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Up Topic Welding Industry / Welding Fundamentals / WHY handrails are fabricated in a flat position
- - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 11-21-2015 01:32
I recently encountered a shop that has been " in the business for as long as I roughly 25yrs+".  These guys still stick build thier handrails in POSITION.   Well to make a long story short there is good reason people lay them out on floors or large flat tables.

If you know pitch and elevation it is a simple mater to transfer that to soapstone lines on the floor or table and if you wish weld down clips for stops.  It is way WAY WAY easier to line up a top and bottom stringer when it is laying down on something .....the advantage of that is you can be accurate.  Accuracy means you are not cutting different length pickets on a tapered run....if you get the run off by even a 1/16 over 8 foot it creates lots of issues cutting parts.  If your gonna mass produce sections by all means build a jig...take your time to ensure repeatable reliable results.  For one offs or small runs just LAY IT OUT IN SOAPSTONE and then double check...on the floor or on your large table.  Stick building is for fooking amatures.   (these guys spent over 6 days to build a simple stair stringer and landing with picketed handrails....it was only 8ft stringers and a 5 ft landing),  Three guys almost 7 days....i can do the same in two long days by myself.

Take your time to look at your prints and lay everything out before you cut anything...double check yourself.  Old adage measure twice, cut once.
Carry on
Tommy
Parent - - By SCOTTN (***) Date 12-03-2015 12:30
Sounds like their gene pool is shallow.
Parent - By Dualie (***) Date 12-04-2015 06:22
I do the same thing under the words time and material.   You can lead a project manager to water but you cant make them think.    IF I built every rail like that id be broke within the week.   IF the project manager needs it done ASAP and wants it done on sight to save time then so be it. 

that's about the ONLY reason to be hacking up full guard rails in the field.      IM stuck in a couple thousand feet of handrail hell right now,   Longest piece is 12' between bends.     luckily there's alot of repetition but there's enough variation to require most of them be left long and whacked and welded in the field.  

Built 450' of 3 line rail in place on a deck around a party tent for the Americas cup yacht race.   in 2 days,  the rail was only going to be up for 2 weeks then the whole thing was getting torn down and thrown in a dumpster.     Damnit if that rail didnt come out nicer than anything i built in the shop in years.     I been bidding red iron left and right but here i am in hand rail hell...
Up Topic Welding Industry / Welding Fundamentals / WHY handrails are fabricated in a flat position

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