Got to ask, how hard was it to get an engineer to sign off on that design? Did you do all the calculations and they just double checked your work, or did engineer say this is how it needs to be built?
When I build the next tower in early September I'll take some photos of it being built on the jig. I'm getting back to full-time fishing for the rest of this summer
I did all the calculations, design, drawings, and prepared stamped specs for turbine loading. I used TEP to verify and certify the tower, and it cost roughly $5,200. The certification on the tower is only good for my 350 turbine. If any other turbine is put on it, then the whole process has to be repeated.
For the average "joe" it would be pretty much impossible unless you want to spend $15-20K. You're going to need a mechanical engineer to provide certified loading data on your turbine before you can get a certification on a tower from a structural engineer. Just going by size of the turbine doesn't work because you have to provide specs, signed by a licensed engineer, on everything from mass centroid to overturning moment under maximum emergency braking.
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Chris