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Portability by design
One thing we intentionally designed our prop to be, is PORTABLE.
Working by myself, I can disassemble and load the entire prop into the 6 bed
of my Chevy Colorado. I can also unload and assemble it by myself, though
its MUCH easier with help.
We teach a lot of off-site classes, so portability was something that was very
important to us. However if you only intend to use this at your fire station with
no intention of moving it, its components could be welded together more easily
and with less drilling.
steel diamond-plate, 48 x 56
3/16 steel plate, 18 x 30
3/16 steel plate, 18 x 30 L-Bracket, bent to 1-7/8 at a right angle (see slide)
1/8 or 3/16 U-channel, 48 long, custom bent to 4 x 5 x 4 I.D. (see slide)
1/8 or 3/16 U-channel, 30 long, custom bent to 4 x 5 x 4 I.D.
steel plate, 5 x 5, quantity 2
steel plate, 5 x 10, quantity 4
5 x 5 box steel, thick , 70 tall, quantity 2
6 x 6 box steel, thick, 8 tall, quantity 2
x 1 flat steel, 7- long, quantity 16
x 2 flat steel, 26 long
Bolts:
Raw Materials
Where the hell do I get all this friggin heavy-ass steel
from?...Home Depot? Menards?
Your best bet is to find the local metal mart.in our case, it was a place
called, uh, Metal Mart. What you need is the wholesale supplier to local
welders and fabricators. Theyll likely also do custom cutting and bending.
If its not one of your hang-outs already, Im sure you can find the place in
your area pretty quickly online. Failing that, stop in at your nearest
welding shop and ask around.
Also, if you dont know how to weld, buddy up to the guy or guys on your
department who do and get them to teach you, or better yet involve them
in the project.
Paying a welding shop to do this work for you can get pricey. At least in
my area (Metro Detroit), the going rate for welding is about $60/hour.
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Tools list
Youll need a number of tools, including:
Welder
Drill press (bench-top is okay, but it must be bolted down)
corded drill
cobalt drill bit
airline drill bit (extra long bit)
Large C-clamps
Bench grinder
Angle grinder
Chop saw
K12 rotary saw (optional, comes in handy if you plan on trimming the
diamond plate yourself)
Table saw (for cutting dimensional lumber after the prop is built)
Top-Piece
U-Channel
Nomenclature
Upright
(lock-side)
Angle-iron support
Door-stop
U-Channel
Wood-box
(door-side)
Hinge
(upright-side)
Hinge
(door-side)
Wood-box
(upright-side)
Reinforcement
Plate & L-bracket
Upright
(hinge-side)
Upright Support
Handle
Base
STAGE one:
basE & frame
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Diamond-plate base
The footprint we ended up with is rectangular, measuring 48 x 56 ( diamond
plate). We cut the corners off, but thats completely optional.
Had we known what wed need at the time, we couldve saved quite a bit of money.
Not being certain, we ended up buying a monstrous 5 x 8 sheet of diamond plate.
Weve used the leftover diamond plate for other projects, but youll do much better
ordering it custom-cut to those dimensions and not have to cut it down yourself
later.
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6 x 6 Steel
8 Tall
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5- I.D.
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U-channel top-piece
We had a custom U-channel bent for us out of 1/8 steel, but 3/16 would
also be fine if you want to go heavier. If portability is desirable for you,
then a U-channel top-piece is the way to go. However, if this prop is going
to be permanent-party in a corner of your apparatus bay forever, you could
more easily just weld another piece of dimensional steel to your uprights.
This U-channel is 48 long.
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4
5
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U-channel top-piece
Ill be damned if I remember how I drilled these out to match. I cant
remember if I clamped the upright and the U-channel together and drilled
them out together, or if I just used a drilling template for each individually
and was very careful in my measurement, and precise in my drilling.
I drilled these out with a airline bit, (extra long bit). We use 3/8 X 6
Grade-8 bolts and wing-nuts. Its good to have a little play.
Thinking about it some more, Im pretty sure I clamped them.
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Trapezoid-brace
We put a brace on the hinge-side upright-support. We decided to do only
one so that it wouldnt be a tripping hazard during evolutions. As it turns out,
its really not that obtrusive. If I were you, Id do one on each side just for
what-the-hell.
You can put one on the hinge-side early in the process, but I wouldnt do the
lock-side upright until everything is settled with the spacing of the uprights.
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Trapezoid-brace dimensions
We had this trapezoid custom-cut for us. Its 1/8 steel. I believe the bottom-side
is 20 wide, the top-side is 5 wide, and the sides taper up to be 7 tall.
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STAGE two:
the door
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Door, part 1
For our door, we chose a heavy, commercial-grade hollow-core metal door that wed had
donated to us from a local door and window company. The door is 36 wide, and we cut
it down so that it is 48 tall. You could also consider fabricating your own door of the
same dimensions out of box-steel and plate-steel. Just an idea.
The door is reinforced by 2 x 2 angle-iron attached horizontally at the top and bottom,
and by a 1/8 U-channel covering both sides and the edge the middle third of the door
on the lock-side. The U-channel is formed by an L-bracket and a plate surrounding the
door and then welded together where they meet.
48 tall
36 wide
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Door, part 2
We reinforced the top and bottom horizontal edges of the door with two
pieces of 2 x 2 angle-iron. We cut our angle-iron down to 24, you could
go wider (up to full-width) if youd like.
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Door, part 3
We created our own homemade U-channel to protect and reinforce the door by
connecting two custom-made pieces. The first, an 1/8 steel plate measuring 18 x 30.
The second, an 1/8 steel plate bent into an L-bracket, with its face measuring 18 x 30,
and the small angle of the L bent to 1-7/8 I.D. (most doors are 1-3/4 thick).
In retrospect, I would probably use 3/16 steel for both.
1-7/8
L-Bracket
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18
1-3/4
30
1-7/8
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Door, part 4
We created our own homemade U-channel to protect and reinforce the door by
connecting two custom-made pieces. The first, an 1/8 steel plate measuring 18 x 30.
The second, an 1/8 steel plate bent into an L-bracket, with its face measuring 18 x 30,
and the small angle of the L bent to 1-7/8 I.D. (most doors are 1-3/4 thick).
In retrospect, I would probably use 3/16 steel for both.
Drill out the plate L-bracket together for the best fitment upon installation onto the door.
Use the plate as a template to mark the door, and drill out the door. Use cobalt bit for
all holes. Install plate and L-bracket using 7/16 x 3 Grade-8 bolts and hex nuts.
Once installed, weld plate and bracket together.
1-3/4
1-7/8
1-7/8
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24
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26
Wood-box
centered on door
About 4 from
the edge of the
door
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Mount wood-boxes
same distance from
top and bottom edge
of door
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STAGE three:
the hinges
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Hinges, part 1
Our hinges are of a fairly simple design, at least when compared with the elaborately
elegant type of hinges mounted on springs on some of the commercially-available
doors. If youd like some good plans for a spring-hinge design, check out FROZEN
LEATHER TRAINING, they have a link to plans for their design.
We decided to go this route for simplicitys sake. The give in our prop when
gapping it relies, not on springs, but on the muscle required to flex the door and the
top-piece. We thought when building this prop that the door would be fairly strong,
but sacrificial, and have to be changed every few classes. Three years and
thousands of forces later, its a little warped but still in good shape.
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Hinges, part 2
The hinge-plates you see here are steel plate, and both measure 5 x 5. Were I
to do this again, I would make the door-side hinge-plate 5 high by 10 wide to allow
for easier mounting of doors regardless of door-width.
The hinges are the most complicated part for most of the FE door-props that you
see. I dont remember the EXACT order of assembly for these, but I will explain all
that I remember about the process and provide ample pictures.
Upright-side
5 x 5
Make door-side
5 x 10
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Hinges, part 3
This is the basic design we settled on, though we ended up using rectangular steel box
rather than square simply because it fit better.
I dont recall the exact size of the tubing we used for the actual hinges, but suffice it to
say its thick steel, and its inner diameter is large enough for a 7/16 x 6 Grade-8 bolt to
be dropped in VERY EASILY for use as a hinge-pin. In fact, we started off using the
same length Grade-8 bolt, but it was easier to line it up and drop it in with the smaller
size. When youre metal shopping, bring a 7/16 Grade-8 bolt with you to measure for
I.D.
The rectangular steel box is 1 x 1-.
HINGE
TUBING
PLATE
STEEL
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Hinges, part 4
The hinge tubing we measured to a 5 length, then cut into three equal
parts (you do the math, that was years ago!). I seem to recall that we
connected all three tube sections with the hinge-pin loosely, then welded
each section to its respective hinge-plate.
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Hinge-pins
7/16 x 6 Grade-8 hex bolts. A nut should not be necessary. The hingetubing that you use should fairly thick steel, and of a large enough diameter
that these hinge-pins drop in easily. On ours, a bolt will fit in the tubing,
but a little too snugly for easy drop-in insertion, so we use 7/16. Keep it
loose and easy to assemble.
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Hinges, part 5
Next, we fabricated the rest of the door-side hinge more or less according to our
plans, and attached them to the door with 7/16 x 4 Grade-8 bolts.
Again, I recommend using a wider door-side hinge-plate than we did so to have
more flexibility with door-width if you need to change out the door down the road.
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Hinges, part 6
For mounting your hinges, mount them equidistant from the top and bottom of the door.
That is, mount the top-hinge the same distance from the top of the door as the bottomhinge is from the bottom of the door. Again, this will aid in making the door reversible
later if you so choose.
The next few pages are all pics of the hinges, should you need them for reference.
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Hinges separated,
for a different view
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Hinges separated,
for a different view
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Hinges, part 6
As I recall, to mount the hinge-plates to the upright-side, we first installed both top and bottom
door-side hinges to the door.
Then we measured to get a ball-park idea of where the TOP upright-side hinge was going to be
welded.
Next, we connected the top upright-side hinge to the door-hinge and dropped the hinge-pin in.
Finally, we used a floor-jack underneath the door to jack the door up into its proper position
while steadying it with our hands. Once in place, we marked the spot, lowered the door,
separated the hinge-plates, and welded the upright-side hinge-plate onto the upright.
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Hinges, part 7
For the BOTTOM hinge, we did more or less the same thing. We started by connecting
the door-side hinge to the upright-side hinge with the hinge-pin.
However, rather than jacking it up, we merely attached the door to the upright at the top
hinge.
From there, we manually held the door in its proper place to mark it, lowered the door,
and welded the bottom upright-side hinge onto the upright.
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STAGE four:
Door-stop & Wood-box
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Door-stop, part 1
For our door-stop we used a very beefy piece of flat steel measuring thick by 2
wide. These dimensions mimic perfectly the door-stop found on your average
commercial steel jamb. This is a SOLID piece of steel.
So it wont be too close to some of the bolt-heads mounted on the door, order this
door-stop cut to 26 and center it on the 30 U-channel.
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Door-stop, part 2
If you use 5 x 5 for your uprights, mount your door-stop centered horizontally on
the upright (not on the U-channel).
Quite frankly, this is a good reason to use 5 x 5. Not only is it easier to mount so
that the door will be flush, but if you mount hinge-plates on either side of the hingeside upright, your door can be reversible.
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36 from the
bottom of the
upright
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Wood-box
centered
horizontally on
the upright, not
on the U-channel
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STAGE five:
finishing touches
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handles
This suckers heavy. Dont let anyone tell you otherwise. We made our handles
out of some small-diameter round stock. We put it in a bench vise and heated the
areas we wanted bent with a small torch, and beat it into shape with a hand-sledge.
Then cut the excess bottom pieces off with a chop-saw. Not too hard.
The ones you see here are 7 wide.
You could also go to a good auto spring shop and have a couple of shallow, wide Ubolts bent.
Make sure your welds on these are good! You dont want to be carrying the
diamond plate and find out you did a lousy job on the one thats over your foot.
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U-channel top-piece
We use wing-nuts on our U-channel. Hand-tight works just fine.
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Hinge-pull attachment
Youve probably been wondering what the hell that apparatus mounted on the side of our
door is. If you havent figured it out yet, its a hinge-pull prop. We have a separate PDF
covering how to build this prop, contact us if youd like a copy of it.
Its a fun add-on, and cheap to build (by comparison).
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Reversibility by design
Because we have centered everything on the door and on the upright, this door is
easily reversible by simply welding duplicate hinge-plates onto the opposite side of
the hinge-side upright. Youll flip the door upside-down and attach it that way.
Youll also need to put another wood-box on the opposite side of the lock-side
upright. Minimal investment of time if youve got the welder warmed up already.
Shoot, you could make all your hinge-plates and wood-boxes in one batch.
This will enable you to diversify your training, and demonstrate the differences in
technique required by the dimensions and physics of a halligan bar when forcing
both left-handed and right-handed opening doors.
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