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How thick must this wooden dowel be to handle this torque?

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HumanPoweredDesigner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
1,030
Location
Arizona
I'm working with basswood, which has a compression yeild stength of 4400 psi, tensile of 8400 psi, and not sure the shear, but guessing 4000 psi. Those are parallel to the grain. I want to use a dowel as a drive shaft. One must be 4 feet long and handle at least 80 foot pounds of torque, and the other 6 feet long and handle 20 foot pounds of torque.

I'm wondering if a 1" dowel would be strong enough for the first, and a half inch for the second. I'm ok at calculating truss strength and bends, but I'm not sure how to apply the torque thing. I know that circularly, some of the force is parallel and some perpendicular to the grain. I think perpendicular those shear strengths and tensiles drop to 250-400 psi.

I can attach some thick arms to the side of a short dowl and see how much torque it can take, but I'd like a ball park figure before I try 3 different sizes. Thanks in advance.
 
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