Hi Wendell...
My AS45 plate basically looks like it is the size of the AS25 plate, but
instead of the bent flanges at the corner of the plate as in the AS25, the
AS45 uses a piece of angle iron at each corner, welded to the plate. Holes
for the U-bolts to fasten to the tower are drilled in the angle iron.
All of this is galvanized of course.
So you could replicate this by cutting a flat plate (or starting with the
AS25 if you have one), cutting short pieces of angle iron (my guesstimate is
they are 3 inch by 3 inch angle, about 1/4 inch thick). Then weld them on
and galvanize or otherwise rustproof it, drill the holes, obtain the
u-bolts, etc.
Till you add up your time and materials, and the price of welding if you
don't do your own, $79 is probably a good deal for a new one.
I do use some angle iron on my Rohn 45 as a mast support (between the rotor
and the top plate). It is fashioned as a "T". One piece of angle goes
between two of the legs. A second piece goes between the third leg and a the
midpoint of the first piece. The second piece is drilled to accommodate a
u-bolt large enough to go around the mast, with a wee bit to spare. I used
the AS45 as a guide to make sure the u-bolt position was centered in the
tower. The u-bolt uses nuts on both sides of the angle iron so it can be
adjusted to leave room for the mast to turn, yet still offer some lateral
support. If the rotor needs to be removed for repair, the u-bolt can be
tightened on the mast and the rotor pulled out without having to remove the
mast or leave it flopping in the breeze
If your rotor had the lower mast mount, you could use two of these "t"
brackets to hold a pipe on which to mount the rotor. The tricky part is
getting it so the rotor is centered in the tower. I used 2" by 2" by 1/4
inch galvanized angle obtained from a local scrap yard. I was lucky to find
a bucket of galvanized u-bolts at the junk yard too -- but they are hard to
find used. So my total cost for one t-bracket was about $8. If you had to
buy everything new to make a pair of these to support a rotor, materials
might cost $50, plus your time and drill bits.
So $79 is probably still a bargain.
73/Jon AA1K
At 04:12 PM 12/18/96 -0600, you wrote:
> My Rohn 45 Foldover will arrive next week. I didn't like the price of the
Accessory Shelf and made mine for my old Rohn 25 from 3/16 aluminum plate.
Are there any good alternatives to paying about $79 for the Rohn AS45
rotator plate?
>
>
>* A little tidbit that many people don't realize who are first getting
>* in to tower installations is that the AS25 accessory shelf for Rohn
>* 25 ONLY fits at the top of the tower section or at the bottom. It
>* will not fit partway without modification. The AS45 plate will, as
>* its design is entirely different.
>
>
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>
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: K7LXC@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P
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