[TowerTalk] Opening Steel Hardwre AFter 15 Years

[K9MA]

Yes, the turnbuckles are rated to be stronger than the guy wire.  But 
stuff happens. The safety wires were cheap insurance.

73,

Scott K9MA

On 4/14/2020 21:48, Steve Maki wrote:
> The purpose of the safety wire is to prevent vandals from unscrewing 
> the turnbuckle. Some say that it's also to prevent the turnbuckle from 
> unscrewing due to vibration - but I've never seen that tendency in 
> turnbuckles under guy wire tension.
>
> Properly sized turnbuckles are not the weak link in the system - it's 
> the guy wire itself.
>
> -Steve K8LX
>
> On 04/14/20 22:16 PM, K9MA wrote:
>> 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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>>
>>
>
>
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-- 
Scott  K9MA

k9ma at sdellington.us