I-beam Size

[woody99]

Need to add an I-beam inside of my workshop to

1)hold up rafters
2)lift stuff

Need it to be 18' long.

What size i-beam will I need?????????????

Thanks,

[Rat70FJ]

Well, there aren't too many variables here!! WTF are you talking about? I assume this is an existing shop? Do you have saggy rafters, ie. it's underbuilt in the first place? What kind of stuff are you lifting? I live five miles from EDH, PM me if your serious. I'm a general contractor and my specialty is framing (structure), i give free advice to good folk.

Kent

[woody99]

Originally Posted by Rat70FJ

Well, there aren't too many variables here!! WTF are you talking about? I assume this is an existing shop? Do you have saggy rafters, ie. it's underbuilt in the first place? What kind of stuff are you lifting? I live five miles from EDH, PM me if your serious. I'm a general contractor and my specialty is framing (structure), i give free advice to good folk.

Kent

Adding a 24' X 18' work area to my existing 20' X 24' garage. Slab is in, and most of the rough framing is done. The rafters are 2" X 8" X 24' and they are starting to sag a little bit. I dont have the shingles on yet, and I am planning on using the attic for storage. The I-beam would help with the sagging and be used for lifting motors, etc... If you are in the area and don't mind coming by that would be great!

[woody99]

So nobody has an I-Beam in their shop for lifting crap????????????????

[ironpig70]

we lift off the 2x4 rafters

[woody99]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

we lift off the 2x4 rafters

2X4 rafters

my new workshop/garage are 2X8X24' and wouldn't trust them for shiat!!!

[Getsome]

What about useing a inverted "C" shape I-beam bolted to the floor for lifting heavy stuff?

[Sundowner]

how about you tell us what the beam is supporting deadload wise in the form of a roof or second floor area, walls, what you intend to lift from the beam, etc.

I could just tell you to go out and buy a W36x230, but you wouldn't want to pay for it!

[Toploader]

I talked with a super on one of my jobs once about I beam for a garage header/hoist mounting. And he said for a span of 20-25 feet that 6" would do fine. I would go bigger though. Im in the same situation your in with a addition to my shop of 12X42 making my "new" shop 24WX42L and will use some steel channel to support the roof(just corrugated metal), but for lifting im going to build a mobile hoist like the ones in wrecking yards that will fit inside the shop. Or I would have to put in a 12" I-beam for my junk because everything I tend to need to lift is extremely heavy(500+lbs). I would go as big as possible and play it safe. Put in some steel posts on either side as well to help support the I beam and load and you should be good to go. Do you have room for some angled supports? This would help support and decrease the span a bit and you could minimize the size if you needed to.

[woody99]

These are nice, but 1600 bones!

[Toploader]

Yep, thats the ticket. But im building my own. I wanted to do the I beam trick in the shop like you, but I need something that can go outside as well as most of the heavy junk is stored out of the shop.

[Rat70FJ]

Toploader,
why aren't you at work?

[rob]

Originally Posted by woody99

These are nice, but 1600 bones!

You could go with that style but use car tires so moving outside is easy.Wrecking yards sometimes have similar when it's a u-pull.

[OverThrottle]

Here is the one I made. I call it the swingset. Its made from stuff I had laying around. The pipe is old oil transport pipe. If I slap some grease on the top of the horizontal pipe the chain will slide back and forth fairly well with a load of around 600 lbs.

[woody99]

Any Engineers out there????

Went to S&K Steel yesterday and think I might have found my I-BEAM. It is 10" tall, 4 5/8" wide and 17' Long. The thickness of the I-BEAM in the center section is 5/16. Each foot weights 25.4 pounds.

I am going to set it on 4" X 4" X 1/4" square tubing on each side.

Does anybody have access to any software where they can plug in these numbers and tell me how much weight I could lift using this I-BEAM?

Thanks,

[thecj3man]

I beleive the best you can get as far a formula goes, is for deflection of the beam. Deciding how much deflection is allowed determines how much load can be placed upon it. If the I-beam is modeled as a simple beam supported at each end, with the load centered at the middle, the formula is;

Deflection= ((Load)*(Lenght)^3) / (48*(E)*(I))

Lenght should be in inches
48 is a constant
E is the modulus of elasticity for the material, 28000-30000 ksi for steel
I is the moment of inertia of the beam

From my Mechanics of Materials book by Gere, your I-beam sounds like a S10X25.4 designation. It list I as 124 inches^4

Suppose a 1/16 inch deflection is allowed at the center, then the load works out to be about 1200 pounds.

Choose how much you think is safe and work from there.

[Pavemen]

Originally Posted by thecj3man

I beleive the best you can get as far a formula goes, is for deflection of the beam. Deciding how much deflection is allowed determines how much load can be placed upon it. If the I-beam is modeled as a simple beam supported at each end, with the load centered at the middle, the formula is;

Deflection= ((Load)*(Lenght)^3) / (48*(E)*(I))

Lenght should be in inches
48 is a constant
E is the modulus of elasticity for the material, 28000-30000 ksi for steel
I is the moment of inertia of the beam

From my Mechanics of Materials book by Gere, your I-beam sounds like a S10X25.4 designation. It list I as 124 inches^4

Suppose a 1/16 inch deflection is allowed at the center, then the load works out to be about 1200 pounds.

Choose how much you think is safe and work from there.

But don't forget the distributed load from the roof deadweight, plus any live and snow/wind/quake loads.

Then he needs to consider any dynamic load from moving the load on the hoist, and any factors of safety required.

[woody99]

Originally Posted by thecj3man

I beleive the best you can get as far a formula goes, is for deflection of the beam. Deciding how much deflection is allowed determines how much load can be placed upon it. If the I-beam is modeled as a simple beam supported at each end, with the load centered at the middle, the formula is;

Deflection= ((Load)*(Lenght)^3) / (48*(E)*(I))

Lenght should be in inches
48 is a constant
E is the modulus of elasticity for the material, 28000-30000 ksi for steel
I is the moment of inertia of the beam

From my Mechanics of Materials book by Gere, your I-beam sounds like a S10X25.4 designation. It list I as 124 inches^4

Suppose a 1/16 inch deflection is allowed at the center, then the load works out to be about 1200 pounds.

Choose how much you think is safe and work from there.

Interesting. YES the beam I have in mind is a S10X25.4

So the beam is going to weight 431.8 pound!!! This is going to be fun to get it into place!!! Will probably have to weld the 4" X 4" square tubing posts with it in the air, since my garage is nearly complete.

Based on those calculations should I feel comfortable lifting a 1000 pound item with a Ball Bearing Trolley like this?



http://www.fastenal.com/web/products...ex?sku=0578632

[woody99]

Some how they managed to put the picture upside down

[NVR FNSH]

So how are you going to set the 4x4x.250 posts? I'm picturing the I-beam ~10ft off the ground supported by two 'freestanding' posts - and I'm seeing it collapse.

Brian

[woody99]

The 4 X 4 posts will be welded to the I-BEAM
---------
| |
| |
-- --

The 4 X 4 posts will be welded to a 16" X 4" plate which will be bolted directly to the 24" concrete footing.

[tv_larsen]

Originally Posted by woody99

Any Engineers out there????

Plenty, I'm sure, but if you want it engineered, you need to provide way more information.

Or do it yourself, that way you're the only one at fault if it fails.
http://efunda.com/formulae/solid_mec..._bc_simple.cfm
http://efunda.com/math/areas/IbeamIndex.cfm

I am an ME, but I wouldn't touch the problem w/o more information.

[NVR FNSH]

Originally Posted by woody99

The 4 X 4 posts will be welded to the I-BEAM
---------
| |
| |
-- --

The 4 X 4 posts will be welded to a 16" X 4" plate which will be bolted directly to the 24" concrete footing.

How is it going to be braced/triangulated? W/O running any numbers its sounds like an accident waiting to happen if the hoist starts swinging.

Brian

[woody99]

Triangulation... A good idea. I ended up using the 25.4# / ft I-beam. Weights over 400#'s.

[woody99]

Do you guys think this is enough triangulation???

The one side should be fine. The posts are 4" X 4" X 1/4". The supports are 2" X 2" X 1/4" and the plates are 6" X 12" for the supports and 12" X 12" for the posts. All 1/4"

The man door prevents me from having a support on one side.

Thanks,