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Can shortened pallet rack verticals be re-constituted safely somehow?

Cannonmn

Stainless
Joined
Jun 25, 2016
We have some 3x3” x-sec x 42” deep frames, shortened to 8’ tall. If possible I’d like to join two of these to give 16’ height. Seems if I had a strong short piece of box beam that fit fairly tight inside with welding or whatever outside, might work. Whaddya think?
 
We just spent $5k for engineering, anchoring plan, anchoring, and inspection with the city code dept. . . . for all shelving and racking 6 feet tall and taller. This included investigation of fire sprinkler system adequacy and fireman entrapment / escape route planning.

If you were in our fair city, the answer would be not be no, it would be "HELL NO!!!!"
 
We have some 3x3” x-sec x 42” deep frames, shortened to 8’ tall. If possible I’d like to join two of these to give 16’ height. Seems if I had a strong short piece of box beam that fit fairly tight inside with welding or whatever outside, might work. Whaddya think?

Bad Idea, How much can you sell what you have, and how much to buy 16 footers, how much time to cobble together and weld, and what bad stuff happens when the joint fails. Are you a welder by trade?

CarlBoyd
 
We just spent $5k for engineering, anchoring plan, anchoring, and inspection with the city code dept. . . . for all shelving and racking 6 feet tall and taller. This included investigation of fire sprinkler system adequacy and fireman entrapment / escape route planning.

If you were in our fair city, the answer would be not be no, it would be "HELL NO!!!!"

Hi, If you know the brand of rack, contact them or the local dealer and you can order extension kits at a nominal cost. It's done all the time. Not a big deal.
 
Stuff like that is done all over the country but I wouldn't do it, craigslist has that stuff for what seems too cheap to me to take a chance at fixing some.
 
agree with the responses, this stuff is fairly small dollars used. It'd probably cost more in time and consumables to weld them.

In fabrication, if an drawing for something structural called for a 20' long section, you could never just decide to splice two 10 footers. That's basically what you're asking. The splice/connection would have to be designed, stamped and likely have backing plates etc. Whatever arguments one might have for why its strong enough.....pretend for a sec you're making them to the Coroner at the inquest.
 
If you don't trust yourself to overweld a non-critical, visible weld, don't.

If it's in your own shop and you can weld, what's the problem? The primary stress on the welds is compression.

Find out if the 16 footers are the same gauge as yours. If so, butt weld them. Clamp them in place, leave the proper gap, tack the corners, check for straightness and accurate hole spacing. Grind a tack or two out ;), retack so they're straight and weld them up. Add bracing on the ends to match what's there, put them up and use them and of course, tie the tops to something, anything if you can.

Can't help with the naysayers and the local regs. You're on your own there, but if you'd paid attention to them right along, you'd be running a hot dog cart instead :D.
 
If it's in your own shop and you can weld, what's the problem? .

I'd agree with that, if its at home/farm etc. but the "we" made me think it wasn't. We live in a regulated litigious world where, imo at least, you have think about that stuff. Even it fell over because someone drove into, you still face the evil zeal of some regulator/judge when they see the weld (who's likely never made anything or worked in a plant). This guy does not want to go to the crowbar hotel.
 
Tall pallet racks are like pianos.

Cost a fortune if you want some

Cannot get rid of it if you have it

One bay of my shop was lined with 12 foot tall racks I didn't need when I moved in, left it outside and took 6 months before someone finally took it

Course it was covered in pigeon poop, so there is that
 
We just spent $5k for engineering, anchoring plan, anchoring, and inspection with the city code dept. . . . for all shelving and racking 6 feet tall and taller. This included investigation of fire sprinkler system adequacy and fireman entrapment / escape route planning.

If you were in our fair city, the answer would be not be no, it would be "HELL NO!!!!"
Just on its face....sounds like a recipe for disaster
 








 
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