[TowerTalk] Rebar Cage for Foundation

[Kevin Stover, AC0H]

All

Welding rebar is not for your average Ham Radio doofi.
You need the right steel, the right sticks, the right wire/gas if MIG 
welding, the correct technique (the hard part).

A welded connection when done right will be stronger that either the 
base metal and weld medium used to make it. You are creating an alloy 
when you weld. You don't need that for a tower base.

If welding rebar were the magic bullet they'd be doing it everywhere. 
They aren't.

Below is the way it's supposed to be done.

On 5/5/2017 6:54 PM, Shawn Donley wrote:
> Here's what I did.  I found a local company that would supply, cut and bend the rebar per the cage design specs.  They had the professional machinery to do this properly and accurately.  That's the hard part.  Took it all home in my pickup truck and put it together on-site using conventional rebar wires ties.   I did order several pieces of small diameter rebar and tied them on as diagonals on each side to provide rigidity and have the cage hold it's shape.  Had the backhoe guy lower it into the hole after excavation, laying it so that each vertical rebar was on thick concrete pavers to keep the rebar from touching dirt (a bad thing which will cause the rebar to rust, expand and fracture the concrete).  Also want at least 3.5 inches between the cage and the dirt sidewalls for the same reason.
> 
> 
> Good luck with your project.
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-- 
R. Kevin Stover    AC0H
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441
ARRL