Wood and Metal - An Experiment

dallasg

dallasg

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So while deciding to build my stand out of wood or steel, i did some experiments at work.

I took various wood pallets, some strong, some thing wood and loaded each with 1000kg concrete block, we moved them with forklifts, placed them on top of each other, placed some on the strong supported sections, and some on the weakest parts
and 10 days later the wood is fine. we wet some yesterday to see if we could weaken them and this morning they are still strong

IMG_1437.jpg


IMG_1438.jpg
 
Wooden pallets can easly carry 1 ton. When we get A4 paper in from the mills, they come in 1ton per pallet and we stack them 3 pallets high. So the bottom pallet is carrying 3 tons

The magic is in the evenly dispersed weight at the bottom
 
If memory serves me right they were going to build a 16 story wooden building in Norway.

So yes wood is strong stuff
 
i know its all about the load-bearing, but i used various designs, the pallet under the green pallet on the 1st pic is so badly made, i am surprised it carries itself

also i used a forklift to suspend them so the legs werent used and just 8 strips of 1000x100x20mm wood held hem

this is by no means a proper experiment
 
Cool experiment, however the other key factor here is durability against water and especially salt water.

Lets not forget humidity within a cabinet or enclosure, humidity can cause all sorts of issues with the condensation and heat feeding all kinds of problems.

I recently bought a second hand steel stand and sanded it down, repainted it with 2 coats of hammerite. After roughly 4-5 hours of back breaking work Im sitting back covered in dust and splattering`s of paint admiring my skills and my wife walks past and asks "So how do you know if its rusting from the inside?"

DOH!!! now that's all I can think of!
 
arggg Im busy in the same process @Nemeziz_za now that got me worried aswell. But Im thinking not much moisture can get into the frame, so there will be rust but I think it is so slight one doesnt need to be overly concerned about it

Wood like steel has it weakness its how one decides to protect these materials with sealents
 
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Nemeziz_za said:
"So how do you know if its rusting from the inside?"
Click to expand...
lol, yeah.

need to galvanize it....

Anyway wood is strong, especially colder regions. Trees like our soft pine grows to be matured and chopped down in South Africa when they are about 10 years old. In Norway they take up to 80 years. So the grain is a lot finer.

The issue with especially South African wood is moisture.
 
Wood is very very strong, but one needs to take care because it has weaknesses depending on the plane you stress it.

Compressing it across the grain only makes it stronger, compressing it along the grain makes it split.
 
Dillan said:
As its Friday I will do a wood experiment as well and we all should its almost lunch time ......light a braai and use wood not metal
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My office braai is gas :)
 
With all this being said, I hope you haven't cancelled your stand @dallasg?:whistling:
 
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Not a chance
 
Nemeziz_za said:
Cool experiment, however the other key factor here is durability against water and especially salt water.

Lets not forget humidity within a cabinet or enclosure, humidity can cause all sorts of issues with the condensation and heat feeding all kinds of problems.

I recently bought a second hand steel stand and sanded it down, repainted it with 2 coats of hammerite. After roughly 4-5 hours of back breaking work Im sitting back covered in dust and splattering`s of paint admiring my skills and my wife walks past and asks "So how do you know if its rusting from the inside?"

DOH!!! now that's all I can think of!
Click to expand...

Now that you have painted the outside galvanizing is out of the question. If you have open sections on the frame you can pour Hammerite into the frame and slowly turn it round and round and end over end to control the flow and (hopefully) cover all of the inside surfaces. Works best if you block all holes with tape. Expensive and not full proof but makes me feel better.
 
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