I decided to replace two lock nuts with wingnuts on the mast rising pole so I can leave it attached to the mast when it's down and simplify the rigging - now I have to just fold it up and tighten two wing nuts and it's ready to rise. But when I rotated the brackets I saw a crack in the aluminum pole - see photo. It was under the bracket so wasn't visible. There is an indent in the mast (on the right in the photo) so I think previous owner did something wrong and the pole really pressed on the mast hard, creating the indent there. I think this pressure might have created the crack. I don't think it's doing it when I'm raising the mast - it stays at 90 degrees and is not trying to crush the mast, and it's not pressing on the indented part of the mast.
Question is what do I do with it? I was thinking of putting a plumbing metal wrap around the pole just after the brackets on the right. Just to guard against this crack growing. It doesn't look to me as this is dangerous. It looks like an old crack, as the color of hte metal inside is dull, same as outside. Not sure how to reinforce it otherwise. I could slide a wooden pole or metal rod inside and drill those holes, just to reinforce that bit. What would you do?
Last edited by Hamin' X on Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Shamelessly stole the picture link from NiceAft. Thanks Ray.
Just buy a new pole at any metal supermarket just make sure the wall is the same thickness or thicker same O/D if thicker wall will have a smaller I/D , does not need to b coated it,s only a MRS
I would just stop drill the cracks and move on. All of the load on this is compression, so should be no worries. Previous owner must have put some unusual side load on it.
Just buy a new pole & stand Tall ! , do u really want to b the guy know to have the shortest MRS in our group " Shorty" come,s to mind ! , u know if u cut that pole U,ll have to shorten ur mast to equal things out !
Since I have a TIG welder I'd just grind out and weld the cracks and weld a round plate on the end. If you have a friend that has a TIG there wouldn't be much to doing that,
Good solutions above. From the picture it looks like the crack doesn't pass through the bolt hole in the aluminum (but beside it) and that the crack might have resulted from an over-tightening of the bolts. Is the aluminum oval at that end, as opposed to round?
So to add one more option to your multiple choices for a fix; you could unbolt the hardware from the aluminum, drill holes at 90 degrees to the originals, and reassemble (the bolts in their new position will now squeeze the crack closed and prevent it from opening in the future) with little to no loss of strength and easy retention of original dimensions.
seahouse wrote:Good solutions above. From the picture it looks like the crack doesn't pass through the bolt hole in the aluminum (but beside it) and that the crack might have resulted from an over-tightening of the bolts. Is the aluminum oval at that end, as opposed to round?
So to add one more option to your multiple choices for a fix; you could unbolt the hardware from the aluminum, drill holes at 90 degrees to the originals, and reassemble (the bolts in their new position will now squeeze the crack closed and prevent it from opening in the future) with little to no loss of strength and easy retention of original dimensions.
- B
Yes, it doesn't pass through the holes, and no It's not even oval. I think someone has installed it incorrectly and pulled something the wrong way - that's why there's an indent on the mast (it should not be pressing on the mast at any time). I'm thinking maybe I actually can drill the hole at 90 degrees and just put a bolt through to pull the crack together and prevent separation, without moving anything else or the brackets (as the other end has the holes and the slit for the plate holding steel wire for hte mast and the blocks for the mast rising line, and it all would have to be redone otherwise)
