[Towertalk] Cracked Leg on Rohn 45G

[kr7x@attbi.com]

Chuck:

I am taking off my S.E.,P.E. hat here and giving you a 
potential fix.

Get a piece of 1"x1"x1/8" steel angle about 12" long. 
Place it at the split location as best you can trying to 
center it over the split and clearing the diagonals and 
horizontals. It would be nice if it was centered on the 
split but that may not be possible. You may have to 
rotated it around the leg to get clearance from the 
diagonals and horizontals. Weld it with a 1/16" or 
larger groove weld using E70xx electrode. weld both 
edges of the angle to the leg for the full length of the 
angle. Take care and skip weld, alternate on both edges 
as you go and fill in to get the full length weld so as 
not to warp the leg or angle and burn through the leg.

The idea is to replace the leg area with the angle area 
in the region of the split, with the angle acting as a 
splint.

There may be other ideas out there just a valid.

Good Luck

Hank / KR7X



   
> Greetings Towertalkians
> 
> I just returned from a good friend of mine's place where we did some tower
> work.  Upon a close inspection of his tower, we found a 2 1/2" split on the
> inside of one of his Rohn 45G tower legs!  The split appears to have
> happened from water in the leg where it froze and expanded.  Other than
> this vertical crack, the tower is in great shape and is well guyed and is
> definitely NOT overloaded.
> 
> Is there anything that he can do to repair this crack (with bracing and
> such) to make sure that this leg does not give way?  It is about 3ft from
> where the tower goes into the concrete.  We drilled a super-small "weep
> hole" in that leg of the tower to see if there was any more trapped
> moisture and there was none.  He really would hate to have to dig another
> tower hole close by and rent a crane to lift the tower to a new location
> right now.  I realize that anything that he can do will not be to Rohn
> specs, so we're kind of flying by the seat of our pants here, folks, so ALL
> ideas are welcomed.  Thanks and 73.
> 
> Chuck  KØTVD
> 
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