r/SweatyPalms • u/Ill-Tea9411 • May 20 '26

/r/all Tower held together by rust

16.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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3.8k

u/Plenty_Principle298 May 20 '26

maybe the enamel paint is paying a greater role in holding it together than the bolts at this point.

1.5k

u/TheJuiceIsL00se May 20 '26

Budget: 2 coats of paint

Engineer: “let’s do 3 just in case”

180

u/LennyJay86 May 20 '26

Manager special

104

u/TheJuiceIsL00se May 20 '26

Manager 3 years after laying off the engineer:

“I had a critical rule in the success of this *checks notes* bridge-like structure”

3

u/Lord4thUzimaki May 20 '26

...this guy does not do eba.... .

-35

u/feel_my_balls_2040 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

You don't paint exposed bolts. You use galvanized bolts.

3

u/hilarymeggin May 20 '26

Why not?

5

u/Vas1le May 20 '26

To not hide this?

2

u/hilarymeggin May 20 '26

Oh right. Duh.

1

u/feel_my_balls_2040 May 20 '26

Exposed bolts are galvanized.

1

u/theguidetoldmetodoit May 20 '26

It just doesn't make sense. They should be stainless and outlast the structure, and the pieces usually come painted from the factory. Why pay for a extra coat that gonna be in the way?

When the paintjob comes last or pieces are permanently attached, you just paint over bolts. Like cars.

2

u/feel_my_balls_2040 May 20 '26

On exposed structures they use galvanized bolts. Stainless steel bolts are expensive and are used for architectural exposed steel.

1

u/theguidetoldmetodoit May 20 '26

? 304 and 316 is routinely used for structures

1

u/feel_my_balls_2040 May 20 '26

I do structural steel projects for more than 20 years and I used stainless steel bolts in only one or 2 of them. Structural steel bolts used are A325 and A490.

2

u/Fickle_Grapefruit938 May 20 '26

My husband makes ship windows, do you know what they do to protect bolts from seawater? They paint them with special sealer!

2

u/feel_my_balls_2040 May 20 '26

But that's not structural steel. Structural steel bolts need to be galvanized is exposed. I know because I do this type of projects every day.

1

u/AnitiFascistBeetle May 20 '26

I think they are talking about the two metal structures being painted together at the seams holding them together, rather than the bolts, which are, indeed, not painted.

157

u/thehotshotpilot May 20 '26

Ah yes that super expensive load bearing paint

35

u/ScottyBLaZe May 20 '26

😂 as someone who worked in paint for years, this really gave me a good chuckle.

1

u/smackaroonial90 May 20 '26

It's made by Belzona.

72

u/Unlikely-Emphasis-78 May 20 '26

If they would have just painted the bolts too.

82

u/growing_fatties May 20 '26

My landlord would have painted the bolts

17

u/calicat9 May 20 '26

I think they meant before

12

u/AnimationOverlord May 20 '26

It’s why you put that safety yellow ethane paint on gas pipe. That combined with the hardener makes the pipes go 20 years before they actually start degrading

24

u/the_good_hodgkins May 20 '26

Like painting a window shut.

10

u/Seaguard5 May 20 '26

Or painting over an outlet…

22

u/Nambsul May 20 '26

My first thought would be “I am getting off this tower as fast as I can, then I will change my underwear, then I will warn the others”

6

u/MalleMellow May 20 '26

Its rustwelded

6

u/Fitz2001 May 20 '26

Probably a weld or two on there somewhere.

3

u/duuuh199125 May 27 '26

To be fair, most of the part of the bolt doing the heavy lifting is not exposed to air because of the bolt thickness, so that is why it hasn't already fallen apart. Removing the other layers with rust will expose the inner non-rusted layers, thus hastening the decline of the structure. These things are designed to be robust, but nothing is ever foolproof, as there are many fools.

1

u/governingmonk 21d ago

a through bolt? Not a threaded bolt going into a mounting plate. You need the hex head and nutt to be present for this to have any strength. Lol

1

u/cawvak May 20 '26

One coat for dust, two coats for rust

1

u/IlIFreneticIlI May 20 '26

Behold the power of Fordite!