have Q. about ree-bar

[penetrating welder]

Im building 20ft fixed ladders and using reebar as rungs and have had a couple break,any advice would be helpful.

[aametalmaster]

If you are building them where OSHA would be involved remember the rungs have to be 3/4" dia minimum. Are you poking the rungs thru the sidebars? What's breaking on them? One other thing, ladders 20' and higher need saftey cages on them...Bob

[Iron man]

Reebar is made from different types of steel, meaning you may have some that has higher carbon and could be hardenable but some may not. so if you have some with high carbon the heat from welding could be making it to hard and brittle. I would recomend using somthing else.

[penetrating welder]

ladders

The ladders are built out of 2.5in-.25 flat bar and .75 reebar with holes punched thru the flat bar. The ladders are 18in wide and I cut the reebar at 18in and weld from the outside. I`m thinking i`ll start cuting a .25in longer so it will stick out a little and get more weld on it and weld on the inside.They are osha invoved, the are for a boiler co.I also build the safety cages and give all a coat of yellow paint.

[Goodhand]

The ladders are built out of 2.5in-.25 flat bar and .75 reebar with holes punched thru the flat bar. The ladders are 18in wide and I cut the reebar at 18in and weld from the outside. I`m thinking i`ll start cuting a .25in longer so it will stick out a little and get more weld on it and weld on the inside.They are osha invoved, the are for a boiler co.I also build the safety cages and give all a coat of yellow paint.

Where does the rebar break? Does it pull away from the sides at the welds?

[penetrating welder]

The weld is staying together the reebar pulls out of the flatbar. Any suggestion how to make it stronger.

[Blondie_486]

The weld is staying together the reebar pulls out of the flatbar. Any suggestion how to make it stronger.

Rebar is usually made of recycled material so uniformity is out the window as far as alloy content is concerned. I realize that it's inexpensive as compared to hot rolled bar stock but I'd recommend using hot rolled bar stock instead of the rebar and cut the rungs 1/2 inch longer than the outer width of the ladder dimension so you will have 1/4 inch sticking out each side, this will allow you enough material to put a nice bead around the rung. We make ladders like this at my shop quite often and we use 2 1/2" x 3/8" hot rolled bar stock for the sides and 3/4" or 1" hot rolled round bar for the rungs and unless the customer specifies welded both sides of the flat bar we generally only weld the outside of the rungs.

Hope this helps
Blondie

[monte55]

Remember............reBar.....does not mean going back to the bar after you have made an a$$ of yourself

[glockdoc]

There are different grades/psi strengths of rebar. They are usually marked with their psi rating. The higher grades seem to be more weldable.

[weldingman251]

i like blondies idea the best