[TowerTalk] Aluminium rivets and galvanization

David Jordan Wa3gin at comcast.net
Wed Dec 21 10:38:54 PST 2011


HAH, 

I friend of mine has an HDBX-48 that had all the rivets replaced with
stainless steel bolts/nuts.  The upgrade wasn't by choice, the previous
owner had the tower re-galvanized and 'all' the aluminum rivets melted out
and sunk to the bottom of the acid bath in prep for re-galvanization.

The tower is now in King George County, VA waiting to be re-installed by
another ham operator.

73,
Dave
Wa3gin

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of HansLG at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 1:12 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Aluminium rivets and galvanization

 
Gentlemen,
 
I was thinking a little (I do that on occasion) what happens when you  
galvanize a structure containing aluminum rivets. Although  the melting  
temperature of aluminum is 1221°F and the zinc bath is "only" 850°F the
aluminum  
may dissolve in the zinc the same way sugar dissolve in water. Even if the 
rivet  is solid during the process it still will disappear or reduce in size

so it can  fall out.
 
Conclusion: Be aware it is not a good idea to galvanize hardware containing 
 aluminum rivets.
 
73 de,
 
Hans - N2JFS
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