"Home Made" grounded strips

[tlucente]

Club owners, where have you purchased perforated aluminum plate for grounded strips? What was the cost? Anything to watch out for with respect to mounting and assuring conductivity?

We have 6 permanent strips, and would like to turn 2 into grounded "finals" strips. I found 60" wide perforated aluminum plate with varying levels of open area here http://www.diamondman.com/60staggered2.html , but am having a hard time getting the company to pay attention to my little order inquiry.

I know the arguments against "cheese grater" strips, but if the cost is reasonable I think I can live with it and keep the floor flat for classes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tom Lucente
Richmond Fencing Club
www.richmondfencing.com

[Mergs]

Tom,

Rather than perforated aluminum plate, I would suggest that you look into a stainless steel wire mesh. I did two strips for my club in Houston for a reasonable cost. PM me for specs.

[tlucente]

After talking to Mergs, I ordered a roll of 304 stainless steel 12 x 12 .018" Plain Weave Woven Wire Mesh, 60" W/Selvage Edges x 100'. It ended up costing $725, delivered from Texas to Virginia. It should be here next week.

I'll post updates of the installation, and let everyone know how it works out.

[Mergs]

$725?!?!? OUCH. I'd have driven down there and brought back for ......... well, maybe not given gas prices now!

Let me know when you're going to install them and I'll come down and help. Have got lots of time on my hands until 2 Jun.

Schaeger7 - how are your two strips holding up?

[tlucente]

Only $135 of the total was shipping which, from Texas to Virginia on a truck, didn't sound that bad to me...the material itself was $595. Still 1/4 of what 2 aluminum strips, like the ones used at NACs, would cost.

I'll let you know when we plan to install.

[Mergs]

Way kewl.. waiting to hear from you.

[KD5MDK]

The price of metal is something scary these days.

[brtech]

How are you planning to attach the screen to the floor? How are the edges protected? Do holes happen? How do you repair?

[tlucente]

We have completed the installation of our first 2 stainless mesh strips.

The materials used were:

(1) roll, 304 SS Mesh, 5'X100.5'
(2) 1/8X1.25" steel bars
(2) 1/8X2.0" steel bars
(6) tubes JB Weld (6 steel, 6 activator)
Approx 40 #8x2" (or #10?) wood screws
(5) S hooks
(1) steel circle
Staples
50' coil of rope
Heavy duty wire ties
My car jack
some wood and nails

The process:

The SS mesh roll we received was 100.5', and to overlap the 2x4 sleepers in our floating floor, we cut 2 lengths 50'2". On the first strip, we used the 1/8x1.25" steel bars (2" on second strip), and JB welded one bar to each end of the length of mesh using 1tube steel/activator for each bar. These bars would be used to secure the strip ends to the floor. (see photo)

After letting the JB Weld cure overnight, we drilled holes for the anchor screws, about 10 on each end, in each bar. One end of each strip was also drilled with extra holes, closer to the edge, to connect our tensioning system. The "static" end was then secured to the floor with 2" wood screws after aligning with the existing strip lines.

I came up with this "wacky" S hook and metal ring tensioning system (see photo) using my car jack and some rope, hoping that the fact that the rope could "slip" along the ring would help even out the tension on each S hook pull point. It actually worked really well, wasn't that dangerous, and was able to tension the strip ALOT pulling against the edge of our raised floor. There is virtually no movement along the strip length.

With the strip still under tension, the other metal bar is screwed to the floor, and the edges of the strip were stapled, about every 2", while "combing" the width of the strip down with a 2'X4' piece of 3/4 particle board. It's very difficult to pull the strip along its width, and this was the best I could come up with. It seemed to work OK, and the strip lies very flat. Only after all stapling was the tension removed.

Things that were different than anticipated, or were changed:

-The mesh is much stiffer than I thought it would be, which was actually good.
-Used a wider bar on the 2nd strip, as the 1.25" bar flexed under the tensioning, with correspondingly more JB weld
-The roll of mesh came with 1 defect, a hole about dime size near the 2nd strip center line edge, which had to be patched. We cut a patch out of extra material, and stapled it to the floor before placing the strip on top. A patch on top would have been uneven, and this seemed a good solution, since we don't have the ability to weld stainless steel.
-One strip has been down about a month, without and complaints or damage. The other only a week.
-You can see the existing strip lines through the mesh

Total cost was about $925-950 for 2 complete grounded strips. $725 for the mesh, the rest for the above mentioned bars, screws, etc.

Here are some photos. Let me know if anyone has any questions, suggestions, or comments.

Thanks again to Mergs for his help getting me pointed in the right direction.

[oiuyt]

Very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

-B

[VorpalCat]

Wow, looks fantastic! Looking forward to checking it out in person.

[Mergs]

Sehr, tres`, bueno nice!!!!! Would have loved to have been there to see it go in. Excellent job. Would you mind if I include the installation proceedure in the next edition of my book? Or in the next one that is planned to cover more advanced topics like this?

I would love to come down to fence on it to see how it holds up. Will contact you when things with new home and job settle down.

Again, great job!

[tlucente]

Thanks Mergs, and we'd be honored to have the procedure go in the next book, assuming the installation holds up. We did the whole thing in fits and starts, sometimes on the spur of the moment after practice, or I would certainly have asked you to come down. It was actually relatively simple, once we figured out how we wanted to do it.

Thanks again, and hope to see you soon.

[Mergs]

Thanks, Tom. I'll be sure to give you guys credit and I look forward to coming down. I hope to start making it to more tourneys this year. Yeah, I know, if I make it to one, that'll be more than I have in the past TWO years!