See anything amiss?

[Gerry Attrick]

I had occasion today to shorten a (budget) seat post from a well known manufacturer. Even though it is not a top class bit of kit, I was surprised to see that the wall thickness varies from 2mm to 3.16mm. No its not like a Thompson post which are deliberately thicker in certain areas, this is just shall we say a "wide" manufacturing tolerance.

I'm happy it is well up to the job, but it does make me wonder about some of the failures we hear about. Has anyone actully checked a failed seat post?

Apologies for the iffy picture quality.

 

[david1701]

a good rule of thumb is the cheaper it is the vaguer the tolerances are with any sort of engineering materials I've used

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Agreed, but at £20 it was not bargain basement. Aluminium extrusions are usually manufactured to quite tight tolerances. Maybe this one is hand made.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

That is indeed a wide tolerance.