- Joined
- Apr 22, 2016
- Messages
- 965
I've wanted a free-standing tower that would be easy and FREE to take down and put up. This was mostly for weather instruments but also a couple of TV antennas. A friend of mine gave me a 50' tower that was his dad's but when inspected it was in poor and dangerous condition. Water had gotten into the main uprights and froze, bursting them in many places. It was also bent pretty bad. So, I decided to make one from scratch. Other years I had rented a manlift to do work on the top, but now the price to rent has outpriced the usefulness of my hobby.
I ordered three 21' lengths of 1" black iron pipe from another friend who owns a fabrication shop and three lengths of 3/4" that fit inside the one inch. All of the cross pieces and bracing on that other tower from my friend were in very good shape as they were welded shut on both ends so water could not enter. I cut them out and ground most of them to the exact same length. Got much use of my new belt grinder https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/belt-sander-info-needed.105740/ (Start at post # 10). The bottom section flairs out at its bottom.
I made some identical wooden jigs to hold everything in place and started welding. MUCH WELDING AND GRINDING! Took about 2 weeks to fabricate and assemble the top and bottom sections. Then another week or so to fabricate the base with hinge mechanism, move to location and attach the 2 sections together. A few more days to remove the old wooden tower and dig and form the hole for the base. The base is shaped like a wisdom tooth with 5 roots. Two of the roots are 4' deep and the others 3' and they spread out at the bottom. There is lots of rebar used to make this strong and 6 bag redi mix.
To make this easy to raise and lower, I bought a dedicated winch and built pulleys and a jig pole, cemented in an anchor point for the winch and store all items together. The 1st time it was raised with a cable and my SUV with my wife driving but now I can do it all myself and only takes about an hour to set up and winch. Possible to do even when there is deep snow if necessary.
Thanks for looking.
Aaron
Removing old wooden tower
Jigged up for welding
Base with hinge
Top section
Hole with form and rebar
Base
Up view
House view
I ordered three 21' lengths of 1" black iron pipe from another friend who owns a fabrication shop and three lengths of 3/4" that fit inside the one inch. All of the cross pieces and bracing on that other tower from my friend were in very good shape as they were welded shut on both ends so water could not enter. I cut them out and ground most of them to the exact same length. Got much use of my new belt grinder https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/belt-sander-info-needed.105740/ (Start at post # 10). The bottom section flairs out at its bottom.
I made some identical wooden jigs to hold everything in place and started welding. MUCH WELDING AND GRINDING! Took about 2 weeks to fabricate and assemble the top and bottom sections. Then another week or so to fabricate the base with hinge mechanism, move to location and attach the 2 sections together. A few more days to remove the old wooden tower and dig and form the hole for the base. The base is shaped like a wisdom tooth with 5 roots. Two of the roots are 4' deep and the others 3' and they spread out at the bottom. There is lots of rebar used to make this strong and 6 bag redi mix.
To make this easy to raise and lower, I bought a dedicated winch and built pulleys and a jig pole, cemented in an anchor point for the winch and store all items together. The 1st time it was raised with a cable and my SUV with my wife driving but now I can do it all myself and only takes about an hour to set up and winch. Possible to do even when there is deep snow if necessary.
Thanks for looking.
Aaron
Removing old wooden tower
Jigged up for welding
Base with hinge
Top section
Hole with form and rebar
Base
Up view
House view
