Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Anyone have a source for 1" x 2" x 1/16" 6061 tubing? I found a couple places with 6063... is 6061 available?

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

I've recently become a big fan of onlinemetals.com.

Edit: Silly me. I should have checked if they had it first. They don't.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Coast Aluminum in California

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Erm... McMaster?

PN: 89965K68

Trick: searching under the "pipes for flow" products.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Looks like he wanted rectangular tubing, not round.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

It should be very common at almost any good local metal supplier. Metal Supermarkets carried it as of a few years ago, but their prices are not very good. I know there are branches in Texas. Not sure where.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

:eek:

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

We buy ours in large quantities from Admiral Metals in Woburn, MA.

-Brando

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Neither BMG or Potomac Steel here in Northern Virginia have the 1/16" wall. They have reasonable prices on the 1/8" wall though. Thin wall is elusive indeed...

However, both suppliers have 1.5" Square Tubing at 1/16" wall, which is something we may consider. (We're doing WCD for the first time this year).

Edit ... dang, I just noticed that BMG swapped to 6063 tubing, though I'm sure it used to be 6061. For a drive train frame, what are the implications of 6063 vs. 6061?

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

ASTM B308 gives UTS/YS for 6061-T6 of 38/35 ksi, AMS4156 for 6063-T6 gives UTS/YS of 30/25 ksi, so it does have 30% lower strength. If you're welding it you will lose the temper in the heat affected zone either way and can only count on about 9 ksi there. It pretty much depends on how much margin you have in the design; if this is your entire section and it's 1/16 thick it doesn't sound like there's much but if this is part of a box frame then you may be OK. Chemical compositions are pretty similar so they'll form and machine about the same.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Update - 6061 Rectagular 1x2x0.062

Coast Aluminum - in stock ~$3.00/ft (they have a location in Arizona too)
Admiral Metals - in stock (waiting to hear back on price)
OnlineMetals - not stocked
Metal SuperMarkets - not stocked (they are in Dallas but are way $$)
McMaster - not stocked (1/8" wall is 3x the price of local dealer)

Thanks for info!

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

The cost is highly dependent on the weight of the order at most places. The more you buy the cheaper it gets. You should be able to get around $2 per pound if you place a pretty good sized order.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Just checked at www.speedymetals.com and they don't stock it in 6061, theirs is 6063.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

2079 uses Pierce Aluminum. We have purchased exactly what you are looking for in the past.

Re: Thin wall 6061 aluminum tubing
 

Not true. In my opinion, 6063 machines terribly. It is somewhat "gummy". The chips like to melt to cutting tools and it's sometimes tough to get a nice surface finish. I try to avoid it when I can, but certain extrusions are not available in 6061.