How about a little metal surgery...

[admweld]

Not bad looks good from my views.

[Daniel]

Thank you.

[Eric Carroll]

Eric Carroll, The answer is yes.

Strengthening the top and bottom flange of the boom is stronger than reinforcing the sides, unless your trying to reinforce the boom to increase its capacity on a side swing.

Its not that fish plating the sides would'nt offer any added strength because it would.

But Lb. for Lb. you get more strength for the same amount of material used when adding it to the top and bottom.

The reason I question this is it is alot harder to bend a flat bar on edge than it is to bend one laying flat. In rolling bending terminology it is refered to as hard way or easy way. Take a 4' piece of 1/4"x 1", you can bend it the flat way with your hands, try that on edge-no way. Please dont think Im trying to prove anyone wrong, its just that I have rolled and bent tons of steel, and made lots of fish plates for booms, trailers,LVL beams and they have all been stressed the "hard way".

[FabTech]

Daniel, what is that blue stand? Is it an electric box? Thanks

[Daniel]

Yes, It's got a long extension cord and a heavy base.

[FabTech]

I’m trying to come up with a portable extension cord rack, your stands a great idea, nice height

[JSFAB]

The reason I question this is it is alot harder to bend a flat bar on edge than it is to bend one laying flat. In rolling bending terminology it is refered to as hard way or easy way. Take a 4' piece of 1/4"x 1", you can bend it the flat way with your hands, try that on edge-no way. Please dont think Im trying to prove anyone wrong, its just that I have rolled and bent tons of steel, and made lots of fish plates for booms, trailers,LVL beams and they have all been stressed the "hard way".

True, Eric, but think of an I-beam or an H-beam. Normally, the heaviest parts are the top and bottom flanges, with the web being half or less the thickness. An engineered structure, such as a box beam on an excavator arm, is the same. Adding additional metal, will do the most good, with the least amount of metal, if you put it closest to the maximum stress, which is normally at the top and bottom.

[Sonora Iron]

True, Eric, but think of an I-beam or an H-beam. Normally, the heaviest parts are the top and bottom flanges, with the web being half or less the thickness. An engineered structure, such as a box beam on an excavator arm, is the same. Adding additional metal, will do the most good, with the least amount of metal, if you put it closest to the maximum stress, which is normally at the top and bottom.

Yes sir. Look at any load chart. Compare an S-shape to a W-shape, M-shape, or HP-shape. S-shapes come in a very distance 4th place! It is all about the flange.

[4sfed]

True, Eric, but think of an I-beam or an H-beam. Normally, the heaviest parts are the top and bottom flanges, with the web being half or less the thickness. An engineered structure, such as a box beam on an excavator arm, is the same. Adding additional metal, will do the most good, with the least amount of metal, if you put it closest to the maximum stress, which is normally at the top and bottom.

For a specific example . . . consider a piece of 1/4 x 3/4. True, it's almost 9 times as hard to bend it the "hard way" as the "easy way". Now plate it on both sides . . . you have a piece 3/4 square. Plate it top and bottom and you have an I beam 3/4 wide and 1-1/4 tall.

Compared to a piece of 3/4 square, the I beam is 2.4 times as hard to bend (assuming a vertical load and vertical web).

[Andy]

True, Eric, but think of an I-beam or an H-beam. Normally, the heaviest parts are the top and bottom flanges, with the web being half or less the thickness. An engineered structure, such as a box beam on an excavator arm, is the same. Adding additional metal, will do the most good, with the least amount of metal, if you put it closest to the maximum stress, which is normally at the top and bottom.

The way I think of it is the metal farther away from the neutral axis (center of bend) has more leverage to resist bending. Putting more material on the flange is only good up to a point. When you start crushing and wrinkling the web, the flanges quit working.