Author Topic: Anchorage last pour Originally posted September 17, 2009, 05:05:06 PM  (Read 3636 times)

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Offline tomw

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In an attempt to document as I go along in this project:


This spring we bored a bunch of post holes for the garden fence. While the guys were here with the power auger we bored the anchor hole for the gin pole. I was not 100% sure what length I wanted for the gin pole so took a Wild Azz Guess and bored it at 16 feet from the tower base with an eyeball alignment with the tower itself. We hit a big rock going in so the hole wandered south of the intended position and I didn't think it was a big deal if it was off a bit to the side. Certainly not worth digging out the rock. Never know if it is softball size, V8 size or RV size. We bored the hole down to what serves as "bedrock" here. All these hills are capped with limestone at various depths and littered with glacial erratics in the soil [those rocks of unknown size]. Very few places you can get much past 3 feet without hitting this limestone on these hills. 


Well, I figured out the gin pole and placed it in alignment and it was off about a half hole, that is why the anchor is off to one side at the top of the hole:


I wrapped the 6" pipe with some gnarly old winch cable and used a bunch of #9 wire scraps and some useless old iron to tie in the 10 sacks of concrete mix I ended up dumping in there.That bolt is a grade 5 and has wire over it into the concrete as well as a hook from an old dead stock rack on a chain that is in the concrete. The pipe had a bend in it so it is actually more centered in the bottom of the flared hole than the top is. I believe it will stay with 600# of concrete in the hole 4 feet deep.


Here it is finished off enough to see how it is set up:



And here is a few shots of the whole new tower area. Still kind of brushy but fall will fix that and the bugs.

Entire assembly from winch end:



Gin Pole Pivot:


From gin pole pivot towards winch:



Used my newly acquired concrete mixer for the first time.



As usual lots of pictures of ongoing TW projects over in my Gallery on PICS.WW.com as well as higher resolution versions of those posted here Thanks JacquesM:


http://pics.ww.com/v/TomW/WindFarm/



http://pics.ww.com/v/TomW/FarmStuff/



http://pics.ww.com/v/TomW/WindFarm/Upgrades-09/2009-upgrades/


Enjoy! I know I do.


More as it occurs. One man show so it goes slow.


Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

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24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

Offline bj

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Re: Anchorage last pour Originally posted September 17, 2009, 05:05:06 PM
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2012, 08:44:17 pm »
  Enjoyed poking around.  Thanks for the share Tom
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj

Offline philb

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Re: Anchorage last pour Originally posted September 17, 2009, 05:05:06 PM
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2012, 09:19:53 pm »
Tom,
the same thing happened to my plastic saw horse. Mine supported my 30 foot tower with a generator on top  7 or 8 times before it finally collapsed. I'm sure the summer heat helped soften the plastic. The more I used it, the lower it got. 

Good story and a nice tower. Do you have your generator on top of it now?

Offline tomw

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Re: Anchorage last pour Originally posted September 17, 2009, 05:05:06 PM
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2012, 11:16:12 pm »
Phil;

Yes, indeed it has my 12 footer on it. Built by these folks at one of Dans workshops and used as a seminar display piece.



More photos over here:

http://pics.ww.com/v/TomW/WindFarm/12footer/

It has seen some fierce winds and runs smooth and sweet.

Wish it was another 90 feet high but 43 feet is all I got for now.

Thanks for the comments.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ?° ?? ?°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies