From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english
"Richard Smith" wrote in message news:
m1ecedsxs3.fsf@Admins-Air.Home...
Every engineering material is optimised... There is no way energy would
be expended, transport of materials to be at the place where the
manufacture happens, etc. - then you do not optimise the material you
make and the products resulting. The incentive for the effort to give a
result is way way way way too high.
As it seems to me (metallurgist, significantly an engineer, etc.) ...
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At the home hobbyist level it's useful to know the properties of common
scrap metal, such as A36 hot rolled structural steel. Then you can judge on your feet if what you happen to find will serve for what you want to make.
https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6117
For example I used inexpensive surplus pallet rack 3" and 4" rolled channel
to build a bandsaw lumber mill and an overhead travelling gantry hoist to
move the logs and cut timbers, up to 2 tons and 20' long. Water pipe, electrical conduit and chain link fence posts are available locally in small quantities and have considerable straight line column strength, though they aren't that strong in bending.
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