DIY Gin Pole for tower erection and maintenance Rohn 25
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2024
- I wanted to add another section to my tower to make it 40 feet tall, but I didn't want to have to borrow someone else's gin pole. I also can't buy a legit one from Rohn because it costs $1.5k! Here is how I made my own. If I had to do it again, I would have opted for a 2 inch EMT. The 1.25 inch EMT was a bit wobbly, but for what little I needed to do it worked perfectly to swap out a section of tower, add a section, and replace the removed section. Placing the light antennas back into action were made a piece of cake, and I used the DIY gin pole as the lift for my 40m EFHW. If I had to build this again I would have used 2.5” EMT.
Danger: Welding galvanized steel will give off dangerous fumes. Do so in a well ventilated area and wear proper PPE. I am not an experienced welder, so do this project at your own risk.
By raising my EFHW from 25' to 50' in height, most of the RFI that I experienced for years was reduced from S7 to S1 on most bands! That was the main reason that I wanted to lengthen the height of my tower AND have an inexpensive gin pole so that I could gain the extra height for my HF antenna. The APRS antenna will also be ten feet higher which should improve the coverage of my small town.
0:00 - Intro and parts
2:05 - Grinding a bolt off after welding it
4:00 - Clamped to the tower test
6:00 - Safety Talk 
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Not sure if you mentioned it in the video, but welding galvanized pipe produces super toxic gases.
Great point. If you choose to weld galvanized pipe, do so in a well ventilated area. The gases from welding this type of coating will make you sick. Quoted from the web “Breathing in zinc fumes can cause metal fume fever, which can include symptoms like severe thirst, leg pain, shivering, and coughing. Make sure you have proper personal protection.”
@@w1rcp - Grind the zinc off before welding.
Even with grinding, I wouldn’t trust it to be safe. I had a cross draft going, and even that probably wasn’t enough. As with any DIY project, research is important. I am not a welder, but I did have enough sense to look up the dangers of welding EMT and zinc coated steel beforehand. I will make sure that my video description has that written in it.
Watching this video is like the 4th of July all over again! Except my dog doesn't seem to be nearly as freaked out.
Apparently I made the mistake of showing too much welding in the video. My dog didn’t mind watching it either. He hates loud noises.
@@w1rcp More of what you made, and less of how, I think. It's a nice demo for sure, but I still don't really understand what you made.
show it on the shop floor, show it after each chunk of welding, but skip the actual welding, is my unsolicited advice to ya. Now I just need to go learn to weld
I agree. I’ve made a lot of videos, but this one is probably the worst at explaining. I thought the drawings would help. I made a bunch of shorts with me using it. I’m going to blame it on my ADD while recording and editing. I lost focus on what I was doing. I take these comments that are nicely explained as constructive criticism. Making mistakes is how I learn.
@@w1rcp Don't change too much, I found your style very funny and entertaining.
My wife kept looking over at me, wondering what I was chuckling about.
Two comments: Get a plastic Owl and move it around every week or two and the birds will go away. If you weld a hook on the top behind the pully it will make it easy to hook it over the top of the past section to hold it when you climb. It will also give you a place to tie the rope to when you lower the pole.
That’s a good idea if I do it again. I may have to get an owl to swing around up there. The bird poo is bad.
The gin pole is permanently mounted at the top where I can raise/lower my HF antenna at will. I replaced the lift rope with Dacron 550 cord for longevity.
Sure would have appreciated it if you showed the Gin Pole in action at the end.
I agree. I'm afraid I have no idea how this is supposed to work based on the video you showed. I've been trying to design a tower I can raise myself to get my internet receiver to clear the trees and I was hoping to get some ideas from this video. Unfortunately, I did not.
I have a couple of shorts that show me actually using it. If I had to do it again I would have used 2-1/2” pipe, but to lift two sections of Rohn 25 it performed well enough not to break.
Years ago I was sent to a wind farm to retrieve some meteorological instruments for post-calibration. The instruments were mounted on tilting 60m masts. The works manager at the farm decided he could make a gin pole for less than the price quoted by a specialist erector company. They didn't get the gin pole quite right. In an attempt to lower a mast with an overweight pole they managed to introduce a resonant 'wobble' in the mast, which self-destructed, narrowly missing technicians on the way down. I could see it coming and had placed myself out of the danger zone. No one was hurt, but $5k worth of instruments were destroyed. Post-calibration was impossible, and the farm consultant was unable to perform post-monitoring data analysis.
I left site with some instruments they'd managed to retrieve from a lattice mast by crane, but they still had another tilting mast to lower. The works manager was dismayed by what happened at the first mast. I imagine he must have been twice-dismayed when the same thing happened at the second tilting mast. Cheaper isn't always better.
I don’t disagree with your last statement. I knew I wasn’t lifting more than two single sections of Rohn 25 and some small antennas. It’s up to the user to be aware of the limits involved. In your case, it sounds like the guy that made the gin pole didn’t take into account the value of what was being removed or the environmental limitations of the task.
I’m glad nobody was injured. That would have been a bad day for all involved.
I appreciate your excellent comment on safety and knowing your limits.
DUDE! Your viewers don't need to watch 5 minutes of welding arc flash. Edit it or filter it. The viewer can't see anything but flash while you are welding anyway so there is no value added. But congrats on your DIY project.
Duly noted.
Man, there are all sorts of red flags going on here. Toxic welding fumes, trash littering the floor in the welding area, and questionable welds could fail and bring the rig down.
Part of the high cost is the manufacturer trying to recoup their investment because of all the safety codes they have to follow in manufacturing, you know like companies that make ladders.
What happens in the garage stays in the garage. I made it very clear that I am not a welder. But ventilation is important as the zinc and other fumes will make you sick. Glad to know OSHA isn’t concerned with what happens in my hack lab. Thank you for pointing this out for future viewers though. It worked for what I needed to do, and now it holds a 12 ounce antenna so future failure won’t be an issue.
Be careful.
This is good for all to see. Do your research before deciding to do dangerous things.