[TowerTalk] Opening Steel Hardwre AFter 15 Years

[K9MA]

I ran into the same problem when I replaced my tower last year. I used 
Big Grips on the guys, but wanted to use cable clamps on the safety wire 
through the turnbuckles, which was to be 3/16 EHS. Except for some bare 
iron ones, none of the clamps I could find were rated for 1X7 EHS; all 
were rated for 7X19, etc, with more strands.  I think the key is that 
the saddles have to be malleable, because it's impossible to compress 
1X7 EHS. (Ever try to cut the stuff?)  I finally ended up buying some 
finely stranded SS cable and clamps for the safety wires. Overkill, 
maybe, but if a turnbuckle fails, I want the safety wire to hold the 
tower up.

73,
Scott K9MA



On 4/14/2020 17:05, Donald Chester wrote:
> 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
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-- 
Scott  K9MA

k9ma at sdellington.us