Above 1200 Sq/FT The Salvage Garage

[Strouty]

Hah just saw that story and came here to ask about it. That ain't gonna be cheap. There a passable road to the top of that mountain?

The road is passable during the none snow months. From what I have found, my Dad thinks he did build the tower, it was before my time. He said to me, at least the foundations are still there, the tower is someone else's problem. He is right, this is definitely one of those situations that the tower was overburdened by mother nature. They say the anemometer broke when it hit 100MPH, couple that with the ice, failure is bound to happen.

 

[Orionrising]

Looking at the 2016 Google Earth imagery I don't see the mid height antennaeas and it hard to tell but a bunch of the top cell array might be new too.

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[Strouty]

The mid antennas were just installed a few weeks ago and it is the same carrier that installed the same antennas on my tower, no notification, ignored the requirements to do structural upgrades that the engineer designed. They basically went from an antenna that was the size of a 2x6 to one that is more than half a sheet of plywood, big difference.

 

[jakemac]

Bet they drilled more holes in the structure for new mounting brackets instead of making the old holes work.


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[Strouty]

Probably not likely, this may be just a case of too much ice and too much wind. I was only theorizing, but you never know.

 

[rixtrix1]

Bout twice as tall as it is now. [emoji849]

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HA-HA!

 

[xtremek]

That's a huge jump in size. What are you going to do about your tower?

 

[Strouty]

Raising rent, making them do the upgrades, adjusting the lease in my favor, and to get everything I want, I will start off with telling them they are in breach of contract and I am terminating their lease. That will get some attention.

 

[racingtadpole]

We've seen a few instances here of towers having issues after 4G/LTE or Multiband equipment is installed. There was a site just out of Sydney where the contractors that were subbied to the company I used to work for only put six bolts in the outriggers of the headframe and only finger tight.. Took a few weeks but after some vibration from the wind it started raining steel..
I supervised a headframe swap at about this time last year, the headframe when it came off weighed 1800Kg according to the strain gauge in the crane, when it went back on it was a shade over 4000kg.. on a MONOPOLE....

 

[Strouty]

With the new technology, basically all the equipment that used to be on the ground is now on the tower, so it is definitely getting heavier, more weight and more wind load will effect towers. The only good thing is that they seem to be lessening the wind load some, by using hybrid cables, the newest installation for T-Mobile is using 4 hybrid cables instead of 12 (or more) regular coax.

 

[coop]

Procon pump

Attached is a Procon pump model matrix for your reference. We go through a lot of these where i work, and have tried several re builders with dismal results. The rebuilds had a much shorter lifespan, but were about half the price.

 

[Strouty]

Thanks coop, I am going to open the old one up and see what it looks like inside, probably order a new one and buy a rebuild kit. Then I will have a backup, would **** to need one and not have one.

 

[coop]

You will have fun rebuilding it for sure. The common failures are water intrusion into the bearings, wear from scale or dirty water and freezing. I have broken many down to scrap, so i am afraid i cannot offer any advice on how to disassemble them gently.

 

[Strouty]

I want to buy a new one, so I can see how it feels, this one has a tough spot, not sure if that is something that is normal or not. This gives me a baseline, then when I do the rebuild, I will know what to expect. My flow indicator showed up, way larger than I thought it would be I think I can still make it work, will need to do a bit of creative plumbing, but it will be worth it.

 

[coop]

The tough spot is the death rattle for those pumps. Anything beyond the hydraulic resistance feel of a fresh bearing are signs of it going toes up. Most of them will still pass fluid at line pressure when they fail, but will not hit operating PSI or have adjust ability.

 

[Strouty]

Good to know, are they worth rebuilding? I am going to buy a new one, but figured if worth it I could rebuild this one and have it waiting for when it fails again.

My flow meter arrived, I have a filter on order, need to get some more fittings and hose, then it should be ready to use. I jokingly said it would be ready by April, looks like I am on target!

 

[Strouty]

The flow indicator is just as big as the pump! The filter I bought local is bigger than I would like, but I ordered one from amazon that is smaller, should be here Wednesday. I am trying to order the new pump, but not one of the suppliers can tell me if the coupler is the right one, Procon has not returned my call yet, so I guess I am going to call them again.

 

[xtremek]

Is this hard mounted to the welder?

 

[Strouty]

No, it is going to be independent, this way I can use it on multiple welders.

 

[coop]

I would buy a new one, and send the old core out for rebuild. That way you always have a spare and in the event of future failure, you will have the second core for rebuild. The old "two is one" philosophy.

 

[Strouty]

That is the plan, except I am the rebuilder.

 

[Strouty]

I found out what the values were for those burnt out resistors on the Aerowave today, kind of excited about this!

Now I just have to order up my parts and get things moving forward!!!

The two that I need are a 1/2 watt 100 OHM max 5% tolerance and a 1/4 watt 1 mega OHM 1% tolerance. Anyone have any idea of what type of quality I should be looking for? I saw tons of listings for these, they offered a bunch of voltage ratings, temperature ratings, and temperature coefficients, none of that means much to me.

 

[86turbodsl]

Just get the wattage right, tolerance as good as required or better. You'll be fine. Hard to screw up a resistor. Mouser or Digikey is my usual goto. Looking forward to your results!

 

[Strouty]

I am ordering 5 of each, just in case. Does it matter what direction I install them? I am going to have to look at that, I think capacitors need to be installed a certain way, at least that is what I remember from my car stereo days.

I ordered the pump, rebuild kit, spring, and a few other dodas, should be here Saturday, the drive couplers are coming from another source and they should be here Saturday as well. I am working on ordering a few other things, placing a large order of connectors and terminals too.

 

[86turbodsl]

Resistors have no orientation. Some capacitors do.

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[Strouty]

That makes it easy!

 

[xtremek]

Good news on the resistors. 86 is correct.

 

[86turbodsl]

Yup. Just be careful when you solder so you don't lift a trace. If you don't have a vacuum solder sucker, ive had some luck with solder braid.

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[gilr]

If you don't find the original cause of the burnt resistors, you will again have burnt ones. Resistors don't just burn up, they are burnt because something they are feeding power to have shorted out or been damaged in some way. It may be a Triac, transistor, or some other part on the board or in the unit itself attached to the board that may have failed. It could even be the capacitor(s) that have failed. Having the schematic and the ability to understand it will help immensely in this effort.

Gil

 

[86turbodsl]

I agree with this. Usually a semiconductor is what fails, shorting something which causes an overcurrent. That fries the resistor.

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[Strouty]

At this point, I am going to swap the resistors and see what happens. There was another main board that was also replaced, so I don't know if that board caused this issue or if this was secondary. I could end up chasing a problem that no longer exists. The guy that worked at the service center I bought it from was convinced that this would solve the problem and he was pretty damn honest with me about everything else. I will take a peak and see what these would be hooked too, it may be a simple test or it may be something above my pay grade.

 

[86turbodsl]

I think you have a good plan. Let's see what you come up with.

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[Strouty]

Here is a link to the Technical Manual:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjb0l4bm2x1ztb8/Aerowave Technical Manual.pdf?dl=0

 

[Strouty]

I just ordered the resistors and a few other things, then placed a big order for a bunch of connectors and other stuff I have been needing (yeah right, needing, like a hole in my head maybe). Anyways, looks like most stuff is on target for either Saturday or early next week. I hope all the Procon stuff arrives by Saturday, that would let me setup the water cooler. I still need to order some hoses and fittings, but I am waiting on pricing from the distributor.

 

[86turbodsl]

Did you find / are you going to put some quick connects on the cooler since you have multiple welders? I need to look at that because i expect to have at least two out that might need it. Wondering what's out there.

 

[Strouty]

Arc-Zone sells them, they are "zero loss" quick connects. Not cheap, but they appear to be about the only choice without custom making your own. $44 for a male and female IIRC.

 

[rlitman]

Arc-Zone sells them, they are "zero loss" quick connects. Not cheap, but they appear to be about the only choice without custom making your own. $44 for a male and female IIRC.

I don’t know if you’ll find them cheaper, but that sort of QD is common on hydraulic systems.

 

[86turbodsl]

I don't know if quick disconnects need to be lossless. But maybe because power is shared.

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[coop]

That is the plan, except I am the rebuilder.

I would expect no less
Please document with images!

 

[Strouty]

I don’t know if you’ll find them cheaper, but that sort of QD is common on hydraulic systems.

You can buy cheaper ones, but then you need a couple adapters to fit the tig hoses, plus the cheaper connectors are much larger.

I don't know if quick disconnects need to be lossless. But maybe because power is shared.

The regular ones that get used on hydraulic tend to drip, I prefer not to drip water on any of my welding equipment if I can avoid it.

I would expect no less
Please document with images!

I plan on documenting and maybe even making a video.