John Doe wrote:
The metal I'm most used to working with is the soft aluminum flat
bar from the local hardware Borg.

Using a 1/8" (thick) x 3/4" (wide) x 3" (long) piece of that soft
aluminum. Make a U shape out of it. If that U shaped piece of
aluminum flat bar is turned upside down and the ends glued to a hard
surface, I know approximately how much weight I could put on it
before it buckled.

What would be the equivalent approximate thickness of 301/304
stainless steel to 1/8" thick soft aluminum flat bar? Any idea will
help.

Thanks.

That depends a lot on the details of how you're making the 'U'. If it's
really failing by buckling then chances are the important parameter is
the stiffness of the arms, not the actual yield strength of the
material. You'd probably find that a 3/4" diameter tube with the same
amount of aluminum as the arms of your 'U' is much stronger.

I suspect that going to stronger, but thinner, material won't buy you a
heck of a lot of strength in the finished part. Thinner material that's
formed into a channel, then bent into a 'U' may work, but you'd need
some sort of fancy mandrel to keep the channel open when you bent the 'U'.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

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"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html