I just use a large, solid "bolt on" terminal for the proper size wire on
each leg and lots of noalox.
As it's stranded #2 I have just splayed (fanned) the 7 strands out to
close parallel and clamped them to the tower leg with 2 SS hose clamps,
close spaced and lots of noalox. As far as I can see, the parallel
clamps with the parallel strands is almost as good as the commercial
ones that use a large copper terminal on a copper band around each leg.
I do position the clamps so it's the solid SS band over the wire.
73 es good luck es don't forget the noalox,
Roger (K8RI)
On 2/12/2016 Friday 11:56 PM, EZ Rhino wrote:
I would never exothermic weld anything to a relatively thin wall tower leg. No
way. Especially when you've never tried it before and have no skills in doing
such!
I've got a cast zinc clamp on my site that will fit on the tower leg and hold
up to a #2 wire. http://www.kf7p.com/KF7P/TowerLegClamps.html
Chris
KF7P
On Feb 12, 2016, at 20:21 , Larry Loen wrote:
I got a private note indicating some real-world problems (holes in the
pipe) when Cadwelding Rohn towers on at least some occassions. So, for the
record, it doesn't look like a great idea to Cadweld. Maybe I should
simply follow Rohn's instructions and use their clamp gear. Other gear
recommended here probably works as well, but why not follow the
manufacturer's recommendation?
WO7R
On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 12:38 PM, Larry Loen <lwloen@gmail.com> wrote:
I am in the process of putting in two new towers on my property (yes, I am
blessed).
I'm a little nervous about Cadwelding to the legs. I suppose you'll all
tell me it has been done dozens of times, but I have visions of blowing a
hole through one of the legs near the bottom of my tower.
The alternative, I suppose, is to get a set of quality ground clamps,
clamp it maybe three times (I assume this would help the impedance a bit)
and the inspect it over time.
I also plan to have an extensive "ground ring" around the tower. On my
current crankup, I cadwelded to all three "legs" except it was easy to
Cadweld to a nice thick base and not to the tower, proper. Effectively
required, in fact. So, I Cadwelded to stuff that wasn't a big deal,
structurally. Here it would be.
1. Do I Cadweld anyway? How to be sure the tower leg isn't weakened?
2. Do I do it to a single leg or all three? I could "feed" my ground
ring from a single leg, I suppose.
This is all in excess of what Rohn shows, which is a single, clamped line
from the tower, but I've always taken it for granted the smart thing to do
is have a more extensive network. I plan on three rods, connected as a
ring, and then copper "lines" out from each of them to another rod, a total
of six in all. That's all easy and been done (by me) before. Question is,
what's the best way to connect to the tower itself? I have the "buried
tower section" type of base. We will be pouring concrete late next week.
So, I have about a month to plan and execute my ground system.
Larry WO7R
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73
Roger (K8RI)
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