Here are the numbers
Table - system looks fine but am concerned that 1" dia vertical will not resist person falling against it athwartships.
Your were right.
There is a whole range of yield strengths for 304 Stainless depending on temper and work hardening during forming. I called Taco and the fellow I spoke to seemed a bit vague about what I was talking about. He said he would have engineering send me an email but I’m not holding my breath. Since the stuff is made in China, I think we can assume the lowest number, 35,000 psi.
That means that an 80 pound sideways pull on the middle of the stanchion would bend it. I can see that happening with someone falling against it in a hard roll. Deflection would be a bit over an inch. A 160 pound person would put about the same load on it sharing the load between the structural bulkhead and the stanchion. I would certainly bend everything falling out of my bunk onto the table in a knockdown.
My two current handhold stanchions, being supported up to counter height, are good for about 130 pounds of sideways load before being permanently bent. Due to their location in the galley, that’s probably good enough.
Enter this outfit: Online Metals
http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm
For less than 50 bucks plus shipping, they will send me a piece of A513 DOM steel tube .875 O.D. x .156 wall thickness. If I use the lighter gauge polished S.S. Taco railing with an I.D. of .902, the steel tube will slip right in with some epoxy to keep it from rattling around and an epoxy plug in each end to keep the water out. This stuff is difficult to weld and machine but I don’t have to do that. It has a yield strength of 72,000 so is good for a load of 214 pounds on the middle before taking a permanent bend. Add the 80 pounds from the S.S. tube, and the stanchion is good for 294 pounds which should take most people hanging on it in a 90 degree knockdown or some dynamic loading from a falling person.
The table rail, if increased to 1”, is only good for 134 pounds using the Taco tubing alone so I’ll probably make it the same way.
If Taco gets back to me with yield numbers significantly higher for their tubing, I’ll let you know.
