After having read chapter 4 in Rod's book and some decent on line material that seemed accurate enough for my needs I decided to make my own sway braces.
Dimensions, in millimeter, of each profile are:
H: 75 W: 40 D: 40 T: 5mm
I started out by approximating the weight of each of my inner walls for the studio and then searched for the appropriate aluminum profile and neoprene material to build my braces.
I decided to build the braces along the lines described here and then apply them as seen in attached image 1.
Image 2 - 5 shows the result after cutting, milling and drilling each sway.
Image 6 shows a rough estimate of what the final brace will look like. The final version will have a continuous piece of neoprene, from one profile and on to the other. Taking into account the ability to mount the actual sway to the frame and board.
Even though I am happy with the result I still wonder if I may have overlooked something critical. If so, please comment. Also, I have not been able to find any good mounting tutorials. If anyone knows where I can find some more reading material on the actual mounting process that would be great.
Thank you.
/Gash
Constructing sway braces from aluminum profile
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 10947.
A couple of things
1st - I would space the studs 24" oc for the maximum LF Tl values....
Next - the tail of your clips have to be longer to allow for connection into the framing members and the clips that you need at the concrete wall - right now it's physically impossible for you to make attachents.
Next - you are going to have to be very careful with your neoprene - you have to preload the rubber to the correct compression to get to whatever your designed center frequency is.......
In order to do that yuo will have to devise a way to compress these together while measuring the load - and you will have to determine in advance what that load has to be - while taking into account what amount of the load you have is related to compression and what is related to friction of the member.
No easy task.
It seems to me that (for the cost of all of this) it would have been just as easy to purchase these things ready made.
Rod
If you mean in reference to the way the neoprene is applied into the braces (currently blocking the mounting holes) then that will change once i apply it in correct proportions. If that is not the issue and the tails still need length adjustments I will have to redo the load balancing (including compression of the neoprene) too I think.right now it's physically impossible for you to make attachents.
I have a friend that runs an engineering workshop and here I have access to some simulation and measurement equipment including a load simulator. I know the rough (not off by more than one kg) weight of each of my studio walls (untreated). I guess the only uncertain factor would be the additional (uniform) load added by the ceiling. Even though the additional ceiling weight is not at all a trivial matter I still feel as if it should be possible to make this work. I do, however, hear what you are saying here....devise a way to compress these together while measuring the load - and you will have to determine in advance what that load has to be...
I really do agree... but due to several reasons I have to try and cut costs somewhere. Maybe this is not the best place to do it... but then again; it feels as if there are no good places to do so. Thank you Rod, for your reply. It means quite a lot. /Gash P.s. I'm still trying to find a good reference for the actual mounting of the braces. If anyone knows of one, please share. Thank you.It seems to me that (for the cost of all of this) it would have been just as easy to purchase these things ready made.