Steel Connections


R

regme

Well-Known Member
Hi

As part of project I'm building a steel structure, I do have details for connection various steel members, but how would translate this to HO scale. I've tried to find some examples but they were do very clear.

So if anyone has close up pics that would be great.

Cheers
 
Sorry, I should have mention that I was going to use styrene beams, tubes for the bracing. Bellow is what I'm tring to do, just not sure how to go about.


del.JPG
 
Not exactly sure what you are asking here. If you have details in styrene, are they not already in HO scale?
Seems to me that cyanoacrylate glue could be your friend here.
 
I’m thinking you mean how to secure the horizontal blue beams to the yellow vertical beams, in which case I’d use small styrene angle iron shapes glued in the joint.
Interesting looking structure!
 
That depends on what era we are talking about , by 1950 arc weld becomes more common , in the 30s they would use riveting more . Selection of the beam sizes is also important , if the beams are all of the same size joining becomes difficult , for this application I would use either box steel pillars and connect with angle iron , or use a large I beam for the pillars so the horizontal beams can fit inside and be bolted with angle iron.

One further note rather than doing cross bracing Its usually more common to use a plate girder. stronger and cheaper to construct. The way you have it now is labor intensive.
 
Joining beams needs more than just butting the two pieces together.
In this bridge that I built, I copied the 1:1 version of the bridge and made plates that covered the joints then applied Microscale decals for the rivets.
CA glue may be good but there is a better glue for the styrene that actually melts the material together. That will form a much stronger bond and won't cause problems later on when ya paint it.




0722191511.jpg
 
So the era is 2020's, with a modern industrial theme. It's a re-fuelling shed, I thought I would start small and get some skills up before tackling something big.

So my first thoughts were to glue a small plate on the column so the beam can be glued to it, but it just will be too small for my fingers and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get it the right spot anyway. As mentioned previously using a steel angle peice is a better idea.

I could shave the ends of the beam to fit within the column was the other option.

Hence my question, maybe I should have started with this first, sorry. I can just see me gluing pieces together and not getting the square or centred.

del1.JPG



Below is what I'm going to try, cross bracing it still required on the other side, but haven't drawn it yet. I've drawn the bracing as a square but I've seen it done as round tube with a flat piece spliced and then welded to the column. It's dealling with sure small peices.

del2.JPG
 
McLeod said:
Not exactly sure what you are asking here. If you have details in styrene, are they not already in HO scale?
Seems to me that cyanoacrylate glue could be your friend here.
Click to expand...

No, don't use CA for styrene-to-styrene. Use solvent cement to weld the parts together.
 
regme said:
So my first thoughts were to glue a small plate on the column so the beam can be glued to it, but it just will be too small for my fingers and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get it the right spot anyway. As mentioned previously using a steel angle peice is a better idea.
Click to expand...

Invest in some fine tweezers.
 
I did a google image search for "steel beam connections" and got a whole bunch of detail shots of how beams are bolted together with plates and angles.

One idea I have is using I-beams instead of H-beams for the blue ones running lengthwise would allow them to fit between the flanges of the vertical posts.

Everything can be butt-welded together with styrene cement, and add on any reinforcing plates and angles to detail, and add in rivets for cosmetics if needed. (If you cover the whole thing with steel siding, you won't see these details anyway.)
 
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