Chrome-moly vs mild steel for cage

[SShep71]

Doug, Two things:

More important than all of the numbers,weights, and measurements that so many people loose in the process is the fact that chromoly is not a "beginner" friendly material. It requires experience and more specific machines to work than traditional DOM mild steel. If you intend to do the cage yourself and are not familiar with the 40_ _ series tubing then its easy, mild steel. Don't allow the "WOW" factor or the maybe 100lb weight saving compromise for unreliability of a bad final product. Just like Johhny said go to a experienced fab shop that does 40 series and not just one what will ""Do"" 40 series. Im not suggesting that you dont know what your doing but the next guy that gets this idea and reads this thread may not.



Now in order to determine the weight saving you have to calculate the cubic footage of the entire assembly taking everything into account (tubes,crossbars,gussets,mouting plates,etc) of both types of tubes and do the math. You may have a different design between the two types of tubing because of the limits on the mechanical capabilities and the yield properties of the tube. (i.e. chromoly may require more gussets and bars than steel) but that is the way to actually determine the total weight savings.