Born_Annoyed
Well-known member
Any issues with it when it rains? Oh and nice job, looks real good!
The Little Welder That Could... (easily get carried up to the roof)
- Thread starter Jack Olsen
- Start date
Very cool Jack!! (excuse the pun) I have been trying to come up with what you have already done....Thank you. May I steal your design? I have been loking at those canopies at homie depot and blowe's, and even some greenhouse struture designs, but yours is so simple and elegant. And I like how it's so easily removable. Keep the innovating....
-Tony
-Tony
terabyte
Well-known member
I'm guessing from your profile you are in Florida. Unlike here in Hurricane alley it rarely rains in Southern California ... it might be a few months before he can answer that
OP
Yeah, the way the seasons work out here, it's possible we might not get rain until something like January of next year. Of course, then it'll be three or four inches in a day.
The black version of this shade fabric that I used to have stapled to the undersides of the beams stopped a surprising amount of rain -- it ran in channels to a low spot and then dripped through where it found an irregularity in the weave. But those pieces were more or less flat. I'm expecting that this new shape will divert a lot of the rain to either side. It'll be interesting to see how much comes through.
With wind, I'll also be curious to see how this structure does. It seems as though it's in a very protected spot. I think if I had this out where it would be exposed to side winds I'd have to secure it in a different way. If you think of it as a 350 square foot sail (or something like a 250 square foot sail, if 30% of the air is passing through), then it's still going to have a fair amount of pull if it's getting hit with a strong breeze. The way I did it with clips will allow it to pull loose before it tears. But I can only wait and see to find out how much of a wind will be enough (in this position) to pull it loose and send me back to the drawing board.
The black version of this shade fabric that I used to have stapled to the undersides of the beams stopped a surprising amount of rain -- it ran in channels to a low spot and then dripped through where it found an irregularity in the weave. But those pieces were more or less flat. I'm expecting that this new shape will divert a lot of the rain to either side. It'll be interesting to see how much comes through.
With wind, I'll also be curious to see how this structure does. It seems as though it's in a very protected spot. I think if I had this out where it would be exposed to side winds I'd have to secure it in a different way. If you think of it as a 350 square foot sail (or something like a 250 square foot sail, if 30% of the air is passing through), then it's still going to have a fair amount of pull if it's getting hit with a strong breeze. The way I did it with clips will allow it to pull loose before it tears. But I can only wait and see to find out how much of a wind will be enough (in this position) to pull it loose and send me back to the drawing board.
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terabyte
Well-known member
jack how is this holding up. has the wind made your mechanism to hold the fabric "give" yet?
OP
No issues at all so far. But I'm still waiting for high winds or a rainstorm to test it.
terabyte
Well-known member
I just had an offer I made on a house accepted yesterday and I plan on doing something very similar in this part of the house.
here is the view
My house has a patio area that partially covered by roof and partially covered by open beams. My wife and I like it a lot, except that we recently got concerned about our two-year-old playing there during the day -- we didn't like him out in the direct sunlight that much. So I tacked up some shade fabric to the underside of the beams. It wasn't pretty, but it filtered the sun.
There's no such thing as snow load, here. And the area above the patio is pretty well protected from the wind. So I decided to try curving some lengths of steel to make a new structure to support some lighter-colored sun shade that would sit up higher than the beams and hopefully have less of a claustrophobic effect.
Making the ribs was pretty simple. I used my Millermatic 211 to weld the legs and base pieces to steel I bent with a roll bender.
Here the pieces are, ready for paint.
Here they are held in place with clamps. You can see christmas lights (pushed aside, in some places) we use to light the deck at night.
The trick was that I needed to weld perpendicular end pieces to the frame (and one in the center) to add some strength to the very light structure. Pulling the welder and the tank up on the roof was out of the question, and my lead wouldn't reach that high. So I figured I would just tote the 75-pound welder up and run flux core wire.
Still, the thing weighs 75 pounds.
Except this morning I remembered that I bought a Harbor Freight stick welder a couple of years back. It's 110v, 80 amps, and welds DC. I have 5/64 6013 rods for it that I've never used.
I've never stick welded at all.
But the thing only weighs 8 pounds. And it was over 90 degrees today.
So I decided to teach myself stick.
These welds aren't what I would consider structural. If they all failed simultaneously, the shade fabric would still stay in place, and it would also hold up the piece that broke loose. So I'm comfortable with the amateur stick welds I did this afternoon:
But here's a small vote for occasional use of a machine that cost me about $80 on sale. Its low weight and small size don't give it any real advantage in the shop. But climbing up and down a ladder, it's a lot nicer to haul 8 pounds than 75. Plus, the thing is smaller than a welding helmet. It made my work a lot easier today.
I'm going to do the other side in a few days -- hopefully the temps will drop. I'll post some pictures when it's done.
What was the material that you used?
Thanks,
Gary
Born_Annoyed
Well-known member
I see lot's of potential like a screen room or a wrap around pergula, covered like jack's but to SW Florida winds and rain standards.
Greetings from Palm Beach County...
filtered
Well-known member
I own a top for my Suzuki Samurai that is made of shade cloth. It runs from the top of the windshield all the way to the back. I run it 75mph down the highway. So if it's secured in place well enough it will take large gusts of wind without issue. I can't tell you how the stuff reacts in rain however. I prefer to keep my **** dry and use the full top.