Come to think of it, we pay more than that for an 85’ man-life in Phoenix.

Rory

From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rory Conaway
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 7:20 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Smokestack towers

Wow, we paid $5G’s 5 years ago for 180’.  For $800, get the crane.

Rory

From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremy
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 6:57 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Smokestack towers

Ok, the stacks are abandoned and not in use.  Crane with a man basket for a day 
is $800, half a day is $400.  The inside is pretty dirty, and I have no 
intention of going inside of it.  I am planning to run shielded liquitite up 
the side.  I don't want to put breakout boxes every 10-15' like I do on towers, 
so I'll probably run a steel cable with the wire attached through the conduit, 
to support the cable weight.

So the trolley idea is for changing the light at the top, if required?  That 
seems like it would work.  The whole thing may turn out to exceed the cost of 
just going up on the commercial towers next to it.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 7:33 AM, Chuck McCown 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I would build a rubber tired trolley that will roll up the side of the 
smokestack.  You can lower it to work on the radios and use the cable to pull 
it back up.  Then you only need to go up and attach the pulley one time.  If 
there is no activity in the smokestack, you can run the cable up the inside.  
Depending on the diameter, you could build some kind of spider type of thing 
with spring loaded legs to span the inside and get pulled up too.  Then it 
would be stealthy.

I would love to work on this idea.

I did a tower like this.  Used one of those lighting fixtures common at major 
freeway interchanges.  The whole lighting structure lowers on a trolly.

From: Rory Conaway<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 7:24 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Smokestack towers

The biggest lift I’ve seen is around 180’.  From there you are looking at a 
crane for $10K per day.   Almost cheaper to get a helicopter at that point.

Rory

From: Af [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf 
Of Lewis Bergman
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 4:14 AM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Smokestack towers


You can build a 300 for tower cheaper than putting a caged last on that thing. 
I think you are on the right track. Insurance and backups. Insurance should be 
cheap adding it to what you already have. Maybe a cheaper alternative if you 
want to be able to climb it are pegs and a safety climb. Pegs with epoxy would 
take about two minutes each, one every eighteen inches, a hard full days work.

I did something similar using industrial sized concrete anchor screws on the 
face of a brick building years ago. I climbed it last Friday and it is still 
solid.

I think the least effort would obviously be the lift but I have no idea how 
easy it is to get a lift that big, or expensive.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015, 2:41 AM Eric Kuhnke 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

You price out 200' of caged ladder and installation on a 120 year old brick 
structure???
On Sep 28, 2015 7:40 PM, "That One Guy /sarcasm" 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Get a mason to inspect it, have them install a caged ladder if its safe

On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 9:32 PM, Jeremy 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I have the opportunity to go up on some of the tallest structures around, but 
they are smokestacks built in the late 1800s.  They are probably 300' tall.  I 
can find a ton of examples of where companies have done this by searching 
'smokestack cell tower' on Google Image search, but I have some real concerns.  
One concern, the stacks in this area seem to have been grandfathered in, as 
they have no warning lights on top.  Two, we live in an earthquake zone.  It is 
not a matter of 'if', but 'when'.  So, these will likely come tumbling down.  
When that happens, are people going to point fingers at the company who added 
weight to the structure when it crushes someone?

There are some obvious engineering hurdles (renting a crane every time there is 
an issue, or mounting low enough to rent a man lift, adding backup equipment in 
case of failure, etc.), but those can be overcome.  I am primarily concerned 
about liability, and the potential for having to update the structure to 
include lighting.  Has anyone on this list ever attempted something on the 
scale of a 300' smokestack from the turn of the century?  Any pointers, or 
specific law firms that I should contact?  Seriously debating just scrapping 
the idea....



--
If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as 
part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.

Reply via email to