[TowerTalk] Adjustment to Tower Base

Gary Schafer garyschafer at largeriver.net
Sat Jul 22 23:15:10 EDT 2017


I agree with using a die grinder. I am going to do that with a tri-x tower
where the base rods shifted when concrete was poured.

73
Gary  K4FMX

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> Al Kozakiewicz
> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 9:30 PM
> To: Wilson Lamb; towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Adjustment to Tower Base
> 
> Structural bolts are hardened by heat treating. Hardened bolts can crack
> or break if you try to bend them. You can avoid that possibility by
> heating, but then that will undo the heat treatment and weaken the bolt.
> 
> The best advice you got was to leave the bolts alone and take a die
> grinder to the base mounting holes. I can't think of a downside or risk
> to doing that.
> 
> Al
> AB2ZY
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Wilson
> Lamb <infomet at embarqmail.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:18 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Adjustment to Tower Base
> 
> No one has mentioned the ugly possibility of cracking the concrete by
> pushing on the bolts .....It has almost no tensile strength.
> Rather than bend the bolts, you might consider the possibility of using
> the hydraulics idea.
> If you made saddles to bear against the lower nuts, you could jack after
> getting the template off.
> So run the lower nuts down to leave an inch or two of thread on top.
> Jack away until the bolts are in position and then set the tower down on
> the exposed thread, against the nuts, if you like, and then back off the
> jack.
> I'm sure the tower is heavy enough to slide down, once started.
> Obviously you want to jack as high as possible, to get max flexibility
> of bolts.
> The cylinder need not be the full length across the base.  You could use
> any sort of jack and build out with pipe, I beam, etc.
> Are you sure the error is all in the line between the bolts, which this
> idea assumes?
> If not, the bolts may need bending in different directions.  Otherwise
> the other locations could go off.
> My last idea...Could you find a big tapered reamer, larger than the
> bolts?
> If so, and if it has a fairly gentle taper, you might be able to make
> the holes conical, so as to start them enough to allow the tower to
> squeeze down.
> I know this is a stretch...
> I wish one of our real engineers would post an estimate of the force
> needed to get the required deflection.
> WL
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk



More information about the TowerTalk mailing list