Axle alloy

[JHen]

Are axles a special alloy or are they just some mild, low carbon steel?

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Some are hardened steel, and I believe there are higher-dollar alloy units out there. Princess Auto's keyed shafting (where a lot of us Canadians buy our stuff) is C1018.

 

[modelengineer]

4140 Chromoly steel is what I used. Advantage is you can get it precision ground so it fits in the bearings perfectly with no machining.

 

[mrmagoolew]

You can just buy drill rod in the size diameter you need. It's already ground to size, and you can have it threaded at a machine shop. I'm not sure, but I'd say drill rod is at least 4140 grade steel, and good enough. It's what I use anyway. If you can get 4140, that'll do too. 6150 grade will also work, but probably overkill. Lew

 

[JHen]

You can just buy drill rod in the size diameter you need. It's already ground to size, and you can have it threaded at a machine shop. I'm not sure, but I'd say drill rod is at least 4140 grade steel, and good enough. It's what I use anyway. If you can get 4140, that'll do too. 6150 grade will also work, but probably overkill. Lew

Drill rod is W1 or O1, which is hovering just over 1% carbon plus some alloying elements like vanadium and manganese. 4140 is 40% carbon, with good amounts of chromium and molybdenum (hence 4130 being called 'chromoly') and some manganese and silicon.

 

[fowler]

this would depend on the progect if it is a race kart or something like modelengineers sindwinder it would need to be some fancy high quaulity steel alloy for stenght over weight but as a back yard kart that is just there to bomb around in some bush somewhere then any mild steel rod will do