Home brew tower pics

[Lil'Yeshua]

err,.... don't take this wrong, it's a nice construction, but,....... you can buy (used) ROHN tower sections for $25 - $40 .

after TV went to digital, many people can't get OTA TV and many will just tell you to take it down and you can have it free**Jump_im**

First,it was one of those hobby moments for me. Second, what was available then that I knew of were the cheapo ones. Thirdly,those tv antennas on my tower do receive digital tv signals and work fine. They're stacked because the average tv transmitter is fifty miles away. I pick up Charlotte,Myrtle Beach,Columbia,New Bern,Florence,Greensboro,Raleigh,and Augusta. I learned to weld and have a tower that I'm proud of and looks good. I'm the kind of person that likes to take a idea and make a physical reality out if it. Focused in the right direction could make me a billionaire. Hmmmm!

 

[Watergate]

My brother rigged up a jig for it and yes,there where problems with warping. I tack welded everything in place and used C-clamps. The tower isn't laser straight but close enough for a first time welding
P.S. I did the top section all by myself and it's near perfect. The only deal with it was where to do the rail bends to mate the rails at the top where I used a pipe coupling to mate them to. My brother educated me after the fact

I'm putting together material to build one for myself. Already have the jig built. I figure if I weld on opposite ends working towards the center I should avoid warping.

err,.... don't take this wrong, it's a nice construction, but,....... you can buy (used) ROHN tower sections for $25 - $40 .

after TV went to digital, many people can't get OTA TV and many will just tell you to take it down and you can have it free**Jump_im**

His was built 8 years before the digital transition, so I bet towers would have been harder to come by.

Out here in the west they rarely pop up for sale and are expensive when they do. Our TV antennas are on a tripod on the roof, and the station transmitter antennas are on mountain peaks so we don't have towers at the house for OTA television.

Cheapest used tower I saw recently was $300 for a 30 foot tower with a 6 element yagi. You take it down type of deal. Was gone when I called on it. Most run in the $1500 range.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

I aquired a used tower with a one foot face several months after I built mine. Someone didn't want theirs anymore as they were having a new footing under one Wing of their house. It was a fifty footer. Whoever took it done used a sawzall at the section junctions. It was free. I gave it to my brother. It just needed a little work to rejoin the sections.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

looks massive ! what diameter conduit did you use ? how wide is each of the three sides ? how tall is it ?

now you got me wishing i knew how to weld ! LOL

 

[Watergate]

now you got me wishing i knew how to weld ! LOL

A guy like you that likes to tinker and build your own antennas would pick it up fairly easy. I bought a might welder because I has room in the garage for one.

I cut my teeth welding together a riding lawnmower made from steel tubing, parts from a dead mower, parts from a dead 3 wheeler, and an old Honda CB650 for the motor and trans. It would do about 50 mph and wouldn't mow the lawn for shit. It overheated trying to mow because it couldn't go fast enough at mowing speeds to get cool air across the motor, and broke alot, but it taught me to weld. Never have had any formal training, just trial and error.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

It is just a little oversized for a thirty-one foot tower but is a good platform to go up higher. The rails are 3/4" and the braces are 1/2" rigid electrical conduit. The base is 3/16" angel iron and the first two sections have 1/4" angle iron end pieces. The top section has a 1/8" angle iron end piece. The sections are bolted together with galvanized bolts. The top section houses the rotor and mast. It's a simple tower with galvanized pipe couplings that the mast pole runs through. No thrust bearings. Dollar for dollar you could do better just buying a premade tower unless you just want to build one from scratch.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Always have adequate ventilation when welding galvanized materials

Side Effects of Galvanized Steel Welding | eHow.com

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

It does look like a decent job but I will admit that it was pretty pricey for the height. For the $750 you could have had a brand new 40 foot free standing Delhi tower. I believe they are now made by Wade Engineering or something like that. Great project if you jist want a labour of love sort of thing. Myself I would never build a tower as the cost for what it would take to support my antenna system would far exceed the cost of having a factory made tower delivered to my door.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

It does look like a decent job but I will admit that it was pretty pricey for the height. For the $750 you could have had a brand new 40 foot free standing Delhi tower. I believe they are now made by Wade Engineering or something like that. Great project if you jist want a labour of love sort of thing. Myself I would never build a tower as the cost for what it would take to support my antenna system would far exceed the cost of having a factory made tower delivered to my door.

Back then I had no Internet and the local supplier had the one foot face,ten foot long sections with wire bracing,yuck! So,I decided to built my own from scratch. I drive a mixer so I got a lot of my ideas from observing construction equipment,particularly crane booms. The price I mentioned included cost of the weld wire,electricity,clamps,extra band saw blades,going in half on a dedicated direct burial power wire for the welder,and I think I included the antennas,signal amps,hardware. On 01' the 3/4" ten foot rigid electrical conduit was just under $10 and the 1/2" around $6.67. The antennas and amps and coax where from
Radio Shack. The brand of tv antennas RS sells are heavy duty,not like the cheapos I've seen around here. A lot of them have bent elements where some big fat bird had sat on them. And yes,it was the hobby I chose to do at the time. I had $2500 to spend. Every time I come home I just have to look at it and think,I did that!
P.S. I didn't have to buy a welder. The welder was
brother's that he let me use for free. Wire welders aren't cheap either but maybe I'll buy one at some time on the future and a torch.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Lowering the tower for maintenance

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

8 pulley rope hoist comes in handy. Cheaper than a wench. Just figure out what load rating you need for the rope

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Simple tower,simple mast mount with no bearings. Note:The weight of the antennas,mast,and rotor is supported by this simple clamp on guy wire collar ring. The aluminum wire in the pic is the standoff for the coax to keep it from twisting on itself as the antenna array rotates

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

As this was my first tower and I don't particularly get measurements just perfect I designed this self aligning rotor mount(light duty)

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

It's got the stainless steel 1/4 wave whip on top that's never been used. I had it mounted just in case I might someday. I might hook it up today and use the mast/tower as the other half of the antenna. It takes a few trips from the hoist vehicle to the rope I use to off set the tower in order to lower it. That just attests to what kind of force reduction the rope pulley system has. I keep the hoist vehicle attached to the rope to control the angle the tower is at,periodically making adjustments because of rope stretch

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Obviously I gotten the wrong size coax reducers. Cut the connector ends off my 30 year old Stinger X coax. Those fit.