"How about clearancing just two side of the tube instead of turning the whole thing down...? That would leave your .500 wall on two edges and at least 3/8 or so on your weld edge... If i had thought about it, this is what i would have done. Not sure why i didnt think of it"
This is what I meant by "slab", great minds think alike..
I had planed on taper milling them so the flat faded to nothing as it went away from the weld joint , would look sweet and leave max. metal.
I was going to build some temp. tooling at work to smash the tube , I wasn't worried about inconsistency just weakening it.
Mike, I might like to buy a small piece (10"-12") of 2x.5 scrap off you and test this idea. We have a full metallurgical lab at my shop and I could get our tech to check and see what kind of damage is done by crushing it. I know it's overkill and don't mean shi+ to my build but I'm kinda' interisted in knowing what impact bending has on tube.
Jeff