Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Hey guys, im wondering if its possible to temper the 3/16 brake line like what i would find at the auto store, after making my cages. Want to get hardness and prevent bending after rolling over

TIA

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

They are pretty tough if triangulated well enough to not need it. (Unlezs your rig is ove 20#) You could temper it in an oven. Is the cage brazed or welded?

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

You should just start building with stainless steel tube and safety silver 56%. Once you get the triangulation to reneforce it will plenty strong. Brake line is nasty stuff, build a cage out of 6 ft sticks of 304. You'll never touch galvanized again.

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Good info, but i want the weight savings of the hollow tube. Can i get that in stainless?

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Yes, you can buy stainless tube over solid rod.

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

You can't harden that material, mild steel, because of the low carbon content. What you can do, which is standard issue in baja/desert race vehicles is to put crown into the roofline. Ever so slight a radius will stiffen the cage dramatically. Crazy that most of the U4 and crawler world don't do this. Alumicraft and Jakes Fab Works come to mind as some of the more drastic curved roofs so you can see what I'm talking about. A flat tube bends/dents easier than a curved one. Perhaps this will work for your build.

Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Manufactured from low-carbon steel. One or more superficial coatings are applied after brazing to protect the steel substrate from corrosion, because steel has no inherent corrosion resistance to the road environment. Although coating composition has changed since the original hot-dip lead-tin coatings were used, coating flaws remain a problem. The addition of zinc-rich paints did little to improve the protection of the tube. Current aluminum-zinc coatings and added polyvinylfloride coatings are still inadequate to totally protect the steel tube.


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Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Can't do it with brake line. FYI tempering isn't just done in the oven, that's actually annealing after tempering or any other process that causes hardening. Some here need some metallurgy reading.

Brake line will harden but will also become very brittle. I've cracked and broke cages because of it. But it's done dipping the join in water (or snow lol) immediately after braze, weld or simply heating very hot.

Brake line is not good for a full vehicle build, good for a bed or similar on a scaler but beyond that it's too soft or if it's hardened it's brittle and cracks easily.

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Re: Tempering brake line brazed cages
 

Have you thought of filling the hollow tubing with epoxy to give it more strength? Not a super light alternative but lighter than solid rod.

Thin a long dry time (30, 45 min..??) two part epoxy with alcohol and inject into the tubing in different areas with a syringe till is starts to come out the other side.