3 steps forward, 2 steps BACK!!!Well, there are no excellent photos to post on Saturday
because I was way too busy trouble shooting MASSIVE structural tower failures.
These were all GOOD events because they happened now before my turbine was flying.
On Friday I got my hands on a 5 foot long 1 inch thick steel, Mobile home auger/anchor with a 5000 pound pull rating. Like these but MUCH more beefy:
I sunk it fully into the ground and then my father in law and I arch welded 2 large "L" brackets that formed a hollow “I†beam which was such a tight fit that we had to sledge hammer the exposed ring of the auger inside of it. Then we bolted around and trough the ring to lock them together.
Here is a photo:
Looks good right?
WELL….
When we lowered the tower with it, as the tower became more horizontal it bent the 1 inch thick anchor 20 degrees inside the ground but it stayed firmly unmoved and solidly anchored...
( I will post a picture soon)
At the same time we lowered the tower we heard a
LOUD crack!!! I told you guys that for the Tower Foundation we poured a slightly hour glass shaped, 320 pound concrete slab using a plastic bucket with the bottom knocked out of it, to form the nice round top…
Well, as the tower top was only 5 feet from the ground, THE FOUNDATION BROKE, right in the middle, and the bucket part of the foundation separated and began rolling freely, making the steel hinge useless!
Aaaaah NUTS!
At least I was holding the top of the tower when it failed and was able to let the tower down the rest of the way…
To stop me from throwing a fit, I continued to attach the cables and all the parts as if nothing happened.
Once all those changes where complete, I had calmed down enough to think through the problem.
Sunday was forecast to be a rain monsoon, so we had to move quick if we were going to fix the foundation.
First we picked up the now seperated “bucket†part of the foundation and cut off the plastic bucket that was buried inside the rest of the foundation. Then we smashed off the concrete that WAS surrounding the base of the bucket. We also chipped at the outside of the smooth concrete "bucket form" so that the new concrete foundation could fuse to it when we poured more. I then when dug 2 feet out from the old smaller foundation a few inches under the outside bottom edge of it.
Because the Bucket base was originally sticking a foot above the ground, we took my chicken's hard plastic Kiddy pool and cut a 2.5ft hole out of the middle of the bottom of it and sliced it out to the edge. I then turned the kiddy pool upside down and rolled it inside of itself to fit the outside edge of the 4.5ft wide hole, making a 12 inch high plastic wall above the hole. We then packed dirt around the kiddy pool to hold it in place.
We then went to Lowes and purchased 1000 pounds of dry “Quickcrete†concrete. I then hand mixed all 12, eighty pound bags, one bag at a time, and dragged each in my wagon 1000 feet and poured each into the top the pool and into the new foundation hole below it. I filled it up until there was a concrete pooling and seeping out the top of the kiddy pool! I then covered it all with a tarp to keep it from getting rained on. This 1320 pound foundation is NOT going to MOVE
ever again! (picture coming soon)
As for the fix on the winch stand:
I plan to place my anvil next to the base of the stand and sledge hammer it straight again.
Then I will go out and buy a 3 ft long 4 inch wide steel “I†beam. I will burry and concrete the beam 2.5 feet next to the anchor and concrete it in place. Then I will bolt/weld it to the existing winch beam.
That should keep it from bending with the weight when the tower gets 20 degrees from horizontal.
Bottom-line so far:
My tower is now sadly laying sideways with all the cables hanging from it awaiting the new massive concrete base to set, and for the winch stand reinforcement project to be completed.
At least it happened now and not later…
But Hey, I did get the cables attached…
Like I said, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back…
