Willie,
You sir are a craftsman, scholar, and a gentleman.
Your kindness is only exceeded by your skill.
Wow that sounds cheesy, but I think that it is true from what I have seen.
Thank you so much for doing all the work and supplying the pics. You made the best statement about the brittleness of the welded area and that was what I wanted to verify.
Although the failure just outside the welded area appears to be a somewhat classic martinsitic failure, the test is fairly conclusive in my opinion.
I think that CrMo is one of the most overrated and misunderstood materials for use in racing. It has its place, but it also has its inherent dangers. And jsut because somebody that can spell TIG or buy a machine should not necessarily be the guy that welds up a cage or a chassis. There is a whole other discussion of using condition N vs hardened condition CrMo that is perhaps beyond this venue because of the things that you have shown us all.
CrMo is bad ju ju for roll cages for all the reasons that are obvious in your testing.
I look forward to your comments and a pic like Sum has requested on how the samples fit into place in your press.
Hoping that you have a great day.Thanks again.
Regards,
HB2