Project almost complete. Other work involved was making hitch pins. That called for a rod bender. Bright colors so you can find them in the leaf litter. Word of caution...PlasiDip melts Styrofoam cups...what a mess it made. The tubing is repurposed floor jacks and they aren't made with enough holes to accommodate nesting more lengths together. Drilling the inside tubes wasn't bad but the outer ones required a careful layout.
Very professional looking Bonz. Do the bottoms of the tubes have a cleat or foot? What's the whole sha-bang weigh? Best, Kelly
I'm going to weld some plugs into the small tubes about an inch up. The large tubes I'm not sure of yet. When we used Brandon's set to lift the guesstimated 750 # spire the legs sank about 3" into dry soil. Still pondering a foot, it needs to dig in but not sink. Weighing the head + 3 tubes, 31.2#. Tubes are 5.2#=15.6. That makes the head + hardware 15.6. Total weight of a full set up would be about 80#'s.
Fish, Maybe a larger diam circle (3-4" wider than tube) with a 1"-1.5" long spike out the bottom. Spike digs in but the plate spreads the load keeps it from going to deep. You could weld something up or keep with the theme and cast something pretty. I think I've seen something similar (not as big Diam because it's a much smaller load) on survey equipment. Here's a quick example sketch Of what I mean. Pointed Foot by crazybillybob posted Feb 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Not a bad idea but, since the legs splay out at an angle, the base plates should swivel a little bit so that they sit flat on the ground.
Thanks for that. Yeah, I had thought about casting one with a longer spike or a couple small spikes. After staring at it a few times I came to the conclusion that I'm just going to shove a hitch pin in the bottom hole. All of the tubes have a hole about 1" from the bottom. Trying to keep setup/breakdown/transport as simple as possible. Speaking of transport...I'm going to need a couple shoulder straps. I'm calling it done and will see what happens in use.
I used the tripod yesterday to re-set a leaning spire in the 220 acre Spring Hill Cemetery. Thousands of burials going back to the early days of settlement. It was a beautiful day. We had to disassemble the monument to level the limestone plinth. We were surprised to find they incorporated a mortise and tenon to secure the spire. You can see the tenon on the bottom of the spire in the first pic. We also re-set two small stones. The tripod worked flawlessly and the pins in the bottom of the tubes kept them from sinking. I'm happy with the upgrades.
