[dataway]

Having my own metal shop I've done a lot of projects around our home that otherwise would have been done with wood.

Wife wanted an island in a certain place in the kitchen problem was there was a load bearing post there. I thought a laminated wood beam would be too tall and would divide the room too much visually. So I built this truss beam to span the 20' and support the load on the foundation walls.

Built it with 12ga square tube doubled up horizontally, with about a 1/8" crown. Put the load on it and it still has the 1/8" crown, you could probably park a car upstairs. Weighs about 275 lbs, so probably about the same as the required laminated wood beam.

The bits of color are little painted metal animals the wife stuck on it with magnets