Those beams aren't that thick typically, and to cut them all you need is a
very inexpensive hacksaw, that's right, a $15 hand saw, it will cut a
surprisingly large piece of steel with nothing but hand power very easily,
and do a nice job of it too, you just need to do a little manual labor. Sure
there are power tools ( sawzall or band saw for a start) that will do the
job faster, but a hacksaw will do it quite well. Circular saws aren't for
metal ( unless it's a special one, not something in a typical household) so
forget that, just cut them by hand.

Nuts and bolts and holes from your power drill for the rest and you should
be set.

--

Mike S.

"50 SOMETHING GAL" wrote in message
oups.com...
Larry & Dan . . .

Thanks guys.

Well the reason I'm hesitant to locate the beams and cut them down
myself is that I simply don't have the tools for such work. Oh, my
circular saw (and handheld power drill) can handle light metal jobs . .
. but realize that these steel beams are T.H.I.C.K. They have to be to
handle the weight loads they typically support.

I take your point about the nut/bolt model however -- and if anything,
that would be considerably more __stable__ than a rivet approach
(especially here in the CA Bay Area, where, to put in perfunctorily, my
house sits directly ON the earthquake fault lol). So let's look at
that for a moment: