Hi all,
I’ve been trawling through some great old discussions & debates on concrete v steel piers in this forum. In particular there have been some great points on the importance of steel OD & wall thickness. One idea I haven’t come across is the use of multiple steel posts bound together to form a single pier. Do you think this could work?
The reason i bring it up is I have access to four old 50 mm square steel posts with end plates welded on. If I cut away one side of end plates on each post I could then bolt posts together to form a 100 mm square bundle and still make use of remaining end plates for fastening. The end plates are 10 mm thick, but I won’t know the post wall thickness until I drill through. Posts are 2 m long, which is a good length to go from footing up through deck.
Anyway, do you think four narrow posts bundled in this manner would be more rigid than a single 100 mm post and ok for a light mount & imaging setup? Managing four single posts would also be much easier than a single thicker one.
I’m hoping for an engineering lesson, if you have the time
Thanks