well welcome back to Steve Robb reviews today I'm gonna start on a project I showed up done
a long time ago and it involves this right here this is some pipe this here is just
under four feet long and it looks about maybe five sixteenths wall and I'm going to start on
this project where I am planning on designing a mast to go in the ground I've got a three-point
hitch auger for the back of my tractor and I'm going to mount this pull in the ground for my
solar panel I've got four 100 watt solar panels and I want to mount and I thought you know what
what I'm planning on doing is having it so that I can actually put this up myself take it down
myself because it's going to be quite heavy and I got some other pieces here I'll show you what
I got planned these guys take a look let me know what you think okay as you can see here I got the
pipe sitting on two pieces of steel angle iron and these are 3/8 thick two inches on each end
you know two inches this way two inches this way and the total length of these are 36 now what
I'm planning on doing is having this pipe come back to approximately here and weld this right
to the pipe and this will be the backstop and I'm going to have a plate here and I'm going to have
a hinge here so that I can get the mast and lift it all the way up and have it fit right in here
nice and flush and then somehow have two bolts or something here that will bolt this down in four
areas like I say this section here is only showing out about nine inches but I'm going to actually
go you know probably 20 inches and of course the rest of this would be buried in the ground
and I'm thinking you know what when I pour the concrete to go into the ground I want the concrete
to go up into the tube so I'm gonna do a couple things on there but what we have to do first is
we have to actually weld these angle iron pieces to the tube and I have to prep it all up I have
to sand the outside pieces and get all the rust off and then we'll start welding and we'll see
how that goes but the distance in between here is just a shy over three and a half inches so I was
thinking on getting maybe a mast that was going to be say 2 by 3 if I can get 3 and a half that
declining aren't you sure about the structural a structural steel whether it comes in a three and
a half it does it'll fit in there perfectly and we'll see how that goes but let's just start now
with figuring where this is going to go exactly sanding it all down getting the rust all off and
then we'll start welding well this one I got hooked up so far I just use this chalk marker
for making my lines I tried putting it down here and then I tried here and I decided on having 20
inches above ground so what I got to do is I'm gonna mount this on one side here and then of
course I'll just go over to the other side where it completely matches up so it's nice and square
and as you can see here I got a buzz off all the mill scale on this here and now I got a nice spot
or I can take all the rust off here so I'll bring it back when that's all done and we'll have we're
all prep to go so let's get door well there we go right there I'm telling you you know that's an old
piece of pipe and it's quite rusty as well man old man was that a lot of dust so you could see
I've just sanded down both the edges there okay let's put her on let's get her tacked on okay I
got it all set up I had to grind a spot at the end of the pipe there so my my ground clamp but
I actually have a good connection and I'll zoom in here so you could see what I got going on
well she's clamped down there pretty good as you could see and I'm just going to put
a couple of tacks on both sides I'll start off on this side first and move
over to the other side and this thick of a piece of steel I'm not worried about going
back and forth I'll just put three beads on this side three beads on the other
okay let's flip over do the other side
okay how's that look right now that's just tacky tacky and here we go
okay I'll bring you back when I got her all welded up and we'll take a look at the other side well
I'll show you when I got done so far I did put two passes on this and I'll just show you I mean it's
not fancy welds guys but it's just gonna hold that in there nice and of course some might be
wondering like why don't ya weld it continuously all the way down and what I've been taught over
the years is you're better off to stagger them like that because if you get a break in one it'll
just rip all the way down to the end where it'll stop at the next weld usually so that's all I'm
gonna put in there and I mean this is going to be plenty heavy-duty and what I'm gonna do now
is I'm going to stab the other one on there so I'm not gonna bore you showing that but I'll
bring you back when I got that part done - well this is it right here this is all complete what
I'm gonna do so far she's nothing fancy guys I'm not the best welder in the world I'll tell
you that for sure but I think that's gonna work out alright you know I don't think that's going
to be bad at all still a little warm but yeah I think that's gonna work alright I'm gonna stand
this up now and I'm gonna show you what my idea is okay guys this is the whole idea from here down is
going to be in the ground with some concrete and I was figuring on mounting a plate right here and
then having my main beam be hinged off of this plate so when it's laying down on the ground and
the solar panel mount at the end with the solar panels is on there I can just lift it up into
here and I'll have bolts four bolts mounting it down so this doesn't go anywhere that makes sense
to you these guys think this is heavy enough I think it's heavy-duty enough I mean I'm thinking
3/8 thick is plenty and I figure that this towers gonna probably be about 12 feet tall this is like
you say from here down on the ground is going to be in concrete and I'm gonna do something to the
bottom here I'll show you in the next bid how I'm gonna get the concrete inside the post tube
and I thought I want to do that rather than just have it go around the outside this is all buried
anyways she just guys let me make this locating you or what I've never done one of these before
and it's just going right off top my head here I think this is going to be a good idea and it'll
be a nice project for the summer I like to get as many projects as I can get done I got a short pier
at a time up my camp and I think that's gonna work out great I just don't know where I'm gonna put it
cuz this guy's never seen that vid where I tried to put the the ground rod in the ground man that
was a pretty difficult vid to do and I've got rock all over my place but I've got a pulse no longer
this time on the back of my tractor and it's gonna make it easier to make the holes a lot easier to
was putting in them ground rods so come back again let's see how we're doing a little further up the
line when I get more built on this I don't know if I'm gonna get this year but this is going in
the ground that's for sure and these guys come back again let's have some more fun guys Cheers