Hi Waterman,
Thanks for the heads up! You have a point, I probably need to weave the welds wider.
These photos are a bit premature... its still a work in progress, I was trying to get some quick and dirty photos of it for Ron. Many of those welds are just tacked in at the moment...waiting for the time when I can get back on it.
Yep, I believe you are right on spot, I will fully weld all around all the edges. I'm fully on board with what you are saying, I'm not a fan of tack welding things or welding a series of short runs.
I'm using 1/8 inch 6013 rods and each of these tower connections, really eats the stuff up...and I have not yet finished a tower connection point up! I'm thinking each point can easily eat 30 or more rods up....considering I have 15 inch long plates x 2 x 4 then the circumference of about 12 inches to weld too.....whew...something on the order 130 inches.... being a single pass only!
I have a piece of 3 inch schedule 40 pipe about 5 foot long But I was on the fence about using it. But now I see your point I will use it for the gin pole to tower gusset. I have seen people use just cables from the gin pole to the tower to lift but now I feel like you do, I could use a gusset to keep it as rigid as possible along with the cables to lift it....after all this work I would hate for a simple oversight to kick me in the teeth! Your experience in these matters really helps a lot!
After some quick and dirty calculations the tower without gin pole, generator or cables comes in at about 1200-1300 lbs., I'm indeed worried about this first raising and I want connection points secured and with a degree of overkill!
These things are like a charging cape buffalo, mountain lion or brown bear, sure a .22 might do the job if the situation is perfect and you're indeed lucky, but if a .375 H&H is available why not use it )
Thanks for your help!
Gavin