On-site cutting, coping, and drilling in Orange County
Steel shows up wrong. Not often, but often enough that every schedule should assume it. A beam an inch long. Bolt holes that do not line up. A coped end that fouls the flange it has to sit against. A column with no penetration for the conduit the electrician needs through it. Sending the member back to the shop costs days. Fixing it in place costs an hour.
That is the whole service. We cut, cope, bevel, and drill on the structure, with the member where it lives. Torch and plasma for cutting, mag drill for holes through flange or web, grinder for the finish. Coping means notching the end of a beam so its flange clears the column it frames into, and it is the single most common thing that comes out of a shop a quarter inch wrong.
One caution worth saying out loud: not every cut is ours to make. Burning a hole through the web of a loaded beam, or flame cutting into a flange, can change what the member is rated to carry. Anything that touches a structural element goes past the engineer first. We will tell you when that call is needed instead of making it for you.
What that includes.
- Beams cut to length in place
- Coping and blocking beam ends for fit up
- Mag drilled holes through flange and web
- Bevels and joint prep ahead of field welds
- Penetrations for conduit, plumbing, and duct, with engineer sign off
- Grinding, deburring, and coating touch up
Questions we get on this one.
The fabricator sent the beam long. Fix it or send it back?
Almost always faster to fix it. A trip back to the shop is measured in days and a field cut is measured in hours. The exception is a member that is wrong in a way that changes what it carries. That one goes back.
Can you drill through a beam for my plumber?
Only where the engineer allows it. There are places in a beam where a hole is harmless and places where it is not, and the difference is not something to eyeball. Get the location approved and we will make the hole clean and to size.
Do you need power or water on site?
No. The truck carries its own power. For dusty cutting inside a finished space we will talk through containment before we start.
This is licensed work. OC Mobile Welding LLC holds CSLB C-51 #1157116, C-51 Structural Steel, current and active. Working out of San Clemente, CA.