[TowerTalk] telescoped tubing

Julio Peralta jperalta at tampabay.rr.com
Tue Nov 30 07:18:47 EST 2004


John I wish you a lot of luck getting those apart. Some years ago I loaned
my Rohn ginpole to a friend. He left it on the tower for an extended period
of time. When I retrieved it the collar was frozen to the tubing. We tried
everything we could think of including heat, lubricants and pounding. We
eventually had to cut it and peal it off the tube. We then welded the cut to
complete the repair.

I sure hope your experience getting them apart is better than mine.

Julio, W4HY

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W0UN -- John Brosnahan" <shr at swtexas.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 12:34 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] telescoped tubing


> Been down this road before with simple problems but this one is more
> complex.  I have some 2024-T3 aircraft tubing that is telescoped over an
> extended length--like 48 inches in some cases.  Larger tubing is
> 2.0 inch x 0.120 wall and smaller tubing is 1.75 inch x 0.120.  These
> were telescoped together in the 1970s and were tight fits back then, and
> have resisted simple attempts to separate them over the decades.
>
> I will probably try all of the tricks in the book, such as differential
heating
> by heating the outer one and then running cold water in the inner one.
> And I may resort to hydraulic boost with either manual hydraulic jacks or
a
> log-splitter adapter to push them apart.
>
> But before I use force I would like to get some lubricant inside the
> telescoped gap.  Obviously it has to be low viscosity, but I am willing
> to soak the pipes for an extended period of time to try and get the
> lubricant into the entire length of overlap.
>
> Any thoughts on lubricant (like penetrating oil or WD-40 or ???) that
> will WICK into the gap and be cheap enough so I can afford to buy
> it by the gallon?
>
> Any other suggestions?  When I have the tubing ready to separate I
> will use cold-rolled steel blocks that clamp onto the tubing.  I have
already
> made sizes for both diameters of tubing.  Just want to get some lubricant
> into the joint first to help prevent or at least reduce the chances for
> galling the aluminum.
>
> Thanks--John   W0UN
>
>
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>
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