[TowerTalk] Plumbing a tower

[Kenneth R. Goodwin, Jr.]

My Rohn self supporting tower uses bolts for the base with nuts both 
below and above the first section footpads that allow alignment.  I 
used a transit to plumb the tower and was very surprised to discover 
that the four sections were like spaghetti as I cited from the bottom 
to the top. I had to compromise the vertically of the tower with 
obvious emphasis on the top section wrt to the bottom section.  I was 
also surprised to discover how easy it was to move the nuts on the 
foundation bolts since the tower must weight about 2500 pounds.

If your foundation consists of a tower section embedded in cocreate, 
I suspect the best you can do is use a bubble level that spans the 
foundation section and insure the connection points for the first 
section are level with each other.  The form for the foundation 
should constrain the foundation section from movement as the cement 
is poured.  Check out the Rohn catalog for some good engineering 
diagrams of foundation forms.

Ken Goodwin, K5RG
krgoodwin at comcast.net