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I am designing a bench made out of a 2" x 2" aluminum square tube frame with wood slats/decking across the top. I was wondering if I could get away with 14ga or does it need to be 11ga? It wiil have support legs every 3' or so.Sorry, a little new to this, hopefully that's enough information, it's an odd shaped bench. Thanks!
Reply:If you were to really kick a leg of the lighter gauge material very hard, it will bend like it was made of putty. But for support you could not tell the difference. Over a three foot span, if you were to jump on it with 200 plus pounds, it might warp a bit. It depends on the design though, if you braced the bottom of the leg to the center of the bench span it would be mighty tough. The back of the bench might be tougher to design or reinforce. Can you bend shapes out of the tubing? With arches you can gain strength.Sincerely, William McCormickIf I wasn't so.....crazy, I wouldn't try to act normal, and you would be afraid.
Reply:Actually I build many commercial benches using 2X material and you can span it 5' or a little more and they are plenty strong, it's not like a deck or stairs. Google Thomas mfg, or Kay park for exaamples of commercial benches. As far as the 14 ga question, it should be fine, I would go 1/8" only to give fastners more bite. Design it big enough for the all American butt, many of my first designs were to small. Go to a park with a fat lady and a tape measure. I also tilt them back 15 degrees. Included are pics of one of my bench frames and a 8' commercial table showing a 5'-6' span. I use custom milled 3x12, but the competition make the same design with 2"x12".
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Reply:Here is a bench frame with 2x10 at 4' span. With 2x12 i could go 5'. These would have to be mounted in concrete or braced for lateral support. This is bent 2" sch 40 pipe. Wood is attached with 5/16" floor torx decking screws.
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Last edited by blackbart; 03-11-2016 at 11:53 AM. |
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发表于 2021-9-1 23:18:33