[TowerTalk] Refurbishing Tower Sections

[Bill Cotter]

Doug,

I just had North American Galvanizers in Louisville run my 100ft of 
Rohn-45 (30yrs old) through the four dip tanks and the hot-dip 
galvanizing tank. It looks like a new tower. The did the whole 
tower, plates, torque arms, etc for $195 - 800lbs or so. The price 
is based on weight, so you can take all your pieces in a truck, 
they clean them to bare metal and re-plate them to the original finish.

Compared to the time/effort I spent on cleaning, rust removal, 
painting, etc the 80ft Rohn-25, this process was a gift.

Check the internet for the closest galvanizer.

73 bill n4alg


At 08:57 PM 9/15/2003, you wrote:
>I have some AB-105 with some surface rust. I plan on putting part 
>of it up
>for a 40'-50' tower beside my house. In order to make it less 
>noticeable I
>plan to paint it black. (I have a black mast up next to the house 
>now and it
>is almost invisible.) I realize that the absolute best way to do 
>this would
>be to sand blast and hot dip galvanize the parts, but my guess is 
>that this
>would not be very economical. My question is which would be the best
>economical way to accomplish this:
>
>1) wire brush the parts and paint with black Rustoleum (or 
>whatever paint is
>recommended)
>
>2) wire brush the parts, cold galvanize the parts with ZRC (or 
>whatever is
>recommended), then paint with black Rustoleum if needed (it looks like
>standard ZRC results in a "Flat Finish, Battleship Gray", so the 
>black paint
>may not be needed)
>
>3) paint the parts with Ospho (or similar rust converting/inhibiting
>"paint") and then paint with black Rustoleum
>
>The ZRC is about $125 a gallon. The Ospho is $100/4 gallons.
>
>I'm not sure #1 would be very long lasting and I don't really want to
>periodically repaint the tower once it is up.
>
>I'm leaning towards #2 because I think wire brushing and a single 
>coating of
>ZRC will be faster than 1 to 2 coats of Ospho followed by a single 
>coating
>of Rustoleum. From a conductivity standpoint, I think #2 would be 
>the best
>also.
>
>Any thoughts from the pool of wisdom?
>
>Doug
>K4DDR
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>
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>"Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 
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>
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Bill Cotter, N4ALG             E-mail: n4alg at qx.net
173 Carolyn Lane               Home: (859) 887-5563
Nicholasville, KY 40356-9340   Work: (859) 323-6474

ARRL   ARCI #9878   QRPl #1646   QCWA #29393   FISTS #4535
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