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Re: [TowerTalk] Plumbing a tower

To: Gene Smar <ersmar@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Plumbing a tower
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:49:05 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I am now really, really, really sorry I brought all of this up.

1.  I'm installing the 5 foot base section exactly as the manufacturer 
(AN Wireless) recommends.  Check out the dozens of project photos on 
their website for illustration.  http://www.anwireless.com/photo.html

2.  The first 10 foot tower section above the base weighs 280 pounds.  
The hole for the foundation is 9 feet across and 5 feet deep ... I'd 
need a crane just to attach the first section to the top of the base 
unless I used a gin pole to assemble the section in pieces (close to 100 
pounds per leg) on top of the base before it was secured.

3.  A plumb line???

4.  Shimming 400 pounds (the base section weighs just over 100 pounds) 
while hopping in and out of the hole to sight the thing somehow doesn't 
seems as easy as shimming 100 pounds while looking at a $40 digital 
readout with a large display right in front of me.

Sigh ...

Dave   AB7E



Gene Smar wrote:
> David et al:
>
>      Self-supporting tower bases without leveling nuts have to be installed 
> with the bottom tower section installed so you can plumb that first section.  
> You can't just bury the base legs in concrete and expect to be able to ensure 
> that subsequent sections will be plumb.
>
>      I did the same as Bill when I installed by SS tower.  I attached the 
> bottom section to the base legs and suspended it over the hole on a lumber 
> frame.  I then plumbed that first tower section and ensured that it didn't 
> move while the concrete was being poured.  
>
>      I plumbed that bottom section by suspending a plumb line (string with a 
> heavy wrench on it) from a T-shaped wooden frame setting on top of the bottom 
> section (per K7LXC's suggestion). I sighted from one face of the tower, 
> through the tower, and lined up the plumb line along one edge of the tower 
> leg opposite the face.  I adjusted the shims underneath the wooden frame 
> supporting the bottom section to make that string parallel with that one leg. 
>  I moved around the tower, sighting through each face to the opposite tower 
> leg, adjusting the supporting frame as I went along.  
>
>      If anyone wants a copy of the T-shaped frame in use atop my tower's 
> first section, drop me a note.  I haven't uploaded it to my photo pages yet.
>
>
> 73 de
> Gene Smar  AD3F
>
>
>   
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