[TowerTalk] Recommendation for mast on bottom mount rotator

[Bill Turner]

On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:12:10 -0700, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net>
wrote:

<snip>
>K8RI made a good point.. I assumed that you'd have another thrust 
>bearing at the bottom to hold the weight of the torque tube. If not, 
>then the entire weight of the tube will also be on your top thrust bearing.

How would you get the weight evenly spread between the two thrust
bearings? It would seem to me that one or the other would take it all
and leave the other hanging, so to speak. Even if you shimmed up the
unloaded one, how would you know you had the load spread evenly? I
would think with gradual wear, heat expansion, etc, etc, the load
would shift back and forth anyway. Better to just use one that is
rated for the job and let it do it. As far as that goes, I could just
use the rotator itself to carry the load, since it's rated at 400
pounds vertical load. 
<snip>


>As an off the wall idea.. have you considered using wood?  You can 
>get long straight round poles.  I haven't done any calculations of 
>relative strength, but it might be a possibility.

Hadn't thought of using wood. My gut feeling says not to, but it's
worth thinking about.

Bill, W6WRT