Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Simple Tower Construction

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Simple Tower Construction
From: W0UN -- John Brosnahan <shr@swtexas.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:55:08 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
At 09:55 AM 7/18/2005, JC Smith wrote:
>John,
>
>How did you make your "thrust bearing" watertight?
>
>73 - JC, k0hps@amsat.org

Waterproof???   This was a rental house!    ;-)

Actually it WAS a rental house owned by the University and scheduled
to be torn down and turned into a parking lot once our lease ran out.

Actually I offset slightly from the peak and used one of the "bushings"
(or whatever they are called?) for vent pipes and some other rubber
plumbing fittings.  It must have worked since it never leaked--or at least
the guys upstairs never complained about water, only about the noise.

The true "thrust bearing" was a double set of 2x8s in the attic that were just
under the roof.  They were long enough to tie to a number of rafters to spread
the load over a wider area.  I used a circular hole saw to make a hole in them
once there were lag bolted in place.  Since they were slanted with 
the roof and
I wanted a vertical hole for the pipe I used a hole saw in my drill 
with the locating
center bit extended out as far as I could get it.

Hard to believe that was 40 years ago.  Time flies when you are having fun
and I have had a lot of fun with radio over the years.  Even just 
thinking about
it.   Got up this morning at 5 AM to finalize my design for a low cost bearing
for a rotating tower.  The rings were designed, but I was having a hard time
figuring out how to do the base bearing.  I'll be moving my 175 ft Rohn 55
rotating tower (commercial one) down from CO and I now want all of my towers
here in TX to be rotating towers.  I just couldn't afford to go out 
and buy the
hardware.  But I love hardware so much that I have my own lathe, 
milling machine,
and welding gear.  So it will be sweat equity on my rotating towers.

73--John  W0UN


_______________________________________________

See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather 
Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions 
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.

_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>