Newb out on a limb: railroad track?

[eastcoastcrust]

Hi everyone,

So im about as green as they come to this hobby, but am looking to get started this fall. It appears that the most expensive part of this hobby is the material cost for steel for building the ski press.

I quoted I beam from several steel yards and gather the price for steel anywhere is generally $1/lb, and gather the average price for metal for a single press to be well over $1000.

Now I live just outside Boston MA, where I pass by the MBTA commuter rail maintenence yards every day on the subway. And lo and behold: hundreds of thousands of railroad track steel strewn everywhere as if they were as common/cheap as 2x4 lumber.

Ill get to the point: Although its not I beam, what are your opinions of using railroad track steel, track section joiner plates, and typical grade 8 hardware? Im not a welder myself and all the press designs i've seen so far use heavy duty nuts and bolts to hold them all together.

Ive also checked out the box stock and angle iron "cage" press which looks promising. After heeding to the strongly advised caution about the tremendous forces at work, I'd personally rather stick with the bigger is better mentality.

Im curious to know if anyones thought about this or considered it.Or if this is too far out of line, just say so.

[switzch]

It bet railway ties would work as long as you could get enough and they had a flat section that could be used to make the cavity section of the press.. You would need some c channel or something welded to keep it in place.

[cainguy]

Railway track is made from manganese steel. It is tough and work hardens with use.

If youve ever noticed the machines once in a while that run down the tracks very slowly with steam pouring out are annealing the track after much use as the track will crack and break if this process isn't carried out from time to time.

I can get used steel for $.45/lb and new for $.65/lb in my area so I suggest looking further and finding something more friendly to drilling or welding.

[twizzstyle]

I don't think rail has a tall enough cross section to make it carry much load without a lot of deflection. You'd have to do the math to compare. Look up simple beam bending equations, and approximate the moment of inertia of a train rail cross section, compare that to some I beams.

[cainguy]

Even if thre were multiple supports along the frame, as some have done, to reduce deflection of their "beams", the danger of using that material is too great.
A railroad track section is like this a big spring....always moving under pressure (work hardening)....with catostrophic results when it fails.

JT