Modular steel frames

[Boondox]

In one of my past visits to our aggie fair I saw a metal frame that was bolted together as the skeleton of a small barn or animal shelter. Looked a lot like scaffolding, with 2" metal bars and little threaded tabs on which you could attach wooden siding.

What are these things called and does anyone know of a Website where I can check them out?

TIA, Pete

 

[cowboydoc]

Pete,
These guys sell them. http://www.heritagebuildings.com/

 

[Boondox]

Okay, Richard, that's one way to go. But my description sucked. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

The things I was looking for were eight feet tall and eight feet wide, made of 2" diameter steel tubing. Imagine an 8' tall ladder with "rungs" every two feet. On those rungs are little tabs with threaded holes that allow you to attach 2x4s...and on those 2x4s you nail siding. Make sense?

Pete

 

[cowboydoc]

Getting the idea Pete. Sorry can't help you with that one.

 

[Chillimau]

Miracle truss?

 

[Golfgar4]

<font color=blue>"Miracle truss?"</font color=blue>

Sounds like a ladies corset! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[MikePA]

Or something for a guy with a hernia! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[dummy]

It could have been a variation using a versatube system framing kit. [www.versatube.com] One of my friends is a dealer for these and it's pretty amazing what they can do with them, at a reasonable price too.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Peter, Peter, Peter, why in gawd's good earth would you buy such when it's nothing to make?

I've been making gates, big gates that look like they're wood and they're not, well, they are wood but there's this steel frame backbone that gives them the whatevers to stand up to anything.

You can buy sixteen and fourteen gauge two inch square tubing that's galvanized, aluminized, etc from your local fence wholesaler.

You can cut it with anything from a hacksaw to a chopsaw. Then you can take some eighth inch by two inch bar stock and cut it into three inch pieces. Drill two holes caddywampus from each other, and weld that tab where you want to pick up the wood.

Look <A target="_blank" HREF=http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/wroughtnharv/vwp?.dir=/Wood+fences+and+gates&.src=ph&.dnm=inside+view+gates+opening.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/wroughtnharv/lst%3f%26.dir=/Wood%2bfences%2band%2bgates%26.src=ph%26.view=t>at this</A>. This is a pair of powered gates. They're eight feet tall and the two of them work in harmony to close a twenty eight foot opening. They look exactly the same from either side. Each one weighs easily over a thousand pounds. In two and a half years I've had one maintenance call. It was operator error. Homeowner has umpteen patents in electronics but zilch in mechanicals.

But that gate and many others like it around here made by me use tubing and wood together. Where I'm different, besides the obvious, good looks and all, is I use the principle of having the two bys sitting inside the steel frame. That way when it comes time to covering the whole thing it's nail gun time one oh one happy days two oh two.

It would be nothing for you to build the frames on the floor of the garage. Then bolt them up on your slab. Lag in the wood to your tabs, and then nail gun or nail apron time!

Those big gates belong to a wonderful couple that's awful baptissy. As we were pushing the remote the first time watching them big puppys do their thing I asked if they were real familiar with their pastor. When they said they were I asked them to invite him over and we'd let him pretend he was Moses, parting the red cedars........../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Boondox]

Wroughtn_Harv -- Well, it was actually my hope that the cost of those panels would be so huge that the wife and I could have a discussion about getting a welder. Looking at some of your posts it's quite obvious that welding could be nearly as much fun as backhoe work!

But first I've got to find those things and price them.

Pete

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>Looking at some of your posts it's quite obvious that welding could be nearly as much fun as backhoe work!</font color=blue>

I done did enough back hoe work to know welding is much more fun./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Seriously building with steel and wood together is a snap. I don't know why so many folks got to be one way or tother and not both ways together.

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>Seriously building with steel and wood together is a snap. I don't know why so many folks got to be one way or tother and not both ways together.</font color=red>

I did not used to be that way. One of my other hobbies is boat building. Back, late in the sail, early steam era, most of the big ships were of composite construction. Not wood, and epoxy, that is common now with backyard builders, but wood, and iron, or steel. They found out that once you got over a certain size, it was hard to keep the boat from hogging[a downward curve of the keel, like a frown] With the wood, steel composite, you got the strength of the steel ribs, and frames, and the advantages of the wood planking..

 

[billfires]

Pete, one of my fellow firefighters put up a 20' x30' 4 stall horse barn out of that frame work. The dealer was from Conn. and he used lumber from a local sawmill and corrugated roof panels from Agway. It was basically a big erector set. I will get the info Wed. and post it. One of the things he liked was he could do most of it by himself.

Billfires

 

[Boondox]

Yes, that sounds like what I was looking for. Of course I hope to find it at Empire Farm Days on Thursday! Thanks!

Pete