[TowerTalk] Refurbishing Tower Sections

[Jim Lux]

At 04:06 PM 9/23/2003 -0400, Bill Cotter wrote:
>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



I would second Bill's comment.. It's worth looking in the yellow pages for 
a galvanizer. If the first one you call doesn't handle what you want to do 
(maybe the job's too small, or too long for their tank, etc.), they'll 
usually recommend someone else who can.

As Bill points out, they charge by the weight of what you're galvanizing 
(which makes no sense to me.. I would have thought they charge by the mass 
of the zinc, or something), and it's a pretty low precision measurement 
(they hook up the chain hoist to your stuff and lift away). I seem to 
recall paying $30/hundredweight a few years back.  All those little bits 
and pieces can just be strung on some baling wire.

If there's any welding/drilling/machining to be done, do it BEFORE the 
galvanizing...  No point in getting that nice even coating of molten zinc 
and then cutting into it.

By the way, the process is fascinating to watch, in a "dipping stuff into 
large bubbling vats of molten metal" sort of way.