@$%* Welding magenets

Don, I'm curious about the design of your brackets -- are you welding in a triangular brace? If not, it sounds like you might have an awful lot of force acting on the small area where the rebar is re-welded to itself. Please note that I'm no expert (I thought I'd point that out before someone else did :), but if your horizontal support is very long at all, I would be worried about the amount of leverage those 20' steel pieces will be exerting against that one weld (especially with just 4 brackets over 20'). Also, even if you weld in a triangular brace, I wonder if you need to be concerned about the support twisting under the load -- if it starts to twist to the side, it could again exert an awful lot of leverage against that 2" that is welded to your 20" uprights.

About six months ago I made some brackets to support some steel; for what it's worth, here's my design: I used some 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" x 1/8" angle iron for the horizontal piece (16" long) and for the triangular brace (14" long), and 1/4" x 1-1/2" bar (14" long) for the upright. The horizontal piece is positioned like a V (i.e., with the point down), and one end is welded to the flat upright. The triangular brace is cut at an angle that allows it to "cup" perfectly around the horizontal piece. This not only provides a lot of area to weld, but also provide support for the triangular shape of the V. (I don't know how much support, or how important that is ... but just in case.) The other end of the triangular brace is cut at the proper angle to fit snugly against the upright; once again this provides plenty of area to weld, but also both the horizontal piece and the brace provide a fairly wide "stance" to help prevent the bracket from twisting under load. I also used four brackets, but I am storing my steel in 10' sections, so the four brackets are spaced 32" apart; each bracket is secured with three lagbolts to the studs. One unexpected benefit of the design is that I can store round stock and narrow bar stock in the triangle formed by the brace. So far these brackets seem to be plenty strong ... although I am paranoid enough to keep checking them regularly just in case. I am more worried about the lagbolts failing than I am about the brackets themselves failing ... but in either case I don't want a couple of hundred pounds of steel falling down on me!

Once again, I'm no expert -- your design may be more than adequate, and mine may be lousy! -- but perhaps someone who *is* an expert will weigh in and set us both straight!

"Don D." wrote in message news:PbQvd.4839$Sq.2158@fed1read01...

I just tried to send pic's and info on what I am doing. I do not know if this sight excepts pic's... How could I show you all what I did? Don D.

What site?

Go to

and upload them to the dropbox. Click on the "Using the dropbox" link to find out how.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

Well, I sent it over. I should be under "wall mounted steel rack" with 2 pic's I ended up sending it twice. I forgot the name the pic's.

***Incase it does not get there, I also have it as "wall mount rack.txt and the pic's are DS00352 & 353

Sorry for being a dumb @%$ . First time using the metalworking site. I been looking at everything though in the past. I will try to do better in the future

Don D.

Sorry for laying the pic's sideways, but that was the best way to get the whole thing close enough. The pic's are "wall mount steel rack 1 & 2" / text is "wall mount rack.txt" unless I can get it changed to match the pic's

Don D.

Nothing to apologize for. :-)

Looks good but I agree with what someone else said... I'd add a gusset under each bar, just in case.

I don't know how much stock you plan to put on that rack but sooner or later you'll probably load it up pretty well. Just for kicks, you might want to go to this site and find out what the metal you plan to put on that rack weighs:

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

Hey, a first time for everything!

But now for some comments: (which is where you started) Metalworking:

-Your welds look fine

-I get real nervous about using rebar, the carbon content can be all over the map depending on where you get it. the higher the carbon, the more chance you will get a brittle weld. Next time, try and use some hot rolled bar stock. More $$ but safer.

-As others said, I'd add a gusset, especially on the lowest one. For that one, you are going to have to add it on the top side and reduce your capacity a bit but oh well.

-I'd drill another mounting hole a couple inches ABOVE the highest rack. The way you have it, load on the upper bracket will just bend the mounting bar flat stock. Much better to put a tension load on the mounting bolt.

Dropbox:

-Your pictures are huge. With broadband it doesn't make much difference but the dialup guys will need a minute and a half to load each pix. Set your camera or whatever for 800x600 pixels max, turn the .jpg compression up some to compress the pix. Try for around 75kb.

-Always include a ruler or scale in the pix so we can see the relative size.

-text and pix should have the same name (you already knew that)

Not bad for a first time on the welding and the dropbox. Keep it up.

cheers.

D> Sorry for laying the pic's sideways, but that was the best way to get the

I only keep 2 -3 pieces of each in my stock at this time being that my wife does not like to see my mess and also the welding shop is down the road and I stop by most every week to shoot the breeze. This is mostly for weekends when they are closed and I do need something.

When we move out in the country I will build a bigger and better rack to accommodate a lot more.

Right now I just keep a couple lengths of each: 1 1/2 X 1/8 angle, 1 1/2 X

1/4 flat, 1/2, 1" X 1/8 sq tube and 1 1/2 X 1" X 1/8. The rest is scrap lengths that I have I will be making a bin for on the ground like the wood storage bins that organize the lengths from 2' to 5'. When I weld it up I will drop you a line to show you what I did.

As of now the lengths listed above are all on that cheep water hose hanger X 3 that you buy in a hardware store. One is giving out now after my wife dropped one of the lengths of the hanger to hard, I watch it every week to make sure the load has not fallen. I will separate this out now on this one I made so I do know what I have.. I will also consider what you said about the gusset for the heaver loads as I buy more.. Thanks for your input. Don D.