< Back to Our Process
A look into our Manufacturing Process,
Most of our products are made from steel, one of the most recycled materials in the world. The majority of our products are made by hand, here in the Pacific Northwest.
Recycled steel can be a part of your building's LEED Certification. We have been involved with many LEED Certified projects across the nation and we're very proud to have partnered with many architectural and contracting teams working to create greener cities and towns. We want to live in a healthy environment and we're always looking for ways we can help our clients build a better future.
A great start
We begin with clean, wheel-abraded 21' lengths of schedule 40 steel pipe. You'll notice we've found that grocery carts are a handy way to keep projects together around the shop.
Bending
We use various machines with the appropriate tool bending dies to bend the material. We use a mandrel tube bender to get smooth, non-crimped bends.
Checking Tolerances
Making sure every curve is spot on.
Trimming
Once the rack has been bent, excess pipe is trimmed so the flanges are even. The yellow liquid you see there is a lubricant, to protect the cutting blade from heat friction and damage.
Drainage
Drain holes are added only on galvanized parts to allow proper venting when the part is dipped in the molten zinc bath. The holes also allow the zinc to flow through the inside of the part, adding an extra level of protection.
Flange, or in-ground?
All of our steel-plate flanges are 3/8" thick by 5.5" diameter solid steel with (3) 5/8" anchor bolt holes each. See if you can spot some of the different types of flanges we use here.
The flanges are centered and tacked (shown here) onto the legs and then hand-welded with a single seam. We always do a full weld (as opposed to skip weld) to ensure weather cannot penetrate the part. The full weld ensures there is no rust bleed-out during the coating process.
Final Touches
After a cosmetic grind on this smooth seam, the rack is ready to be finished.
