[tlb]

How do you picture them rolling a piece of steel 50 meters wide? As far as I know, the widest rolling mills in existence are 5 meters wide.

[rout39574]

Think of it like a paper towel tube. It's a spiral.

Single helical weld.

[tlb]

Spiral tube are a bad choice for a rocket. Because rolled steel has the grains largely aligned with the direction of rolling, it is stiffer and has less thermal expansion in one axis than the other. Large forces and temperature changes therefore cause a twisting motion, which can put weird strains on the internal components.

[hinkley]

Pillsbury rolls come to mind. The tube is under pressure from the leavening agent, and you apply torsion on the tub until the can ruptures along the spiral seam.

[ryanmarsh]

That would not go over well with the occupants.

[hinkley]

I recall the rolls scaring the shit out of a fair number of people and those were with the promise of warm, flaky goodness, not hot, fiery death.

This of course matters if the seam is weaker than the rest of the metal.

I've been assured time and again that you can make welds that are stronger than the rest of the metal, but my lizard brain thinks they're all liars.

[mlindner]

They said they would do butt welds, not spiral.

[bitcurious]

Just curious - what industry are you in that you know off of the top of your head the max size of rolled steel?

[londons_explore]

Nearly anyone who buys sheets of rolled steel eventually finds they can't buy a sheet bigger than a certain size...

Same exists for most goods - try to buy a dustsheet to cover your room, and you can't buy one wider than 5 meters without a seam