storage pipe

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I've got an 8-foot diameter x 12-foot long corrugated steel pipe that I'm turning into a (portable) storage container.  It's 12-gauge and has an aluminized finish, so no worries welding on it like with galvanized.  I finished making a wooden cradle for it this weekend and got it pulled off the trailer onto the cradle.  Cradle is 4.5 feet wide so it'll fit between the rails on my 5x10 trailer.  I may make a steel cradle for it at some point.  The wood was quick and cheap for now and all I had to buy was the 4x4 cross bars and some fasteners (had the rest laying around).Anyway, my buddy and I got it dragged back into the dugout area next to the deck with the winch on his Jeep, so now I'm getting ready to weld a wall onto the far end (the close end is going to get a big ramp-style fold-down door).The diameter of the pipe measures 98 inches nominal so I figured I'd be able to get enough material for the end wall (~100 inch disk) out of one 5'x10' and one 4'x8' 12-gauge sheet.  The 5 foot width would go in the center and then I'd cut the two pieces to make up the remainder out of out of the 4x8 sheet.  I figured I'd do one stiffening rib out of 2 x 1/8 down the center of 5 foot width and then two more where the "remainder" pieces attach.  The one in the center would obviously just tee into the sheet, but the other two I was thinking about sandwiching between the edges of the sheets.Any thoughts/comments on the end wall fab? Attached Images
Reply:Here's a colored-in isometric of the end plate plan.  The blue is all one piece of 12-gauge sheet (5 feet wide) with a 2 x 1/8 strip tee welded to down the center of it.  The two tan pieces are more 12-gauge sheet, but they will create "sandwich" tee joints where the 2 x 1/8 stiffener strip gets sandwiched between the sheet edges to either side of it.Has anyone ever done sandwich tee joints like this?  For keeping things from warping, I was thinking of tacking the center stiffener piece to the big blue sheet and then tacking that assembly to the end of the pipe.  Then tack the other stiffeners to their respective smaller tan sheets.  And tack those assemblies to the pipe end as well as the straight edges of the blue sheet.  Then move around with full beads.Think that'll work?  The other option would be to weld all three stiffeners to the blue piece before putting that on the pipe end.  Or I could stick with the original plan, but also clamp some temporary stiffener bars to the straight edges of the blue piece.  Thoughts?P.S.  The stiffener strips will be on the outside - I was thinking about just sticking with vertical ones to avoid rain water sitting on them. Attached ImagesLast edited by dbotos; 05-09-2011 at 10:09 PM.
Reply:looks like that will work.   You should name it " the bear tap"Pound to fit, paint to match
Reply:DB, thats a great project.  I would only change the stifffners  to the inside to form a foundation for shelving and make the outside smooth to allow rain to run off and avoid puddling.   Otherwise, Killer idea.BobI'm spending my Kids inheritance, I dont like him that much anyway!!!!!!Enuff tools to do the job, enough sense to use em.Anybody got a spare set of kidneys?  Trade?
Reply:Thanks guys.  I like the idea of putting the stiffener strips on the inside for attaching stuff.  I'm planning to run some shelves down the length of the pipe on either side (the flat floor will be about 5 feet wide, so I'll have a foot and a half of depth on both sides for shelves about three feet up from the floor).  Maybe I'll put some pegboard on the inside of that end wall.
Reply:update:Well, it's been raining like crazy here for the last couple weeks so I haven't done much with the pipe.  I did get a beefy extension cord, so at least now I'll be able to reach the pipe in its current location with the MIG (thought about a generator, but the extension cord was cheaper and takes up less storage space).  Probably need to do a little more excavating around the pipe first so I have more room to work.  Might even start putting down some pavers and retaining wall (ideally, these would have been there before I put the pipe in place in the dugout area next to the deck, but that didn't quite work out.)On a related note, my wife and I are making our own pavers and retaining wall blocks for this and some other projects around the yard.  Read about some folks down in Argentina using shredded up plastic (mostly PET bottles) as aggregate mixed with Portland cement.  I made a crude "food processor"-style device out of some round ductwork, a sharpened edger blade, and an electric motor, but I think ultimately I'm going to use my wood chipper.  Only problem is that it's just a chipper and not a chipper/shredder, so it may require a few cyclings of the plastic to get it down to the right size (probably 1/4 to 3/8" - will use a screen for sizing).  The good news is that it's a pretty beefy chipper and hasn't batted an eye at any of the plastic bottles and containers I've thrown into it while testing.Back to the pipe, I'm probably going to use 16 gauge sheet on the end.  The pipe was supposed to be 16 gauge (.064"), which is what I ordered and paid for, but what they loaded up for me in Charlotte was a piece of 12 gauge (.109), which I didn't realize till I got home and was looking at it closer.  I'm not complaining since I got more pipe for the money and it should be a little more rigid, but the intent was to make something semi-portable that I could move myself.  The 16 gauge piece would have been just over 1000 pounds, but this 12 gauge piece is approaching 1800 pounds.  So, I've got to be careful that the finished product doesn't exceed the 2340-pound capacity of my trailer.  The floor will be removable and I might also make the door (or maybe the entire door end) removable.  A 100"-diameter disk made of 12 gauge would be about 250 pounds, whereas a 16 gauge disk the same size would only be about 150.
Reply:Why weld on the pipe at all?  Around here a lot of the culverts have doors for flood control already.  A metal ring surrounds the pipe and the door is hinged to that.  The ring is bolted to the culvert.
Reply:Hmm - now you've got me thinking.  Maybe I'll put doors on both ends in case I ever move it somewhere where both ends would be accessible.  I like the idea of the ends bolting on (from the inside of course, for security).  It will be a lot more aerodynamic if I can move it again as a just a tube instead of a soup can with that one end welded shut.  Need to figure out some kind of rain gutter overlap thing where the ends will bolt on...