The Chopper Compendium

http://www.calculatoredge.com/english.htm#mechanical

This site has different sections, mechanical, structural, oil & gas, etc.

In the mechanical section, listed above, I noticed some calculations for leaf springs, but didn't look in depth.
Possibly useful for someone planning on building a leafer.

I was looking for ways to calculate and compare deflection of tubing and solid round steel to each other.
No time right now to dive in, but will post any pertinent info.


Here is a different site with a calculator for deflection of tubing.
http://easycalculation.com/mechanical/d ... -beams.php

http://www.calculatoredge.com/civil%20e ... r/beam.htm

This one looks like it has good potential...
These would allow comparisons only if you use the same parameters for each calculation.

This is not a method to calculate the stresses on a fork leg. That would involve the use of complicated equations
and include much more info, like the fork angle, friction forces caused by traveling on a surface (would probably be a range, since the surface can be so different, ie, paved versus gravel or loose soil), lean agles, centrifugal force, and probably more I haven't thought of.

Point being, this is a way to see if tubing resists force better than solid round stock in a limited application.

solid stock will always have a higher moment. The advantage of tubing is weight. For the best compromise tubing with a ID near .25 of the OD. Still heavy though.

joe49 wrote:solid stock will always have a higher moment. The advantage of tubing is weight. For the best compromise tubing with a ID near .25 of the OD. Still heavy though.

Sounds reasonable... Is this info from a published source?

Machinery's Handbook, #29 PDF:

http://dl.icdst.org/pdfs/files4/80364b0 ... 119ffc.pdf

Machinery's Handbook Pocket Companion
https://iem.ca/pdf/resources/Machinery% ... hinist.pdf