[TowerTalk] Opening Steel Hardwre AFter 15 Years

[Donald Chester]

Keith Dutson kdutson at sbcglobal.net Sat Apr 4 19:28:59 EDT 2020 wrote:

> Good reminder to always use hot dipped galvanized hardware.

I re-guyed my Rohn 25 a couple of years ago.  Big Grips are great for attaching insulators breaking up
guy cables on my 160m vertical, but I use wire rope clamps on the chains of 3 insulators  next to the
tower because with Big Grips the insulators would be spaced too far apart for my liking.

I ordered new clamps from Rohn, but the ones I received were cheap zinc plated like something from
Ace Hardware, and the saddles are so poorly made that they slipped on the cable when I tested
them under tension using a ratchet puller. I called the Rohn dealer and they told me they couldn't get
the good hot-dipped clamps any more, since almost everyone now uses Big Grips exclusively.  I looked 
on line and the good hot-dipped clips from Crosby are very expensive, about $7 each (mine cost me 
35¢ each in 1980).

I ended up re-using the old ones after carefully inspecting each one, and painted over them with a heavy 
coat of Rustoleum aluminium paint.  I used some of the crappy ones I got from Rohn for another 
(non-tower) project, and sure enough, the U-bolts and nuts are now heavily rusted after only two years,
much more so than the original clamps I had installed nearly 40 years ago.  The re-used and painted ones 
on the tower guy wires still look as good as the day I installed them.  I have found that ordinary aluminium 
paint lasts longer before rust begins to peer through, than the "Cold-Galv" stuff.

I still have a bucket full of the crappy ones I got from Rohn.  Haven't decided whether to take them to
a  hamfest and sell for whatever I can get for them, or to toss them in the dumpster.  I would hate for
someone else to buy them from me and have a tower fail when the cables slipped during a heavy wind-
storm.  I would have returned them if I hadn't fooled around and waited more than a year before opening 
the box when I was ready to use them, and discovering what they sent me. I didn't bother, since I doubt 
they would have accepted a return after I had waited that long.

Don k4kyv