Thread: Cheap U-beams?

Depending on your use, (columns or beams), you could get some 3 or 4mm plate guillotined in suitable widths and make your own UB's. If you can restrict your flange width to 65mm, then 65x3 flat bar is a standard size in black. Obviously you would only stitch weld them together, possibly filling in the profile with either polyurethane sealant or body filler if required for aesthetic reasons.
Comparing Kg/M, your 150 UB comes in at 14Kg/M and a welded beam made from 3mm sheet would come in at 4.94Kg/M not counting welds, so there should be a fair saving there.
A good man with a jig and a suitable welder either mig or stick, (if I were stick welding, I would use a 4mm E4824 full iron powder, crank the amps and go like the clappers), will knock up such a beam in no time flat. An added advantage is that you can easily TEK screw through 3mm, whereas 6mm+ beams take some doing.

Yeah, I thought I could make some. Phew, that's a lot of welding though. I'll consider it. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Legion

Yeah, I thought I could make some. Phew, that's a lot of welding though. I'll consider it. Thanks.

Not really a lot of welding, as Karl said, stitch weld it, would take me ten maybe twenty minutes to weld it after tacking it all together with the mig for a 6 or 8 mt beam.

I was at the demolishers yard yesterday and he had a good amount of 100 x 50 x5 Channel beams there.

Check out the demolishers in your local area.They don't only carry timber,bu tall manner of goodies.

I spotted a stainless steel bench top that will fit in the welding area of my new shed.

Grahame

have you considered getting 150 x 150 RHS and cutting it lengthwise? A plasma cutter would do that really neatly and quickly.... mind you, you will stilkl end up with 150 x 75 C-sections rather than U-beams...

Originally Posted by jhovel

have you considered getting 150 x 150 RHS and cutting it lengthwise? A plasma cutter would do that really neatly and quickly.... mind you, you will stilkl end up with 150 x 75 C-sections rather than U-beams...

Not so sure that will be as successful as hoped. Every time I split rhs like that, it forms a lovely banana complete with an added spiral. A lot of internal stresses in shs and rhs. Probably easier to buy duragal channel in the desired section.
We still don't know any details about the intended usage such as spans and spacings. Hopefully we will find out some more detail and have more to go on.

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

We still don't know any details about the intended usage such as spans and spacings. Hopefully we will find out some more detail and have more to go on.

Oh, sorry Karl. Um, I was just winging it deciding on materials at this stage. The area that will be covered is maybe 9m x 5m one leg, and another maybe 5m x 3m in a large L-shaped configuration. I'd use U-beams (or whatever) for both uprights and outer frame support and also would want to put a lower frame to attach a timber deck to.

I did a bit of research and I will probably weld cleats on and use Z-purlins, 15019 or maybe 10019, with bracing, for both roof and deck. Roof will be corrugated iron. Deck will be some kind of hardwood. I may design a floating ceiling and use the roof space for storage of bulky but lightweight things that take up space in the shed.

I haven't even gotten around to designing, just wanted to get an idea of what prices would be beforehand.

If I tried to span the full 9m in one go I would need to consider proper U-beams rather than making them myself. I haven't consulted any deflection charts or anything yet and I'm not a structural engineer so I will need to carefully consider whether U-beams will be up to the task anyway before working out material requirements and costs.

Sort of like this, but I've made it about a foot high:

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There will be brick house and shed along the two long walls.

No need to apologise mate, just trying to get a handle on what you are building.
I definitely agree that a 9M span is a fairly big ask, obviously your existing timber deck has posts at far closer intervals than that, so perhaps a compromise somewhere in between the two will be the best.
I dare say your local council will have their bit of input into this one too. Assuming they know about it

I haven't even looked into regulations yet. I presume it's easier to refurbish an existing structure though ...

Yeah, I'll probably have more uprights, but at $100/post they're not cheap. But then I can have some wind break or garden features or screens etc.

Refurbishing is definitely easier.
Given that you want a semi industrial look, then the scrap dealers could well be your best friends for columns etc. The worst part of heavy steel beams is that you need to erect them somehow, often by mechanical means. Palmer Tube Mills used to make a product called "Dog Bone" which would have been ideal. It followed the basic form of a UB, but was made from 2.5 or 4.0mm grade 450 steel, rolled into a dog bone shape. Sadly, it is no longer available as far as I know.
Your biggest concern is that you don't make the nightly news when you throw a party, your deck falls down and carnage ensues.
If you're like me, that will mean that as long as your deck supports you and your dog you should be fine

If there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that I'll ridiculously over analyse and over engineer anything I make. It won't fall down. I just don't want to do as usual and spend four times what I should. Considering most patios seem to be 90 x 90 x 2.0mm shs colourbond frame with rivets etc I think I'm already heading down that path. I'll be welding joints and using 5.0mm+ when I could be using 3.0mm. Feet will be concreted in and some posts bolted to wall as well.

Deck will only be about flush to 300mm high depending on slope. I'm going to have to excavate if anything. So falling won't be a concern.

Dog bone sounds (sounded) ideal. Scrap yards might be the go, but over here scrap anything almost attracts higher prices than new. Certainly old hardwood and tiles seem to. Best bet seems to be gumtree but quantities are the problem there.

For future reference, I found a great website that contains more than enough information for my needs. I could build my whole outer frame just based on this:

http://www.steelconstruction.info/Mo...ng_connections

A design with just deck and roof, no floating ceiling, at a guess short enough spans, is worth ~$3800 of beams alone at my local steel wholesaler. That's ~130m of beams at ~$28.42/m. Once I factor in footings, timber deck, purlins, bracing, roof sheeting, welding consumables, miscellaneous, I'm sure I could double that. Much more than I want to spend. If I start chipping away it's only a few hundred dollars less at a time, mostly because of the size of the footprint. Back to the drawing board.

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