Steel Deck Support Columns

You may be under the impression that welding things at 90 degree angles is pretty straightforward and easy when compared to complicated geometry…but you’d be surprised how easy it is to screw up - especially when what you’re making will be used in a scructural support capacity!

Well that’s exactly what I was dealing with at the end of last week - a customer wanted to remove his existing 4x4 timbers and lean into an industrial aesthetice with some great looking 4x4 box steel columns, bolted directly to the Ibeam supporting his deck.

To my initial point, that welding 90 degree angles is more tricky than you’d think, it’s not truly THAT tricky, it’s just that when you screw up, you may as well have the world’s brightest spotlight shining on your mistake. To that end, fitting up the column to the plate was pretty straightforward, and just involved a speedsquare and a paint marker.

Yes, there are way more lines than necessary…

I was trying to decide where the hell to put the bolt holes.

Once all my lines were scribed, and the bolt holes were drilled out to 5/8” for some pass-through bolts (by the way, I recommend not using an old SKIL corded drill from the 90s…I named mine the wristbreaker 9000 for a reason) I moved on to tacking the plates to the columns. For this, I can’t recommend a digital angle gauge enough. You can figure out if a piece is level to itself without needing to be level to the ground…it’s a lifesaver for anyone with an unlevel gravel shop floor! Even with it, though, you’ll likely still find your self checking, and adjusting, and checking, and adjusting…because you’re a welder, and when you weld, the metal just does its own thing and doesn’t give a damn about what you want.

But we persevere!!!

With one plate mounted up, just rinse and repeat, and voila…two great looking deck support columns are done. The real tragedy? My client, being local to the Minnesota twin cities, will only get to enjoy his beautiful deck and patio half the year.