Homemade Cricket Nets

[fieldmouse]

Hi Guys,

I'm Looking At Making Some Cricket Bowling Nets For My Local Club, We've Priced Up Some Off The Shelf Jobbies And There's Not Much Change Out Of A Grand. Ideally It Would Be 7 Mtrs Long, 3 Mtrs Wide And 3 Mtrs High And Have Wheels At Each End And Mid Way. My Question To The Council Of Elder Welders Is - What Type Of Mild Steel Would Be Suitable For Such A Project (ie Thickness, Box/tube, Etc)

Any Suggestions Would Be Kindly Appreciated.

Jas

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

1" box, 16 guage (about 1.6mm wall thickness), it's relatively light and reasonably strong. You can get away with a 10' span across the top-front too...I made market stalls that wide. In fact you can go up to 12' on a single span before the middle bit sags too much.

In fact, if you wanted too, you could probably make the whole thing like a market stall that just slipped together when needed. It'd take about 20 minutes for a couple of guys to put up or take down and might ease your storage problems. Make a barrow to carry it out and back in again and store that around the back of the nets while using them.

Regards
Peter

 

[Drains]

At the risk of not agreeing exactly with a man who knows all about lightweight temporary structures (Peter51), i'd probably go for slightly bigger box or round, up to 50mm, but still 16g ish, to account for the strain on the material from net roped to it, or over-enthusiastic cricketers hanging off it...

BUT, you could do worse than follow peters guidance on the method of construction, taking down, transport etc. Take a look at his picture album, which will give you plenty of handy hints on how to do it.

Peter, hope you don't mind

 

[Paul.]

Hi, the material you need is classed as ERW (electric resistance welded) tube, this is lightweight box section (and rounds) and comes in 6mtr lengths, it is cold rolled and will have a fairly sharp corner, this will help when welding, available in various wall thicknesses depending on the size, generally from 1.2mm (18swg), to 2.5mm (12swg), I would probably use 40 x 40 x 1.5(16swg), and perhaps 2mm (14swg) for longer spans or stressed components, you can buy plastic tube inserts to finish open ends,
Paul

 

[Archie]

My thoughts would be that tube would be easier to put a nice bend in, if you want/need to, but box would be considerably easier to attach castors to. Not a terribly helpful comment, i know, but something to think about.

 

[fieldmouse]

Wow guys,

many thanks for the response. I've noted the size/guages mentioned and am off to see the man. I'll probably make a permanent structure as we have storage on the field and there's no issue with vandalism.

Jas

 

[^neo^]

Easiest thing to make the from is 2" galv tube and key clamp fittings. Rock solid, won't rust, and can be dismantled and stored away over the winter.
Made a set up about 5 years ago for our local club and they're still going strong

 

[crayefish]

Hi Guys,

I'm Looking At Making Some Cricket Bowling Nets For My Local Club, We've Priced Up Some Off The Shelf Jobbies And There's Not Much Change Out Of A Grand. Ideally It Would Be 7 Mtrs Long, 3 Mtrs Wide And 3 Mtrs High And Have Wheels At Each End And Mid Way. My Question To The Council Of Elder Welders Is - What Type Of Mild Steel Would Be Suitable For Such A Project (ie Thickness, Box/tube, Etc)

Any Suggestions Would Be Kindly Appreciated.

Jas

welding tube to make cricket nets has gota be more fun than watching cricket!

id prob go for square erw... much easier to weld sections together at 90 deg, and easier to drill and bolt etc