Stainless steel, 3mm or 2mm?

Hi, I was wondering about the tensile strength of the stainless steel printing, as well as the alumide.

How well will it work as bushings, can 2 mm work for stainless steel? Can alumide also be used for bushings? Or should one use 3mm? It's for a coilover setup.

This is the current design with 20mm OD and 15mm ID / 12mm ID: Click here So the thinnest walls are 2.5mm.. I was wondering about going down to 19mm OD to save production costs and also wondering if the alumite is a strong bushing material.

There will be two bushings on each coilover and the springs are 275lb,the car is about 3500lb, but about half the weight is on the rear wheels. However the car also has a composite leaf spring, so the coilovers do not support the entire weight of the car.

The alumide material is "just" WSF, enriched with alumide powder.
Technically, it could be used for bushings - but for THIS purpose, I won't trust in it.

Do you need a flat surface on the outer side ?
Otherwise, a "checker pattern" layout (like seen on stainless steel under 3mm) could be used.

The car's weight is static stress. Calculating static is simple - because nothing moves.
But calculating dynamic stress is really un-funny.


Is there some kind of metal-working craft business in your area ?
Almost everyone with a lathe should be able to make these bushings.
This way, probably
- they would be sturdier (because the material is really solid)
- the surfaces would be smoother
- there's a good chance to get them less expensive

Hi, I dont know where I could get it CNC-ed.. (I'm a computer guy really ). As far as load, one must also remember that like the wheel bolts, the weight also uses the friction (tightening of bolts) aganis the mounting surface.

This is why if you drive with loose wheel bolts, they will clip easilly.. but if you tighten them, you get the friction area between the mouting areas. Thinking about this issue, maybe the inner bushings should differ, with a "lip" that has a larger surface area..