[TowerTalk] Phillystran Tension Gage

[R. David Eagle]

 I thought I would give everyone an update on what I cam up with to tension the .22 philly at low tensions.  My goal was to have the tension between 100-175lbs.  Not many gauges will handle that low of tension with that diameter Soooo this is where necessity steps in.  I did some searching around and it seems that bike spokes can be tensioned within this range and I found one gauge that I thought would be worth testing.  I setup a test setup with a digital hanging weight scale with a bucket to hold dome weights and a section of the philly in between to test the deflections as i added weight. I incremented the weight in the bucket and took measurements then plotted it out on excel to come up with a line equation for my philly.  I was pretty impressed at the results and the repeatability.
Here is the gauge I used...Riiai Red MTB Bicycle Electronic Tension Meter Mountain Road Bike Wheel Spokes Checker High Precision Indicator Accurate Stable

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Riiai Red MTB Bicycle Electronic Tension Meter Mountain Road Bike Wheel ...

Features1. The TC-02 Tension Meter accurately and reliably measures the absolute tension of each of the spokes i...
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DaveKB8NNU



    On Monday, July 26, 2021, 7:34:32 AM EDT, john at kk9a.com <john at kk9a.com> wrote:  
 
 Comparing the Loos readings on stainless steel cable vs EHS is not checking
the gauge's accuracy. You would need to tension the EHS with a dynamometer
and then check it with the Loos gauge. The Loos is an inexpensive gauge made
for sail boats however it's better than using nothing for guy tension.

John KK9A 


K9MA k9ma wrote:

I can't find it now, but a couple years ago I found some calibration 
data comparing the Loos PT-2 on 3/16 EHS compared to the SS wire rope it 
was designed for. I recall that the PT-2 read perhaps 10 percent high on 
the EHS. (The true tension was lower than the PT-2 indicated.) Since EHS 
is very stiff, that makes sense. However, K7LXC, in "Up the Tower", made 
a similar measurement, and found little difference in the readings. 
These measurements were all made with a piece of 19 strand 3/16 SS in 
series with 7 strand EHS and a commercial tension gauge.

If anyone succeeds in finding those measurements, let me know.

My Phillystran guys have the usual EHS tails near the ground, so I just 
measured the tension on the EHS. I'm not sure why anyone would want to 
use Phillystran all the way to the ground.

73,
Scott

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