Whats up with the aluminum stuff..

[Willystyle21]

Hell no

Everything crashes even cars they only have a side of the road to pull over onto, so lay off the planes will you. Oh yeah and Medico you forgot to add that galvanic corrosion will only happen if there is an oxydizer trapped between the two dissimliar metals. High torques are used on the outside surface of aircraft, zeus fasteners hold instrament panels in the cockpit. unless it is different for everything but a F-15. And yeah I agree only people who have served in the military can screw with us. God I hate corrosion control classes. On the "blak boxes" or LRU's as the are also known. No idea but more than likely to be a titanium based alloy used as the frame and outer panels.

[Tracker]

pointy head, spark chaser, last time i cheks you were still avionics :). and the funny thing is, i don even know where the cras survivable data recorder is on an f-16, ahh well its not my system.

and yeah we pump gas, clean windows, pull panels, stabs, engines, hydraulic pumps, and just about everything else that makes a big mess when your workign on it, and on the f-16 pannels are held on by either a tridair fastner, or a hi torque (think off center philips head) screws, into self locking nut plates. zues sure would be nice but no for us

Tracker

[Willystyle21]

Avionics?????

Hell no I ain't a box swapper. I'm E&E . Hybrid between the two (avionics and CC's I mean).Sides been years since I have worked on a lawn dart.

[fallout11]

Most aircraft structural aluminum is 7075 (usually T6), not 6061.

I'm a military aircraft structural engineer.
Sorry, crew chief.....

And there's a bootload of steel fasteners and titanium in military aircraft, for a reason.

[sniper1rfa]

ULE bodies are made of T6 7075, for the record.

If you want to get into an argument of materials, lets use magnesium for our bodies and big parts. Its stronger and lighter, though slightly more expensive. And it can be annodized.

Dont ever use titanium in paintball (its too heavy).

s/s is great in paintball, use it for screws. It looks nice.

Want a good barrel material? try brass, its easy to get nice tolerances with (though this is sorta a moot point, nowadays).

Sears - Hardened stainless. Duh.

Grip frames? Use the stuff AGD uses for the single trigger frames for gods sake, it weighs nothing, and doesnt need to hold threads.

Taps and dies are carbon steel, HSS, TiN coated HSS...
They have to be hard to hold a cutting edge during continuous use. Tools must also always be harder than the material you are cutting.


If you dont know your material sciences, dont knock an engineer's choice of materials. Tom made aluminum bodies because he decided 7075 was strong enough for the application.



The snipergat will be all aluminum, with one peice of titanium (i know, it has no place, but this is a VERY small o-ring groove, and i fear it will snap there, as it is being banged around alot. titanium is springy enough to work). I have NO doubts as to wether or not its strong enough for the job.

Next snipergat i make will be entirely magnesium...

[xmetal2001]

All the aluminum stuff is around because looking pretty and weighing little is the "cool" thing to do in paintball right now. So thats what AGD started doing.

[SpecialBlend2786]

wow, this thread is back from the dead

[fallout11]

If you're going to use magnesium, I hope you like corrosion.

[sniper1rfa]

"And it can be annodized"



no worries.

[BlackVCG]

What makes aluminum "cheaper" in most applications is the machining cost. Stainless steel requires slower cutting head speeds, slower feed rates and less material cut depth per pass.

There's a science to cutting everything, but overall aluminum parts can roll off the lathe/mill much faster.

Magnesium is fine for casting and applications where there is no heat and brittleness is not a factor.

[Tracker]

and for the record, i wasnt 100% sure that aircraft aluminum was 6061 it was just a good guess, thats for correcting me, i dont mind,id rather be right after being corrected then being oblivious to the truth

Tracker

[the larch]

Like Black VCG said, aluminium is easier to mill. It is in the manufacturers best interest to promote it.
As far as stripped threads go, If you don't know how to properly tighten a screw, let someone else work on your gun.