What kind of steel plate to use

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minimii

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I am planning to put a 8"x16" steel plate under a 4" lolly column, on top of concrete foundation/post. Is "A36 Steel Plate" the one I should use? Or should I use stainless steel plate? Any special treatment to the plate and bottom of the lolly column to prevent corrosion?

Thanks
 
I am planning to put a 8"x16" steel plate under a 4" lolly column, on top of concrete foundation/post. Is "A36 Steel Plate" the one I should use? Or should I use stainless steel plate? Any special treatment to the plate and bottom of the lolly column to prevent corrosion?

Thanks

Not sure what "A36" Steel is but what steel guys have recommended to me in the past is 1/4" thick steel. If you are worried about corrosion just clean up the plate and prime it with a good steel primer and you should be fine.
 
Thanks.
Here are two kind I found on web:
"ASTM A36 is used for general purpose structural, machinery parts, frames, fixtures, automotive and agricultural implements and equipment, brackets, stakes, ornamental works, forgings, base plates, gears, cams, sprockets, jigs, rings, templates, fixtures, bearing plates, tanks, bins, various parts obtained by flame cutting, and miscellaneous non-critical applications that involve mild cold bending, mild hot forming, punching, machining, and welding."

"1045 hot roll plate has a wide variety of applications. It is used for machinery parts, excellent for die forging and hot upsetting, gears, bolster plates, base plates, wear plates, brake dies etc. 1045 hot roll plate can be flame cut to various shapes for a multitude of uses, both in the hardened or annealed condition. Can be hammer forged. 1045 can be used where greater strength is required than can be obtained from the lower carbon steels. It responds to heat treatment, and a wide range of properties can be obtained. In thicker sections, partial hardening increases strength substantially, and flame or induction hardening produces a high surface hardness."
 
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Would plate aluminum be an option?
If your just looking for a leveling plate set in concrete, I wouldn't think aluminum would be an issue. If stainless is in your price range that too would be good. In the past, I've just used 1/4" cold rolled steel.
 
I could be wrong but I beleive the base plate is only needed to bolt the post in place, if you want to spread the load you would have to add gussets to hold it flat.
 
I am not engineer. but it seems to me if your 4" column has a apx 4.5x4.5 inch base that's a little over 20 square inches How much weight are you going to be putting on the footing? or is it just going on a floor? because even if you have say 3 tons of pressure that's only 300 psi. Although it is still a point load. That being said More is always better until the money runs out and I don't really install those things so I have no idea what the current best practices are. If it were me and I was concerned about it I would try and find some scrap or off cuts of 5/8 or 3/4. There is a whole mess of stuff online.
http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/articles.aspx?id=228
 
If you were using a wooden post it would most likely be a 6x6 and you would drill a hole in the concrete and install a six inch saddle and evan extreme weight conditions you might go up to 8x8 or 10 by 10, the engineers never worry about spreading the load futher than that. just pretend the concrete is 8x8 and ask what shoud I do.
 
Thanks neal and asbestos.The max weight the post is to carry is 10,000 lb. I guess I don't need the plate then.
 
A36 steel is a standard steel grade. That is fine to use. With only 10,000# is could use a standard base plate, like a 5 3/8x5 3/8x11 ga. That will spread the weight out. As someone mentioned, a good coat of metal paint will work great on the base plate. If you want to go further you can put a piece of roofing felt between the footing and the steel plate.

David
 
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