Posted by JD Seller on October 08, 2016 at 17:17:18 from (208.126.198.123):
Grand Daughter found cracks in the frame of the Grain leg support tower Thursday afternoon while greasing the drive gear case on the top of the leg. We found that the original welds are porous. Bad rods or too much gas when it was built. The tower is 120 feet tall. It is in twenty foot sections. The legs are 5 inch square, 3/8 thick tubing. The connection feet are 9 inches square and made out of 3/4 plate. We decided on grinding out the old welds and re-welding them with 10018 rods. Then installing gussets on all four sides of the plates. The gussets are 1/2 thick and 2x6 inches. There are 208 of these gussets. We had Steelmart shear the gussets.
Well today was the day we did the repair. I got up earlier and had chores done by 7 am. I opened a new 50 lbs. box of 10018 rods then. My middle son started grinding the old welds out and I started welding. We did opposite corners so the tower still had strength. I also borrowed some 3/8 cable and had three guide wires anchored to three big tractors too.
We where using the gas welder I bought a few years ago. That Old Hobart just set there and run all day long. It did not even use a full tank of gas. I bought 400 feet of lead cable so each one is 200 foot long.
We where not sure on how we where going to reach all the joints. There are steps on the inside of the tower. Some of the joints can be easily gotten to off the steps. It turned out that trying to reach them off the steps only worked on about a third of the joints. So I broke out the old hanging/climbing harness. It was just as easy to climb the outside of the tower and set in the harness while tied off to the supports above. It took me awhile to get used to hanging there. LOL I know I have muscles sore tonight that have not been that way in years. LOL
The Grand Daughters worked their butts off being gophers and wire brushing the "new" welds and painting them behind us. We started at the top and worked down as we could just put slack in the ropes and go down to the next section. We do have some paint on us. LOL
At 4:30 PM the Grand Daughters had to go get some rods out of the shop as the 50 lbs. box was empty. The last weld was done at 5 PM. We had everything picked up and put away by 6 PM.
So we did it in a single day. I ran every weld but two. My older son stopped by and was going to help weld. He could not get the hang of running the 10018 rods overhead. So I just kept on going. I was using 3/16th rods with the welder set at around 135 AMPs. A rod did not last long. LOL
It took me back about 30 years. I used to do bridge welding in the winters. So hanging off something while running rods is not entirely new. It is different with age. LOL
The Grand Daughters wanted to put the harnesses on and repel down the outside of the tower. LOL. Their Mom Vetoed that idea. LOL I said heck I would do it but MY WIFE vetoed it for me!!! LOL LOL.
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