one of the old touring Fuel Altereds.

 

its So true statement above.^^^
I am not that old , There is a lot of folks
On here would not have the B---'s to drive a H-R or race car that was built before Mid 70 s , Im lucky grew up in family & others that where doing it before WWII..
"" wonder how many have a O T that steer by Wire?""

 

Thanks all, hadn’t thought of drilling where the pad would sit. Still has the spindles on it, so kinda tough to judge the weight.

@1971BB427 that was my original plan as well, but the shops in town won’t touch it since it’s suspension. There used to be a hotrod shop in town but haven’t noticed them advertising the past few years. It’s just been a long time since I used the Tig, and never used it much, but did a pretty nice job when I did use it. Plus practicing on scrap will be kinda fun again

 

You should be able to measure the length, weigh it, and compute the wall thickness. This chart has the weight per foot of round tube, by wall thickness.

 

@Marty Strode when I get the spindle off I’ll do just that

Thanks!

 

80 to 100 amps tig , you will be able tell if to hot or need less amps , if not that experience with a Tig do not focus on stack a nickel's pattern do what you think is safe multiple passes dress it up with sandpaper disc afterwards tig over

 

drill a 3/16 hole some were it will not be seen then measure the od with a caliper and zero it at the od put the depth rod through the hole until it touches the other side that is the tube thickness

 

I'm curious now, what wall thickness and material would have been used for the Altered axles?

Lynn

 

in an article a long time go wild willie mentioned they bent , broke so many front axles that they would stop at a muffler shop to bend up a new one from muffler moly

 

"Muffler Moly"....is that a bit tongue-in-cheek? Exhaust tubing is at best about .060". No wonder that they bent and broke a bunch of axles!

Lynn

 

muffler moly is tongue-in-cheek but that was a term used by willie borch in the article i think they probably bent and broke them hitting things and landing the car

 

I was fortunate to find a young guy some years ago when I needed some aluminum welded, and he had an ad offering welding on local Craigslist. He was going to college and his dad was a certified welder also. He did mig and tig welding on the side to make extra money, and was very good. Plus his prices were so reasonable I often had to force him to take more money as I felt he was under charging for his time.
His dad told him he wasn't charging enough either, but he said he enjoyed the unique projects I brought him, and charged "boring jobs" more money. I think he wanted to charge us $40 for welding the brackets on the axle, and I told my buddy to give him $60 as 2 hrs. work welding was too cheap at $20 an hour.

 

Now that’s a great idea, ill grind a point on something to sit as flush as possible on the tube.

 

I had a 1/8" wall two inch OD axle on my Willys coupe. Took some RR tracks too fast and bent it. Replaced it w/ a .250" wall axle. Problem solved.