Toughness personified

I just take them straight to the band saw nowadays lol
For giggles I just looked up the price of them. I think I can spend a few minutes screwing metal end caps in place. I would need longer which would add to the price. I'm not happy with the 10 bucks each for what I've got now. No way am I doing 3 and 1/2 times that much.

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For giggles I just looked up the price of them. I think I can spend a few minutes screwing metal end caps in place. I would need longer which would add to the price. I'm not happy with the 10 bucks each for what I've got now. No way am I doing 3 and 1/2 times that much.

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Wow, had no idea. Two of those caps cost more than some of the material we get inside the tubes lol

Edit: missed the pack of 12 part. Still pretty spendy for a piece of plastic being made by the thousands
 
For giggles I just looked up the price of them. I think I can spend a few minutes screwing metal end caps in place. I would need longer which would add to the price. I'm not happy with the 10 bucks each for what I've got now. No way am I doing 3 and 1/2 times that much.

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Maybe I’m missing something here (or just confused ) but I read it as $31.35 per carton with 12 in each carton . Doesn’t seem like that bad of a price .
 
Maybe I’m missing something here (or just confused ) but I read it as $31.35 per carton with 12 in each carton . Doesn’t seem like that bad of a price .
Apparently I read that wrong somehow. I've got a request for quote into them for what I think will work. We'll see what they say. Thanks.
 
Apparently I read that wrong somehow. I've got a request for quote into them for what I think will work. We'll see what they say. Thanks.
Those work great, we get a lot of stuff (threaded rod, tubing, steel) from McMaster in those. Those caps do not want to come out of the tube.
 
Arrived in one piece with caps in place. The bolts on both ends smashed through the tube tho.
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Thank you for the update. That is a fair bit of bullshit though. Those are very heavy duty shipping tubes and for them to punch through the sides like that can only mean they are throwing them.

Where's awning boy when you need him?
 
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packing paper did a really good job keeping the metal caps from getting beat up. staples keeping tubes together seemed unfazed.

mine too had the dents in the sides from the clamps. amazing how shitty they treat cargo.
 
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packing paper did a really good job keeping the metal caps from getting beat up. staples keeping tubes together seemed unfazed.

mine too had the dents in the sides from the clamps. amazing how shitty they treat cargo.
The clamps are in place and tight to spread out the load on the end cap to make it harder to punch through. I also ordered in extra caps from the same tubes and I'm using those to double up.
 
Some of us and you know who you are, tend to need things that are a bit tougher than the standard fare. As such, I had my machinist make up some extra heavy duty clamps that will take a lot more punishment should the need arise.
Not cheap, but most tough things typically aren't. These first versions cost me 30 bucks each plus a bolt, washers, and nut.

Future versions will come down in price some and hopefully they can get out for 60 bucks a pair including shipping, hardware, and Loctite for the nuts. That will be for a stand-alone upgrade. They will be offered as an option on the tie rod over the regular clamps and the cost of the regular clamps will be deducted from that so likely a 40 dollar upgrade at that point. I'm going to try and get that down to 35 but I have my doubts. I'm also not sure if I should add to the cost by getting them plated or let ya'll just rattle can them to keep the cost lower.

These have a through hole specifically because the two bores misalign when the clamp is tightened. That messes up the bolt, the threaded hole, and causes bind which reduces clamping force. The holes are oversize slightly to compensate for that problem.
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@mrblaine can you elaborate on clamp orientation. My thought is to keep the cut slot oriented down and then align the clamp the same way as shown in the picture. I'm my mind this allows for the clamp to "close" the slot and create the needed clamping force. Plus, in this orientation, it keeps the passenger side clamp out of the way of everything. Is it not necessary to align the clamps in any particular orientation?

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