Project calculators
Six calculators that work out a whole project rather than a single figure: enter your dimensions and get the cutting list, the steel to buy, the length of welds, the electrode consumption and the current it welds at.
An ordinary calculator answers one question: what a metre weighs, what current suits an electrode. These answer the question people actually ask at the steel stockist — how much of what to buy so that a particular thing of particular dimensions comes out of it.
| Project | What it works out |
|---|---|
| Workbench | Enter length, width and height: the calculator returns the cutting list, the mass of steel, the length of welds and the current. The drawing redraws as you type. |
| Pedestrian gate | Enter the width and height of the leaf: you get the cutting list for frame, ribs and brace, the mass of steel and sheet, and the welding settings. |
| Door canopy | Enter width, projection and rise: the calculator gives the number of brackets, the cutting list, the mass and the covered area. The drawing follows the numbers. |
| Fence | Enter length, height and post spacing: the calculator counts posts, rails, bays, the mass of steel and the area of profiled sheet. |
| Steel stairs | Enter the rise and the going: the calculator gives the number of steps, the actual riser, the stringer length and the whole cutting list. |
| Carport and canopy | Mono-pitch canopy: enter length, projection and height to get the number of posts, rafters and battens, the mass of the frame and the covered area. |
All of them work in the browser, and all of them hand the result over in three ways: print, a CSV file for a spreadsheet, and a link that already carries your dimensions. Nothing goes to a server.
Where the numbers come from
Section masses come from the same set the metal weight calculator uses; currents and consumption from the same data as the other calculators; welding settings from the table on the welding square tube page. None of these calculators has numbers of its own: if it did, sooner or later they would drift away from the rest of the site.
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