Foot support for door frame.

[88v8]

When it comes to planning my activities, I am perhaps with Malcolm. I plan what to do when I come to do it.
So, here I am needing to fix the oak garage door frame I've partially made. At the bottom it will be fixed to the concrete slab, but I now realise the metal brackets I've had made are much to flimsy to take the twist of the heavy doors I'll be hanging on it.
The brackets are made of 5/16" plate, and looked quite substantial, but they're not.
There will be two pairs of doors, one oak one softwood, both blooming heavy. The frame is oak, as I said, 5 x 4" at one end and in the middle, 4 x 3" at the other end.
What I need, I think, is something like this (at River Cottage). A sort of T section where the base fixes to the slab.



Any idea what they're called, who makes them? I would go to my local blacksmith to get them made, but he's not well atm and likely to be out of action quite a while, so if they're available off the shelf so much the better.

Ivor

 

[LadyArowana]

Look for a metal fabricator in your area. Should be no problem for a workshop to make something up to your specification if you take them a drawing. I am working on having some metal stands made for stone statues and when I met the chap he had some architectural things in process. He's in London, so no use to you. Skierhughes told me there were places near to the midlands that could easily do it if I had no luck. I was even given a sample of steel to take home :lol: not my usual shopping

 

[plasticpigeon]

Maybe a piece of T section steel with some holes drilled into it. I've also wondered if such a thing exists as I need to repair a rather heft 8" x 8" gate post which has rotted to nothing at the bottom (so I no longer have a front gate). The rest of the post is fine so I thought it might be possible to fill the hole where the old wood was with concrete, bolt a metal T cross section bracket to the floor, and cut a slot in the gate post and bolt it on. I had no luck finding anything, so I think I'm going to cast my own gate post from concrete, to match the 8" x 8" one the other side. Not much help really.

 

[malcolm]

No two frames will be the same so that sort of thing will be custom made. The material comes in strips in inch increments, the common ones being 4 inch, 5 inch and 6 inch. Width is in mm oddly and standard sizes go up in 2mm increments. Make it easy for the fab shop and they might bother to take on a little job. a clear dimensioned sketch and no guessing will be a couple of hours work to cut, drill and weld. Stainless will be a lot more expensive - materials cost more, it's a pain to cut and drill, and they need to change the wire in the machine so there will be a can't be bothered charge. Bear in mind you will have a weld fillet on the inside corners which comes out from the corner by about the same thickness as the sheet. You don't get a square edge on inside corners. Other joins can be flat if you ask for that.

What are you saying about my organisation? I'm fully equipped to make that sort of thing. I would say that is very organised.

 

[MattJ]

Something like this? Might not be strong enough for the doors though.
http://www.strongtie.co.uk/products/detail/concealed-post-base/791
These are stronger but are elevated, so not right. Might be worth a call to them.
http://www.strongtie.co.uk/products/detail/heavy-duty-post-base/115

There are others. Google "site:uk heavy duty concealed post base"
Matt

 

[Spoilt Victorian Child]

More pictures of the cat, please.

 

[88v8]

Thankyou.
Been away a couple of days at a car rally in Lincs.
I'll follow that up.

Ivor

 

[Penners]

I plan what to do when I come to do it.

This approach (which I suspect we're all guilty of, to a greater or lesser degree) can sometimes trip us up! If you'd thought about this problem before pouring the concrete foundation, you could have set some vertical pieces of drilled plate into the foundation that would have suited this purpose perfectly!

However, I'm now starting to sound like my father ("why didn't you think about this sooner?"), so I'll stop sounding smug!

PP's suggestion sounds pretty good to me. Just get some T-section steel of appropriate proportions chopped up into lengths. The upright of the T can be drilled to accommodate the bolts for the posts, and the crossbar drilled for rawlbolts (or similar) to bolt the gizmo to the concrete base. I'm sure any bespoke blacksmith or metalworker would be able to do this for you.