On Wed, 16 Oct 2013 06:12:42 -0700, stryped wrote:

I have been reading about stress relief and general metalworking. If a
person wanted to prevent stress cracks in somethign like a t bucket
frame, is it a good idea to peen weld areas? Can an air operated needle
descaler work? Is hand peening possible?

As far as I know it's not necessary.

Street rod frames tend to be made of mild steel; while they do crack
after long (or hard) use, the cracks tend to be due to stress induced by
use -- your brackets don't break close to the welds because of residual
stress, your brackets break close to the welds because that's where the
metal gets a lot of back-and-forth stress that leads to fatigue.

Engineer the frame correctly, weld it up in a good workmanlike manner,
refrain from actually hooking up the outer two carburetors on that
impressive polished intake manifold, and you should be fine.

--

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