Approval

I do seem to get myself into a tizzy submitting designs. Anyway, I got to the stage of drawing up a chalk version of my plan on a sheet of steel so that I can try parts against it as I make them and also tack weld some "walls" onto it to get the final fit OK. 

Having done that I contacted the client with some sketches and photos of my ideas and have now got the go ahead for the first two grilles. But I changed the top intersection of bars after doing another experiment to try out a split and expanded tenon at the part where the vertical bars intersect with the horizontals. A hole is punched and drifted into a rectangle shape in the horizontal bar. I stamped a shoulder into the vertical bar and then drew it down into a straight section the right size to fit through the hole and then slit it into two forks and drew those down further leaving some meat on the end to make into little flats. After straightening the two lobes of the forked tongue to fit through the mortice hole I then bent them back on the bar to hold the set firmly in place.

I am not sure of my skill set as yet, so I may end up making the verticals in sections to be welded into one piece for the final assembly, but I would like to keep these joints as physical connections, not just welds.