Hi Roger,
When I built my base I used the tower itself as the template for the ears. I
would highly recommend doing this or you be sorry when you try to put the two
together. Keep reading. I bolted the ears to the tower and then tack welded
the ears to the base with the tower laying horizontal. I used some 16 gauge
sheetmetal (1/16") as spacers so the ears were slightly apart when the base was
taken off the tower. Don't forget to also do a similar spacer for the third
ear! The problem I ran into, and if I did it over I could remedy this problem,
was that when I started welding the ears moved from the heat. A LOT! Remember
we're talking 1/2" steel here (in my case, anyways) and that requires a hell of
a lot of welder to do it properly. To avoid the warpage, I would
cross/diagonally brace the crud out of the ears so they can not move at all.
Then cut off the braces when it is all welded. I welded the ears on with three
passes, and the rest of the gussets with single passes on
both sides. The final product weighs in about 225 pounds. I think the base
itself can hold up the tower without the concrete, lol.
I finally got my tower up today (hoorah!) and it only required a small amount
of prying with a pointy prybar to align the holes enough to get all 15 bolts
in. This was less prying/hammering/cursing than I've seen on other factory UST
baseplates, so I felt good about the way things fit. (I cut out the holes and
all the baseplate pieces on a buddy's plasma table, so all holes were right on
the money). I used a homebuilt raising fixture made from 4x4 posts and a
Fulton 2500 winch leftover from another tower project.
Chris
KF7P
On Oct 19, 2013, at 18:30 , Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
I'm getting ready to do the final welds on the base. Unfortunatel there are no
specific dimensions given in the paperwork.
The outside distance on the tower "ears" is 23". I'm using the raising fixture
to hold the base "ears" for building the rebar cage. When bolted to the
raising fixture the "inside" dimension between the ears is 23 1/4" That leaves
an 1/8th of an inch space between the tower ears and the base ears on each side
, or 1/4" total.
I'm assuming I should space the base ears in from the raising fixture with
washers, to give no more than 1/32nd of an inch clearance so when the bolts are
tight the tower and base ears will mate flush and tight.. This should allow
for a snug fit, but not interfere with raising the tower and give face to face
contact for a good holding force when the bolts are tight ( snug plus 1/2 turn)
Comments?
73
Roger (K8RI)
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