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Re: [TowerTalk] Homebre Aluminum Tower...

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Homebre Aluminum Tower...
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2015 12:14:07 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 8/10/15 10:41 AM, Douglas Ruz (CO8DM) wrote:
Hello everybody !!!!,

I am still trying to build a tower...

I found many Aluminum tubes here...they are 6 ft long and 1 1/2 inch
diameter with 0,08 inch wall...those tubes have been working in a heat
exchange equipment but are like new...i dont know the type of Aluminum...

Is is possible build a Triangular tower adding "Z" braces joined with
Rivets???...a guyed tower like Rohn 25G, etc...

I have been trying to build a tower (antenna) for low bands but maybe i
can install a light weight tribander (spiderbeam) on top...not sure if
that tower is strong enought for climbing.

I will apprecciate your comments.



It's certainly possible. Since you don't know the material, and strength, and so forth...

What I'd do before investing a huge amount of time is build a short section (6 ft long, because that's how long your tubes are) and do a bit of testing. You can bolt it so it sticks out sideways from some sturdy support and stack sandbags on it to load test it.

How tall do you want to go?

If you're guying it, you don't need to climb it, and you're just holding up wires, maybe you don't even need braces.. You basically put up a 1.5" diameter aluminum tube that's 50-60 feet high or whatever.

If you need a bit more stiffness, you could probably bundle 3 tubes tightly together. THink about using 3 tubes, and spacing them with short pieces of tube (6 tubes around a center core tube). The center core tube is 3-6" long, as are 3 spacers.

You could use standard "banding" gear like you use for crates to hold it all together, or rope, or big hose clamps.

Put 7 identical coins on the table and make a hexagon, and you'll see what I mean. spreading the tubes out a bit makes the overall diameter of the assembly bigger, which makes it stronger and stiffer.

Or if you have something else you can use as a spacer, you could use that. Heck, you could use triangular pieces of plywood with semicircular cutouts at the corners into which the tubes nest.

People put spiderbeams up on a pretty lightweight 40foot carbon fiber tube mast.

This is a lot like using thin wall irrigation pipe.



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