The time has come to build sliders for my Ranger, I'm looking at 2x2 3/16 wall square tube. What's everyone else running?
I am a huge fan of AR plate.
I would look into the option of covering your two wear sides with it. Rocks won’t gouge in it, making the sliders more “slippery”. Not to mention that they will last forever.
I skinned the bottom of my housing diffs with it, noticeable difference.
How would .120" wall tube with solid alum slugged into it fare?
I have a few extra sticks of 2"x.120"DOM in the shop and was thinking it might not get trashed as fast if it thought it was solid.
How would .120" wall tube with solid alum slugged into it fare?
I have a few extra sticks of 2"x.120"DOM in the shop and was thinking it might not get trashed as fast if it thought it was solid.
I'd think it would do pretty well. How much is 1 3/4" solid aluminum though?
You could also grab some 1 3/4x095 and throw that inside.
Just ordered a couple pieces of 1.75" solid 6061 aluminum. Decided to give stuffing it in 2" x .120" wall DOM a try. Should have a .001" gap to play with. I sure hope this alum shows up straight.
I've used aluminum round stock from McMaster before for lathe projects. It's generally pretty straight, though I've not turned a piece much longer than a foot or so.
You might have to lube it up and hammer it in there.
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might have to modify the shop press to be muuuuch taller
I think the bigger issue than straightness might be the tolerance for width. Some rods are oversized. Worst case, you might have to have it turned down slightly on a big lathe.
Or figure out a way to spin it and hold a file across it back and forth the length a few times.
You should have 0.005 clearance right? Or are you assuming the 1.75 is going to be 0.004 oversized?
I've had good luck sliding stuff inside 120 wall as it's 0.005 shy of 1/8" thick. Sliding stuff into 250 on the other hand was a nightmare.
Went with 2x2 3/16 A500, thanks for the input everyone
Most of mine has always been what ever is around, 1.5" 1 3/4" 2" all .120 wall, heck even some pipe in there too I'm sure.
I already thought of sliders as a consumable, every so many years you need to cut them off and throw them away.
I've thought several times about trying to build something like that last one with a (properly supported, not just standoffs every foot) wooden 2x4 for the wear surface. Wood has plenty of compressive strength and when they inevitably get trashed they can be replaced for $10. Also they wouldn't make loud clanking noises if you use them to climb over the small boulders they use to keep the non-hardcore crowd out of power line roads and whatnot which is a big attraction for me.
I would think, a 2x4 is far to soft to work well as a slider. You wouldn't slide on anything and rocks would just gouge into the wood, hanging you up instead.
Yeah it would definitively dig in but I don't really get into many situations where I want to slide on a slider. I often find myself wanting to pivot around something without fucking up a door and wood would be fine for that. Most rocks around here are pretty smooth and I'm crawling over a down tree as often as a rock so I'm not sure how much of a difference it actually would make in practice. Wouldn't be hard to replace with steel if they don't work.