Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

The canoe is cute too

Lot and lots of time! Plus many many many holes to drill.

Thank You for sharing. Very nice.

What kind of fasteners are you using? Looks like maybe lag screws. Do you pre drill pilot holes for them?

Warren yes I use lag screws and pre drill with a small size bit.

We bolt the girts to the corner legs for a couple reasons. First bolts are stronger than lags. Second is that the corner posts when put in a two slope position as in a tower, you no longer have a 90 degrees for the girt's position. Bolts will hold the girts to the corner posts tighter. We do lag the X braces to the corner posts and bolt the X intersection. We use traditional lags on the X braces but have used Simpson timber frame screws on other projects. Traditional 3/8 lag screws only have a shank slightly over 1/4 and the small 400 ft/lb impact will smap them somewhat easy if you hit a knot or another lag. The Simpson screws are hardened and take more torque but are pricey. There is nothing cheap about wood towers - custom order long corner posts and steel fasteners have jumped big tine in price

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Good work Ron!!!

Good work Ron!!!

Jeff
Thanks, what no comment on the sign on the wall to the right of the top of the tower? I know I need to get it mounted up higher. Hope retirement is working well for you...

Ron

In completing this tower, I kept thinking about the fact there would be 300' of pipe under it and dont like stacking pipe in the tower. When it came time to do the last side that was the ladder side, I decided to do my first ever wood tower pipe window. The two struts in the pipe window are bolted so that you can loosen one bolt, take the other one out and flip it out of the way. Aermotor pipe window towers were only open up 13' 8" and they only worked well if the pipe window was on the down hill side. On the rez, they made drill stem towers with a pipe window that was open to 15'. You could tail pipe a lot easier in them. The opening in this wood tower is just a little shy of 15'.


Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

I'm kinda confused, don't you put the well in first and then the tower over it ?