Railing

admin

I want to put a railing out by my fire pit.  I have three designs, all of which are based on Islamic patterns. (See attached).  But I have a few questions.The drawings show the frame as 1.5" sq tube (IIRC). Many on here say to stay away from tube for railings. What should I use then? I'm thinking 2" flat bar maybe 3/16"-1/4" thick.The interior (designs) were originally gonna be 3/4"x1/8" flat bar. Now I wonder if that is big enough. I don't want it to be dainty, but I also don't want it to be comically big. Looking for the right scale. Railing is gonna be about 12.5 ft long. Any opinions/advice on this?The original plan as seen in the drawing was the curved petal shape, but I've decided on the bent bone shape laid out in a diagonal pattern. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to behave in the Onshape drawing like the other design, but hopefully you get the idea.


Edit: Thanks in advance for any input! I'm still extremely amateur at welding.Last edited by tiggen; 1 Day Ago at 07:32 PM.
Reply:Tubing isn't the worst thing to use, if you drill/grind weep holes on the lower side of the stuff at either end.  Allowing the water to drain out, makes up for any faulty non-waterproof welds made during the fab process.   It's good insurance.
Reply:Tubing is fine.  Not sure who “many” is, but not many use solid 1.5 inch.   100 percent of all tubing failures I have repaired are result of water infiltration due to easily traceable careless sealing of holes or weld porosity.  Water will win,  it is patient.  Flat bar at 1/4 will be difficult to keep from warping and be flexxy over long distance,  channel works and the right combo will give a cap for the tubing,  Are you fabricating the infill or having it burned?  Thickness will be dictated by size of the pattern and frequency.  Also if you are Fabbing the infill them making the bends must be considered.  For 1/4 thick at 3/4 or smaller thickness I would bend cold.  Or 1/2 inch square and smaller I would bend cold.Good luck
Reply:Nothing wrong at all with tube . Just do it correctly . Everything we do is either ally or stainless , so we do not need drainage for the same reasons as steel .I tend to consider steel as not the ideal medium for balustrading . Very few steel balustrades in Australia .Looks wise I would go a 2x1 Rectangular frame before 1.5 square and stay away from flat bar , too much chance of defection , with no real advantages .In steel a bit over 6 ft span between legs should be ok with the bracing the infill gives .Would consider 2 over 1 intermediate legs as the infill may cut more economically out of available sheet sizes .Last edited by Brett; 9 Hours Ago at 05:56 PM.A good guess is better than a bad measurement
Reply:You could use bar channel. You wouldn't have to worry about internal corrosion and you wouldn't have the deflection issues of flat bar