I would first like to say hi to everyone on the forums and thanks for all the great info. that has been posted. I would also like to give a big thanks to the Kam's and Kelvin for the great info. on the website and putting all of this together. I have been thinking of building my own skis for awhile, but finding this website really got me going.
I have started the process of gathering materials and just had a few questions that I thought some of you might be able to help me out with. I am planning on building a press very similar to headmonkey's. I have four ten foot I-beams (8" X 8.5" / 48 lbs per foot ) . I will be spacing the upper and lower beams with two sections of the same size Beams, giving me a 17" cavity height. I will probably leave the beams 10ft so that I don't have to deal with cutting them ( I can always make them shorter latter) .
On to the questions? I was wondering on the size and number of bolts for holding the sections together. As you can probably guess, I would rather over build the press so I can play around with different pressures and not have to worry. I was thinking grade 8 bolts, eight bolting the center beams together and eight bolting the top two beams to the center, and eight bolting the bottom two to the center. As for size I was thinking 1/2" to 5/8". Any advice from the mechanical engineers? I also plan on doing a cattrack and was wondering from anyone who has done it what thickness 1X1 square tube did you use? I was thinking 16 gauge.
Those are my current questions, although I am sure there will be alot more coming. Especially when I get to figuring out the heating blankets. Thanks in advance for any help and I promise to post some pics as I get a little further along. Scott
I-Beam Press ?'s / Introduction
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
Use grade 8 bolts for sure.
I would do the bolts just like Headmonkey's, which had 8 at every connection point. So 32 total bolts.
I would have loved to use I beams, but they are so expensive. I just used 5"x5"x3/8" steel tubing. Ibeams would have been so nice to have.
Regard cat track....go with 3/4" instead of 1". I went with 1/8" tubing, but think you could probably even go with 1/16" and be ok.
I would do the bolts just like Headmonkey's, which had 8 at every connection point. So 32 total bolts.
I would have loved to use I beams, but they are so expensive. I just used 5"x5"x3/8" steel tubing. Ibeams would have been so nice to have.
Regard cat track....go with 3/4" instead of 1". I went with 1/8" tubing, but think you could probably even go with 1/16" and be ok.