I have a budget of 1k usd and need to build a tower
it has to be 5 meters tall and extremely rigid.
my plan so far is for the main three uprights, 2in emt which seem to come in 10ft sections, I will simply use two of them for each.
to connect them I will buy one extra and cut it into three equal length 1 meter pieces and cut a slot lengthwise to slide over the other pipes as a coupler, then I will rivet or screw that in place so it cant slide or bend.
with that I have three 20ft 2in emt sticks
I can drill three holes in the ground and place them in the holes in preparation for poring concrete arond them.
but from here I do not know the best way to construct the triangular structure.
I was thinking using pic related, and once in position and built, weld the clamps together, or maybe screw them to the upright section.
will this work and will it be stable enough? The antenna on top is highly directional and cannot be pushed around by the wind or it will not work, that being said it does not have a very big wind loading surface
>5 meters
>10ft
>20ft 2in
don't mix units
im sorry idiot americans dont sell stuff in meters here
fine a 16.4042 foot tall tower.
What is the wall thickness of your pipe and how much ground area do you have available?
I don't know what your options are there but here I can buy 6m scaffold poles for about £50 each
https://www.steelconstruction.info/Braced_frames
sorry wrong link
https://www.tubeclampsdirect.co.uk/product/1504/scaffolding_tube_galvinised_steel_3_2mm_20ft
Or there's this sort of thing
https://www.wec.uk.net/fixed-lattice-cctv-tower
it appears I can get 21ft steel water pipe but it will be much more difficult to build with and transport it
actually I think because its so short I can just use 1.5in emt which is 36usd each, so 7 is 250, 1.5 21ft water pipe is $93 so 279
if I wanted to add on another section I'd have to go emt and probably 2in, cant realistically add onto water pipe as it is much heavier and I wont trust the joint.
I have a single pole of 2in emt that is joined this way for 30 feet and it has lasted 4 years with no issue and some hard winds
Why not scaffolding couplers Instead of those on your picture?
Whats the tower for? What kind of loads or just for antenna or something? If you dont have any live loads, or even if you do, you can probably use guy wires.
a 650mm dish antenna pointed at another site like 30km away and -500m of elevation.
also another pissant antenna but its whatever.
I know its not exactly DIY. But one of these zip scaffold towers is only about £500. Will get you up 5 meters and can be disassembled and re used which is also a benefit.
yeah i want something that will last at least 20 years in the weather and not wobble about.
Then it's more about foundation/anchoring. These towers are alright if you anchor them to concrete/with screw piles. These are either hot dip galvanized or aluninium and will last 20 years if you're not at sea shore
You can try using this for fittings, might use it for my next project https://makerpipe.com/
No, seriously, if you're going with that sort of attachment just use galvanised scaffolding poles.
They're made to be strong and galvanised to last with a huge variety of industry tested attachments while being inexpensive and shipped pretty much everywhere on earth.
https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/high-voltage-power-transmission-tower-for-sale.html
Tom Lipton is working on a tower like that . Take a look if you haven't seen.
?t=1594
so many numbers
not a single allusion to loading
>extremely rigid.
What dies that mean anon?
Anyhow, scaffolding or a radio tower is a no brainer. Just make sure to anchor it really well, make a concrete foundation for the anchor points at least.
Would you anchor the base poles directly in the concrete or place anchor plates in the concrete then bolt the uprights to them?
I would literally just frame it like a 4 story house but with 20' 2x6 vertical studs but however small of a footprint it can be built
A box of nails and 2x6s
You'd likely have to dig pretty big piles to hold it and then use cabling to tie it to the ground like a cell phone tower but it could be done for under $500 easily
>use cabling to tie it to the ground like a cell phone tower
It's only 16' tall. Why would you need cable tie downs? As long as you don't make it stupidly narrow a 4x4' box frame of 4x4x16 boards sunk 3 feet into the ground with cement and cross braced with each other will more than likely never fall over.
>5m tall, rigid, no mention of load
if it's a teeny load you could get away with just a 5m long steel pole and a trio of guye(?) wires set in with long spikes
I could.
The antenna area is 0.33m^2
But I want it to be climbable for access because I don't have access to anything tall enough to reach it.
Why not make it a tilter?
*A bit like this. sorry for scribbles
or this?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cushcraft-R-8TB-Vertical-Antenna-Tilt-Base/113030611846
Ah, I see
I think I would just use 3 or 4 long scaffold poles as uprights and cross brace them.
Because it is an antenna with a 3° beam angle and is pushing 30km to the other side with an estimated signal strength of barely above noise floor.
When I say it has to be rigid, I mean it cannot deflect at all.
My alignment will not be perfect so I have about 1° of margin before wind can start drastically degrading signal strength
weld pegs to the sides of the pole for climbing or put it on a hinge parallel with one of the guye wires and replace that wire with a ratchet strap you can release slowly so you can gently lower it down for maintenance
Spikes might not be enough if it's a Yagi, logperiodic or dish if it's a storm.. Better to pour some concrete and make real ground anchors.
EMT is designed to be bent, you want MORE rigid not less. Use black pipe.
Where I live in Canada, many people give for free or sell for almost nothing their TV tower. You have to unmount it.
nail it to a tree
Look up pin foundation, or diamond pier foundation.
I used these when I built a hunting cabin. A lot less material to drag up the mountain.
>diamond pier foundation
tractor auger go brrrrrr
these look interesting though but I'd be concerned with the uplift though considering just one of the three can see the entire wind loading on the tower plus leverage.
But also the dirt there can take probably 8000psf because its moron thick with sandstone, and i also own a jackhammer.
oh too bad these literally dont exist on the west coast and there is no viable way to buy three without spending the entire budget
Can you weld? Can you cast concrete? Can you turn a spanner?
I cannot cast structural concrete like that no as it requires pre-compression using a massive machine that squeezes it as it dies.
I could make one out of steel but at that point its out of budget.
I'm now wondering if I can just use these, apparently if you can even drill one into the kind of soil I have, it has a pull up resistance of like 3600lbs
>squeezes it as it dies.
F
not necessarily that hard to make a ground anchor.
Consider a method a little like this idea. but obviously adapted
Rohn 25G series
Out of budget