[TowerTalk] Rebar Cage for Foundation

[Steve Jones]

For my US Tower HDX-589 I had a local company, San Jose Rebar, fabricate the cage using US Tower's foundation design documents.  The price was $525 and they loaded the ~ 500 pound cage onto my pickup truck.

I parked the truck near the foundation location and attached the little concrete dobies to the bottom and sides.  

When my local contractor finished excavating the foundation hole, he used his excavator bucket with a chain to lower the cage into the hole.

I attached the big foundation bolts to the cage with wires as described in the US Tower foundation design, using a wooden template to hold them in position for the pour.

The inspector glanced at it and signed it off.

73,
Steve
N6SJ


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Stover, AC0H
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2017 8:11 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Rebar Cage for Foundation

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
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