Macomber Joist 5

[struct19]

Does anyone know where I can find the design information of the old Macomber Steel Joists? I am working on a project the structure was built in 1957 with Macomber joists. now the owner want to install RTU's on the roof. I am trying to verify the adquacy of those joist to handle the new loads.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Several Engineering-Tips members have graciously contributed information on Macomber joists. It is posted on this page of my website:

http://www.slideruleera.net/contributions.html

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[JedClampett]

Just out of curiosity, what happened to Macomber? From the volume of inquiries, they must of made a lot of joists, but now they're nowhere to be found. Did they just go belly up? Were they bought by someone else?

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Jed - Good question. I don't know.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[NITTANYRAY]

Macomber went out of business in 1978, 11 years after Stanley Macomber died.
After his patents expired a lot of other manufacturers got into the business. Macomber made a quality product that had become a commodity. Price usually wins most competitive bids. Some of the companies that helped put Macomber out of business went out of business themselves because their lower quality joists had some major failures.
This is a partial excerpt from an article about Macomber:
“Although Massillon is known as a steel town, it’s not as well known for the man whose steel innovations would revolutionize the construction industry.
Former employees of Macomber Inc. hope that changes on May 7 when they gather to remember and honor founder Stanley Macomber.
It’s been 26 years since the retirees last met. There’s a lot more at stake this time because the memory of Macomber is fading and the memorabilia is getting scarce.
So why is Stanley Macomber important, and why should Massillonians care?
Walk into any big box store, such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, and look at the ceiling. Those steel joists holding everything in place were the brainchild of Macomber, who got his start in Massillon almost 90 years ago.
“In his day, he was way ahead of everybody else in the use of steel in construction,” said Massillon resident Robert McMahon, who worked for Macomber as a contract manager from 1950-1964. “The innovations he had, as far as some of the technical stuff, was way ahead of everybody else. I would love to see that perpetuated.”
Reunion organizer George Wagner, a Macomber employee from 1957-1963, has old catalogs, letters and other memorabilia that he would like to donate to the McKinley Museum for a proposed industrial exhibit. More historical artifacts are welcome, he said.
“If we don’t have anything to give them, they won’t have anything to exhibit,” Wagner said.
The former design engineer said Macomber is part of Massillon’s steel legacy and deserves to be remembered for his invention of the open-web steel joist.

Go here for the rest of the article:

http://www.indeonline.com/business/x1135867077

 

[struct19]

Thanks for the informations. I am still searching for tensile stress of the steel used to make the Macomber joist. It looks like cold formed steel but at that time of 1957 i could not exactly find the tensile stress used fpr the perticular Macomber joists.

 

[NITTANYRAY]

Your best bet is to have a local testing agency do a tensile test on a coupon cut from a non critical area such as a bottom chord extension. They generally only need about a 2" long piece of metal (check with them to see what they need). Cut it with a saw, do not burn it with a torch since this could affect the properties of a cold rolled member.

 

[chicopee]

About contacting George Wagner about his old catalogs as reported by NITTANYRAY