F.J.
Member
- Messages
- 1,845
- Location
- Manchester
Evening all,
I finally got the stairs finished and fitted today, and I have to say I am quite proud of it.
It has been one hell of a head scratcher but I have learnt loads and would quite happily take on another in a heartbeat. Although the project manager changed his mind countless times, putting us under more and more pressure aswell as behind schedule we managed to get it fitted with two weeks until the grand opening of the station. When we started the fitting yesterday, the owner of the station (a multi millionaire) came to 'watch', and I mean watch.... he stood back and let us all struggle to get the lower half of the stairs through a meter wide door and then struggle to lift the upper stringers into place. to say the pressure was on me to get it right was an understatement as I half expected a few snags and mistakes when fitting together in a different place, and to have the gaffer watching added to it all the more. But I could've of been more impressed that it went together like a jigsaw, albeit the concrete base that was laid for it to sit on was all over the place it sat only 15mm out of plumb one way!!
I still had some work to do on the lower half of the stairs as the centre column had to have a 60mm od pip welded onto it to act as the inner sleeve for the cast iron lamp post. As the centre column stood at 1700mm and the 60mm pipe at 2100mm, I wouldn't have got it in the door if I had fitted it in my workshop. I used my Lincoln ranger for power and stick welded the top pipe to the column using multi passes, I also drilled a hole through both the lamp post and the pipe at the very top to bolt the two together. I then made a 60mm sleeve to slide over the lamp post and welded it to the top of the centre column, at the base of the lamp post to secure it at the bottom.
Probably the most trickiest job was to lift the base up to get the cable up the middle to power the light at the top, it was really stiff cable and had been joined together using...... wait for it....... bullet connectors!!!! by the project manager!!!!
Anyway here are a few pics of the final build in the workshop, the stripping down and fitting in the station. They may not be in order but I don't know how to type between each picture? If a mod can show me I will comment on each image. (when I try to edit, to add text to the pics it doesn't give me an option to type between the pics)
I finally got the stairs finished and fitted today, and I have to say I am quite proud of it.
It has been one hell of a head scratcher but I have learnt loads and would quite happily take on another in a heartbeat. Although the project manager changed his mind countless times, putting us under more and more pressure aswell as behind schedule we managed to get it fitted with two weeks until the grand opening of the station. When we started the fitting yesterday, the owner of the station (a multi millionaire) came to 'watch', and I mean watch.... he stood back and let us all struggle to get the lower half of the stairs through a meter wide door and then struggle to lift the upper stringers into place. to say the pressure was on me to get it right was an understatement as I half expected a few snags and mistakes when fitting together in a different place, and to have the gaffer watching added to it all the more. But I could've of been more impressed that it went together like a jigsaw, albeit the concrete base that was laid for it to sit on was all over the place it sat only 15mm out of plumb one way!!
I still had some work to do on the lower half of the stairs as the centre column had to have a 60mm od pip welded onto it to act as the inner sleeve for the cast iron lamp post. As the centre column stood at 1700mm and the 60mm pipe at 2100mm, I wouldn't have got it in the door if I had fitted it in my workshop. I used my Lincoln ranger for power and stick welded the top pipe to the column using multi passes, I also drilled a hole through both the lamp post and the pipe at the very top to bolt the two together. I then made a 60mm sleeve to slide over the lamp post and welded it to the top of the centre column, at the base of the lamp post to secure it at the bottom.
Probably the most trickiest job was to lift the base up to get the cable up the middle to power the light at the top, it was really stiff cable and had been joined together using...... wait for it....... bullet connectors!!!! by the project manager!!!!
Anyway here are a few pics of the final build in the workshop, the stripping down and fitting in the station. They may not be in order but I don't know how to type between each picture? If a mod can show me I will comment on each image. (when I try to edit, to add text to the pics it doesn't give me an option to type between the pics)
-
photo 16.JPG120.5 KB · Views: 52
-
photo 17.JPG158.5 KB · Views: 51
-
photo 18.JPG168 KB · Views: 54
-
photo 19.JPG154.4 KB · Views: 56
-
photo 20.JPG156.3 KB · Views: 53
-
photo 21.JPG98.2 KB · Views: 49
-
photo 22.JPG99.1 KB · Views: 50
-
photo 23.JPG107.3 KB · Views: 54
-
photo 24.JPG89.5 KB · Views: 56
-
photo 25.JPG112 KB · Views: 47