a gin-pole breaking...
 

"Crazy George" wrote in message
...
Thierry:

Before you get someone killed, hire some competent high iron workers.
Anyone who drops a section of tower because they are uninformed on tower
safety is going to raise the insurance rates for everyone, never mind the
human life you may take.

Hi,

I think that we know that my friend. This is not our first tower and we all
already have do similar installations, and I even wrote a short article
about it as well http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/qsl-rotator-tower.htm p2-5.
However I am personally less familiarized with such a job than my friends.
But on the contrary I was more security oriented that most of them. But as
there was only one director on the field, I could always go against his
decision or we have no more time to buy the additional material. All people
were in site and we had to erect the tower now, not tomorrow...
That said in practice we could do the job without problem, even if not
everybody had an helmet or gloves for example and didn't think that some
pulley 'd break.

3 people climbed on the tower : 2 most of the time and a third to check some
detail. There was also only with people directing the work.
One of us was specialist in aluminium work (on plane, etc), another one was
expert in scaffolding before he retired and a third used to work on sloping
roof and on high chimneys. We have not really high iron workers.

For the gin-pole the guy who built it in assembling 2-3 tubes recognized
immediately that his system was faulty. But is worked up to over 10m high
without problem as long as the all system was well check and secure with
ropes (4mm steel cable, the one use by the eletrical winch).

Of course I think that in erecting any tower we learn something new each
time.

This time, 2 rollers attached to the lift system (a new one) made of steel
broke !, we lost two other pulleys because they were made of teflon. They
were replaced with steel ones. Hopefully we had full of spare parts up to
mini-clamps because we already learnt lessons from previous similar
experiences. Even the winch (a new one) didn't wind correctly and we had to
unwind it completely and wind it up without making knots. This steel cable
4mm think will be replaced by a new 50m roll.

But the simpler the best : another time to another friend who desired to
erect a 14m high cranking tower (from the same manufacturer) 60 cm wide (8
years ago now) we simply assembled all the tower horizontally at ground
level, then pulling on ropes to erect it progressively vertically. This
method was faster and much simpler. We were 18 people, 15 at ground pulling,
2 other holding the tower and a third in a tree with a "tire-fort" (sort of
manual winch, cannot translate). This solution worked perfectly without
error or broken part. Good to know.

Thierry


--
Crazy George
Remove N O and S P A M imbedded in return address

"Jack Painter" wrote in message
news:5vYOc.20119$fm2.8359@lakeread02...

"Crazy George" wrote

Before you get someone killed, hire some competent high iron workers.
Anyone who drops a section of tower because they are uninformed on tower
safety is going to raise the insurance rates for everyone, never mind
the
human life you may take.

Hey George, you know...
the purpose of some people's lives is to serve as a warning to others...


Why Jack, did you never do a mistake in your life... ?

We are not ironworkers but simply radio amateurs expert in various other
fields. However, many are used to work with electronic parts, steel bar or
aluminium or have discussed a lot with specialists or people having already
do similar works.
Ou group has erected a lot of antennas in our area (they are several major
ham radio club around here and thus many amateurs who have the place to
erect a beam) to know what are risks and how to proceed.

Unfortunately each time, the tower is different (bigger, smaller, with a
lift, placed on a roof, cranking or not, etc) and sometimes the owner hasn't
think about all detail or did'nt buy all required part because they were not
available in the shop when he did his purchases.
We often discover that only once on site, even if we speak longtimes before,
often during meeting at radio clubs or even by echolink or visiting the
installation of other amateurs using similar tower.
In this last experience, the owner visited 8 times a friend having erected a
similar tower to be sure of all detail (mainly how worked the winch to lift
the cage and how he fixed his heavy duty rotator on top on the cage to avoid
that the beam element touch the tower.

Many people think that they are able to do any kind of job without looking
for information. This is far to be true because most of the time, as
amateurs, we often imagine complex solutions instead of the simpler ones.
Many of them refuse or rather don't think about the security issues (of
people and material) and buy often undersized tubing or accessories.
This is here that problem began, reason for which some of us have a spacial
suitcase full of quality parts and of various sizes, from the mini to the
largest. But the chance and hasard (risks) are never far away, like
Murphy...
Hopefully the smartest of us and also handymen and have a long experience in
their back and have gathered many field experience and know usually was is
good and was is faulty or to avoid. They gathered also a lot of tools and
their long experience is appreciated.
So all together we usually do an excellent job, at the condition that the
owner buy all parts that we listed or suggest him to buy and don't forget
any tool and doesn't sacrifiy the quality for a few euros...

Thierry


Jack
Virginia Beach VA
fmr Journeyman Ironworker
local 348 Erie PA