Steel stand question/suggestions?

[Msolomo1]

My basement is finally finished and I'm ready to start setting up my 120. I currently have the commercially made stand for it. I would like to have a steel stand so I can have more room to work in the sump. Does anybody have a steel stand using tubing less that 2 inch square? It looks to me like most of the weight is carried at the ends and the center upright on the original? Structuraly steel should be much stronger than the osb like plywood the manufacturer uses. My father inlaw welded me up one today out of 1in square that is 1/8 thick. I don't have any money invested in this as a buddy of his owns a machine shop and he got the tubing for nothing. From the research I've done 2in is kind of overkill. Just all of the stands I keep seeing are huge and have to weigh a ton. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Just curious if anyone else has any thoughts or suggestions? Do you think this is heavy enough to safely carry the weight? I have added a couple pics of the stand.

 

[jccaclimber]

Uniformly loaded I'm coming up with that being only 20% as stiff the same stand made with 2x4s. Personally I'd call it a bit thin and at least double up the top supports so they are 2x1 instead of 1x1, but might go past that.

It's late so hopefully someone else will double check my numbers.

 

[Pife]

With no center posts I would not put my tank on it. I would also put some thick plywood on the top and back to help with twisting or atleast gusset the corners.

 

[mpgrant77]

Personal opinion. I currently am a plant engineer and work with packaging and automation. I was previously a design engineer at a large machine shop. The frame you have should hold the weight but I would worry about the deflection. The more the frame deflects under the weight the more uneven the force is transferred through the tank which leads to a stress crack, busted seam, or worse. If you are going to go steel I would use 2"x2" x.083" wall square tubing or 2"x2"x1/8" square tubing. The tubing is inexpensive and will give you a sturdy frame that will not deflect. Second. The best way to make the frame is to miter the corner of the top and bottom frame. Then weld prep the corners for a v groove weld. Then you grind the weld flat so that the top of the frame is perfectly flat. I would also use the square tubing for your legs but it should sit under the corner of the upper frame, not to the outside like the current stand is built with the steel angle. You want the tubing to support the weight not the weld. I would be more than happy to draw up a frame if you really wanted it. This is only a suggestion as I believe if you are going to go through the trouble of building a steel frame, build a robust frame that you will be happy with, not one that will break your tank.:thumbsup:

 

[Msolomo1]

I'm going to scrap this one. My original plan was to go the route you suggested mpgrant. But my father inlaw the one who built it was pretty insistant on using the 1in he was able to get to save me money. But after seeing in it just made me nervous. I have enough money invested in everything I'd rather sleep well at night and know it's sturdy. Thanks for all the input!

 

[mpgrant77]

You will be happy with that decision.