DIY Scaffold

[Onoff]

I could do with some. I've quite a bit of 25x25x2.5mm box section. Thinking slightly bigger CHS for the joining spigots. Make a jig etc. Thoughts? Something like this:

 

[Porkypine]

I've used those old 'slide together' modular tower things before many times, they're pretty good as long as it's just for your own use type malarkey
We made some boards to stand on out of old scaff boards, you need the diagonal brace bars, seen at the back with the short tubular ends, to keep it rigid of course.
Easy and quick to put up and take down too.

 

[Dapph2]

Could you use square tube inside the box section to make the join connectors that way you shouldn't need any cross bracing spars .

I did similar 30 odd years or more ago to get five x two foot lifts with a 6x 6 feet platform with a top safety rail set up , which I boarded over with cut to size blocked in scaffold boards climbing up inside the tower on single scaffold boards at 90 degrees to each other .
I put it on four 1 ton wheelie bin rotating castors that could be locked in direction and fully braked as I was wiring up the electrics for our mammal sheds which had a 1 in 80 polished /sealed sloping floor .

For the jig I used two 19mm construction ply sheets and timbers across my trailer to make the jig . Getting all the metal cut to plan requirements for £ 0.40p a cut & I also retained all the off cuts . Then sent the welded up frames off for hot galvanizing .

 

[gaz1]

I could do with some. I've quite a bit of 25x25x2.5mm box section. Thinking slightly bigger CHS for the joining spigots. Make a jig etc. Thoughts? Something like this:

View attachment 535499

its not worth the hassle just buy used or new

but i prefer pole scaffold even if you cut it up every 10ft and buy the joints you would be fine with them or buy 16ft poles and cut them all into 8fts for transporting and also building the clips are easy enough whilst the boards are 16ft

 

[skotl]

I've used those old 'slide together' modular tower things before many times, they're pretty good as long as it's just for your own use type malarkey
We made some boards to stand on out of old scaff boards, you need the diagonal brace bars, seen at the back with the short tubular ends, to keep it rigid of course.
Easy and quick to put up and take down too.

its not worth the hassle just buy used or new...

Agree - I hired a 4m tower a couple of weeks ago and was quite surprised at how much went into the design and also how much flex there still was despite the outriggers and diagonal braces.

My 59 year old risk appetite is far lower than my 30 year old version was - I wouldn't be clambering up home made scaffolding...

 

[Kayos]

Agree - I hired a 4m tower a couple of weeks ago and was quite surprised at how much went into the design and also how much flex there still was despite the outriggers and diagonal braces.

My 59 year old risk appetite is far lower than my 30 year old version was - I wouldn't be clambering up home made scaffolding...

Well put, I do not wished to be accused of being the health and safety police but DIY Scaffolding does not sit right with me

Each to their own, I'd ensure everything was in order before climbing

 

[Porkypine]

The versions i've used many times ( like the stuff in his illustration) were absolutely fine if put up and used with common sense, something made by oneself along the same lines would again be fine, but very much with the same caveat.
These are way less of a mission than 'proper' scaff for small jobs

 

[Monkey Harris]

Bought one on ebay
Used it
sold it for £100 more afterwards..

Tied to chimney,
chimney has now gone...

 

[Seadog]

Tied to chimney,
chimney has now gone...

Was that when the scaffolding collapsed?

 

[Porkypine]

Bought one on ebay
Used it
sold it for £100 more afterwards..

Tied to chimney,
chimney has now gone...
View attachment 535523

You are Fred Dibnah and I claim my £5....

 

[roofman]

We use our 8ft x 4ft steel tubed tower a lot, have enough to get us to almost 40ft.. We always sink 10mm eye bolts into the brickwork every 10ft and strap it in..plus we have two 16ft bars that get fixed on each corner and get wedged into the ground. Take chances myself in my home workshop but take roof access very seriously with my lads and dont cut corners in that department.

 

[RWD3M]

I've got a pile of this stuff. It's quick and simple to put up and with boards on top makes a great work platform for many different things. I do strategically position a couple of ratchet straps to it to minimise wobble, mainly from the bottom section.

Edit: This was a while ago in use for painting the new shed.

Mine is galvanised so I don't know where the pile in the photo has been!

 

[Porkypine]

I've got a pile of this stuff. It's quick and simple to put up and with boards on top makes a great work platform for many different things. I do strategically position a couple of ratchet straps to it to minimise wobble, mainly from the bottom section.

Edit: This was a while ago in use for painting the new shed.

View attachment 535527

Mine is galvanised so I don't know where the pile in the photo has been!

That looks identical to the stuff I used, galvanised as you say. it had a couple of handrail sections you could put on the top too

 

[RWD3M]

The one thing it could use is handrails. I'll need to keep a look out.

 

[awemawson]

I built my foundry building at the last place using 45 gallon drums and scaffold planks. Remarkably stable. Used some more to make a crane tower (short boards between layers) to lift the 10" x 6" rsj into place as a ridge beam which doubled as a support with a runner and block and tackle to lower the furnace into it's place below ground. Subsequently same tackle used for lowering and raising large crucibles.
Oddly the new owners don't seem to want a foundry - looking on Google Earth it's all demolised - vandles!

 

[gaz1]

here in the uk we dont use pump jack scafolding but we do use the split ladder with a board across the ladders

but you also have to remember the weight rather well just with any scafolding

as long as its fastened at the base and at select levels going higher its kinda safe

it is also based on wood 4x2s

 

[Porkypine]

Before the 1920s scaffolding was pretty much always wooden tied together with rope .. and I imagine the same likely carried on til post WW2 ?

 

[MattF]

Buy some. Why set on another project which likely won't reach completion, when you already have projects in that class? Plus there's the safety factor, as others have mentioned.

Buy what you need in order to safely & quickly do the task(s) you wish to do.