On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 06:48:22 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Kaidor
wrote:
Hello,
A few years ago, I bought a house. Clearing the jungle in the yard, I discovered a ratty old shack. Under the ratty old shack was a dug well. I demolished the shack and made a temporary well cover out of plywood and 4x4's.
Now I want to make a real cover, drop down a solar well pump and actually
use the thing. Irrigating my acre with city water is expensive.
The County well guy has a strange requirement: don't paint the cover! Huh?
Whatever. Government says "jump", I ask "how high"?
I am planning to fabricate the real cover out of 1/8" steel. It's thick enough so I won't worry about surface rust, and easy to work. I have a decent
MIG welder, TIG welder, a small plasma cutter, and a ring roller, and I know
how to use them 
. I am very comfortable cutting and welding 1/8" stock.
I have poured a substantial foundation around the well with embedded anchor bolts for the cover. It came out about an inch low when I ran out of concrete.
I had calculated that the requirement was 25 bags, I had 41 bags on hand. Go figure.
The well diameter is about 5 feet.
So the current plan ( subject to change ) is:
* Fabricate a flange to drop down onto the foundation bolts. Make it out of
segments of 6" wide 1/8" plate, cut to size with the plasma cutter. Lay the
segments on bricks on the foundation and weld them together to form a 6-foot
diameter ring.
* Use the ring roller to make a 5-foot diameter ring of 1" strap. Weld the
strap to the big flange. That will make up for the short foundation.
* Lay some A-36 "C" channel ( 2 inches wide by 1" high by 1/8" stock ) across
the mouth of the well. Maybe one piece, maybe two pieces side by side. Maybe put a stiffening piece of 4" steel strap between the two C-channels. Cut a couple more C-channels and weld them at right angles to the main ones, forming a large "X". Weld the X to the supporting ring.
* Cut pie-shaped slices of 1/8" thick plate. Cut pump and inspection ports into two of the slices. Stiffen the ports with steel rings rolled out of 1" or 3/4" strap.
Lay the slices on top of the "X" and weld them in place. Playing with a CAD drawing, I see that I can get two slices out of a 4'x4' sheet of steel with minimal waste.
When all the welding is done, pull out the bricks and drop the cover into place on the foundation bolts.
When the cover is complete, I will build a "wishing well" gazebo over it to protect it from the weather. I made enough space on the foundation for a cute curved brick wall.
Does this sound strong enough?
- Jerry Kaidor
Why not simply get a piece of Stainless Steel? A 5x5 square ought to
be able to be found at the scrap yard or the salvage yard somewhere.
Or make a Donut using 3/16 - 1/4 plate with a 3' hole in the middle ,
paint that..and then use a 3' disk in the middle. Having a 1/8"
piece of sheetmetal 5' in diameter..broken into 4 parts with a simple
cross underneith it..will ultimately sag like a sombitch in a very
short period of time if you have dogs, kids or snow on it.
And mild steel, unless you live in the desert, will rust out in less
than 5 yrs in this application...when only 1/8" thick
There is a reason such covers are usually made out of cast iron
On the third hand...you can get covers that will last many decades
over wells..that are made of plastic
http://www.piedmontwellcovers.com/2.html
http://www.vpcfiberglass.com/manhole_covers.shtml
They are becoming more popular and easier to find
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-scrap.html
As someone in your local government utility division..you may be able
to ..ah..."procure" one of the proper size for very little money.
I know of a gent who needed a well cover and put a $100 bill in an
envelope stapled to the back side of a fence post and the very next
day it was gone...and a 3' cast iron manhole cover and base ring, was
laying at the base of the post. Odd how that happens. Shrug
With the increased use of plastic covers...it should be fairly easy to
do a conversion of this sort.
Just my opinion. shrug
Gunner
"The socialist movement takes great pains to circulate frequently new labels for its ideally constructed state.
Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic
problem of Socialism, until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name.
The most recent slogan is "State Capitalism."[Fascism] It is not commonly realized that this covers nothing more
than what used to be called Planned Economy and State Socialism, and that State Capitalism, Planned Economy,
and State Socialism diverge only in non-essentials from the "classic" ideal of egalitarian Socialism. - Ludwig von Mises (1922)