I need to build a rack 16 foot long by 7 foot wide with 7 shelves. I want to build it out of square metal tubing welded together On each shelf there will be a 3000 lb fixture that is as long and wide as the shelf so the weight is decided along the shelf. My question is how to determine the size of tubing and wall thickness.
Thanks
Samuel
Sounds dangerous but, first determine if the floor can handle the load. If you have two 1 foot wide, seven foot long supports at the base and 21,000 lbs supported by them that's 1500 lbs/sq.ft if you obtain perfect load distribution (which you won't). Once a structural engineer signs off on the building you might want to start looking at 'I' beams.
At 1500 lbs/sq.ft I hope this rack is sitting on top of a cement slab on top of the ground like his garage.
Having the inside dimensions (ID) and the outside dimensions (OD) will allow you to figure out the wall thickness on tubing. You would need to subtract the ID from the OD and then divide by two. This number is the wall thickness.
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