After bitching yesterday about the drips and runs I had to grind off to make
the sections fit together, further inspection reveals lines of little razor
sharp zinc whiskers 1/8" - 1/4" long up and down several legs, plus many of
the diagonal cross braces. I've already cut a hand on one, so I guess I'll
end up hand filing all that crap off of 80' of tower while it's still on the
ground. Sigh.... This isn't Brand X tower stuff, it's supposed to be the
best there is. Makes me wonder if quality production work is simply not
available these days, at any price. I'm not a metals engineer, but I'd bet
galvanizing results like this are caused by rushing the time in the tank,
resulting in the object (tower section) being dipped not reaching the
ambient temp of the molten zinc. When the tower section is pulled out of the
tank too soon, the insufficiently heated steel sucks the heat from the
galvanizing coat too quickly, allowing drips and whiskers to freeze that
would normally run off and smooth out. Cranking out tower sections too fast
= profit up, quality down. No big surprise.
Jerry W5KP
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