Pier and Pier Base Construction

[Davey-T]

I'd stand the pier on the concrete and check for upright in case it needs packing anywhere to level it before setting the stud height.

Dave

[souls33k3r]

3 hours ago, sloz1664 said:

Hi Ahmed,

I would think one week would suffice before you drill. Regards the resin, the instructions should point you to cure times. Also, I used a single chrome domed top nut and appropriate chrome washer on each thread. Sets it off quite nicely

Steve

Cheers Steve, that's very helpful. Much appreciated. 

1 hour ago, Jkulin said:

You need at least a week to go off, I did mine after a couple of weeks and it was rock solid.

The resin went off over night, remember the old saying measure twice, cut drill once!

Cheers John. Yes I was thinking maybe a week but wasn't too sure if week would be long enough or not. But I'll try to have it done when my pier is ready which should be in about 2 weeks time any way. Also would you be kind to let me know where you bought the iOptron mount cable from? I remember you mentioned it on one of the threads but for the love of everything that's holy I can't remember where I saw that. Also I remember Ray mentioned that he had to go through a couple of cables to find that works. 

[souls33k3r]

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

I'd stand the pier on the concrete and check for upright in case it needs packing anywhere to level it before setting the stud height.

Dave

Cheers Dave, that sure is a very good idea. I roughly checked the level of the concrete using the phone app and it was pretty much bang on but I'll do this once again with a real leveller. If in case it's not level, what should you recommend I use to pack it up with? A washer or anything else? 

[Davey-T]

Big washers, you can get 50mm square galvanized ones.

Dave

https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-steel-square-washers-m16-x-5mm-10-pack/866ft

Edited July 9, 2019 by Davey-T

[souls33k3r]

6 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Big washers, you can get 50mm square galvanized ones.

Dave

https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-steel-square-washers-m16-x-5mm-10-pack/866ft

Awesome stuff. Cheers Dave.

[Bukko]

Glad the pour went well.

I would give it two weeks before drilling, just to make sure it has cured fully.

The hardest part I found was making sure all the dust is out of each hole before injecting the resin (I have a small air compressor) and making sure enough resin was pumped in to completely fill the hole when the stud is pushed home, without overdoing it and running out... Every stud had extra resin come out of the top of the hole, so I knew they were full. If you plan to secure the pier directly to the concrete, then make sure you can clean off all the excess...

The stuff I used cured within 30 mins and that is actually not a lot of time to confirm everything is good.

Gordon.

[souls33k3r]

13 minutes ago, Bukko said:

Glad the pour went well.

I would give it two weeks before drilling, just to make sure it has cured fully.

The hardest part I found was making sure all the dust is out of each hole before injecting the resin (I have a small air compressor) and making sure enough resin was pumped in to completely fill the hole when the stud is pushed home, without overdoing it and running out... Every stud had extra resin come out of the top of the hole, so I knew they were full. If you plan to secure the pier directly to the concrete, then make sure you can clean off all the excess...

The stuff I used cured within 30 mins and that is actually not a lot of time to confirm everything is good.

Gordon.

Cheers Gordon. 

I was watching a few YouTube videos on it last night and came two ideas which I wanted run by you all any way. First is to use the air duster cans (https://www.ebuyer.com/649796-ebuyer-com-air-duster-400ml-ebairduster) to clean out the dust along with using hole cleaning brush, then fill about 70% of the hole with the resin and whatever excess comes out I even and level it out on the concrete using a piece of card board. 

Such is the plan

[Jkulin]

11 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Also would you be kind to let me know where you bought the iOptron mount cable from? I remember you mentioned it on one of the threads but for the love of everything that's holy I can't remember where I saw that.

No probs Ahmed, I put Ray onto these as I was going through every conceivable cable to identify one that worked and then Kev at iOptron put me onto these, they are available in various lengths and take about 10 days to arrive: -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DFM6P1Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These work perfectly and even though I have Wi-Fi connectivity through my 120EC I still prefer to use a wired route.

[Bukko]

3 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Cheers Gordon. 

I was watching a few YouTube videos on it last night and came two ideas which I wanted run by you all any way. First is to use the air duster cans (https://www.ebuyer.com/649796-ebuyer-com-air-duster-400ml-ebairduster) to clean out the dust along with using hole cleaning brush, then fill about 70% of the hole with the resin and whatever excess comes out I even and level it out on the concrete using a piece of card board. 

Such is the plan

Hi Ahmed,

The air duster should work, a single can should be enough.

Before injecting the resin, check how deep the stud goes. If it goes too deep, then try and drop something down to set the height above the surface. A bit of wood should work.

I would not fill it with that much, maybe 25% would be enough. When injected, press the stud through the resin. If it does not start to ooze out the top, then lift the stud out and inject a bit more. Try not to catch too much air in the hole though. I found rotating the stud as it goes in helps also.

I am sure you will get the hang of this very quickly

Good luck, Gordon.

[souls33k3r]

5 hours ago, Jkulin said:

No probs Ahmed, I put Ray onto these as I was going through every conceivable cable to identify one that worked and then Kev at iOptron put me onto these, they are available in various lengths and take about 10 days to arrive: -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DFM6P1Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These work perfectly and even though I have Wi-Fi connectivity through my 120EC I still prefer to use a wired route.

Cheers John, you're awesome mate.

5 hours ago, Bukko said:

Hi Ahmed,

The air duster should work, a single can should be enough.

Before injecting the resin, check how deep the stud goes. If it goes too deep, then try and drop something down to set the height above the surface. A bit of wood should work.

I would not fill it with that much, maybe 25% would be enough. When injected, press the stud through the resin. If it does not start to ooze out the top, then lift the stud out and inject a bit more. Try not to catch too much air in the hole though. I found rotating the stud as it goes in helps also.

I am sure you will get the hang of this very quickly

Good luck, Gordon.

Cheers Gordon, this is very helpful. Much appreciated

[Starflyer]

A can of air duster just hasn't got the oomph to blow concrete dust / debris out of a deep vertical hole.

You need the hole clear of dust and to do that use one of these, it's designed for the job. Wear safety glasses, the dust gets ejected straight up at some speed.

Half fill the hole with the epoxy and don't just push the bolt in, screw it in, this gets you maximum contact between the resin and the bolt.

That's a big lump of concrete and will be damp in the middle for several weeks. I left mine to fully cure for a month before drilling the holes. You might get away with a week or two, but is it worth the rush, especially at this time of year?

[StarDodger]

How close will the holes you drill, be to the edges of the concrete...?

[souls33k3r]

3 hours ago, Starflyer said:

A can of air duster just hasn't got the oomph to blow concrete dust / debris out of a deep vertical hole.

You need the hole clear of dust and to do that use one of these, it's designed for the job. Wear safety glasses, the dust gets ejected straight up at some speed.

Half fill the hole with the epoxy and don't just push the bolt in, screw it in, this gets you maximum contact between the resin and the bolt.

That's a big lump of concrete and will be damp in the middle for several weeks. I left mine to fully cure for a month before drilling the holes. You might get away with a week or two, but is it worth the rush, especially at this time of year?

Cheers mate, this is really helpful. Just the item was looking for but unfortunately I really don't see the need for this pump once I'll be done with these 4 holes and I hate wasting money like that. 

I'll be giving it about 2 weeks if not more before I start drilling holes in the concrete. 

3 hours ago, StarDodger said:

How close will the holes you drill, be to the edges of the concrete...?

Well the square box is 500mm so the holes will be 300mm apart which means 100mm from each side. 

[symmetal]

To clean the concrete dust out of the holes drilled in my pier I just used a piece of tubing that fits down the hole and joined the the other end to a vacuum cleaner nozzle with some duct  tape. You get great suction with the small diameter tubing and the dust disappears without it being blown everywhere. 

Alan

[Shelster1973]

Would 3.2mm wall steel tube be suitable enough for a pier?  Have been looking for a suitable tube on the tintyweb and found a 6" diameter 850mm tall one for £30 and I am tempted to get this as want to keep the cost down as much as possible.

[bottletopburly]

16 minutes ago, Shelster1973 said:

Would 3.2mm wall steel tube be suitable enough for a pier?  Have been looking for a suitable tube on the tintyweb and found a 6" diameter 850mm tall one for £30 and I am tempted to get this as want to keep the cost down as much as possible.

Yes that’s fine about the same as mine I used 127mm tube from metals4u .

[Shelster1973]

1 hour ago, bottletopburly said:

Yes that’s fine about the same as mine I used 127mm tube from metals4u .

That was the exact website I was looking at to get my tube.

Will be getting the base plate, top plate and fillets from LaserMaster and will be getting these in 5mm plate.  Once it is all welded together and bolted down, it should be strong enough.  Am not wanting to hang a bus off the top or carry out NCAP tests on it.

Edit - Rant - £28 for the tube.....happy with that.  Then £21 in package, postage and VAT...not happy with that.  Almost doubles the cost for buying it.  On the sunny side, it is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a pre-made tube and I get the satisfaction of doing the welding myself, although I may have to have a wee practice as it has been 20 years since I last welded, but is like a bike and once muscle memory kicks in it will all be fine.  Rant over

Edited July 11, 2019 by Shelster1973

[bottletopburly]

2 hours ago, Shelster1973 said:

That was the exact website I was looking at to get my tube.

Will be getting the base plate, top plate and fillets from LaserMaster and will be getting these in 5mm plate.  Once it is all welded together and bolted down, it should be strong enough.  Am not wanting to hang a bus off the top or carry out NCAP tests on it.

Edit - Rant - £28 for the tube.....happy with that.  Then £21 in package, postage and VAT...not happy with that.  Almost doubles the cost for buying it.  On the sunny side, it is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a pre-made tube and I get the satisfaction of doing the welding myself, although I may have to have a wee practice as it has been 20 years since I last welded, but is like a bike and once muscle memory kicks in it will all be fine.  Rant over

 I used 10 mm plate , 5mm bit on the thin side 

[Gina]

I used 10mm plate too.

[souls33k3r]

Same. Top plate is 10mm and bottom one is 12mm.

[souls33k3r]

Coming up with to 2 weeks now since I first poured the concrete so thought should pick up my work on the pier (work life got in the way) and noticed that the pier adapter holes for the bolts sit almost flush to the diameter of the pier pipe. This means I won't be able to get the bolts through the pier adapter and also use the nut. (see pictures below) 

The only two possibilities that I can see are:

1) (Sorry for using this term) Rats nest

2) Screw tap the top pier plater and then screw in the bolts. Since my top pier plate is 10mm in thickness, that's all what I can afford. 

Unless anyone else has any other ideas? 

 

[Kev M]

I would suggest using intermediate plates ( couple of car brake discs are popular and cheap ).

Bottom disc has holes to match pier studs, top disc has holes to match pier adaptor.

They are bolted together using threaded rods ( the length of these are easily adjustable to vary height of pier).

Also if you ever change your adaptor ( different mount ) you only have to change or re-drill top brake disc.

Plenty examples of this on forum.

[Bukko]

Hi Ahmed,

Do you need access under the mounting plate to secure the mount (like a Skywatcher..) or does the mount secure directly to the top of the adapter ?

If the former, then some sort of access will be required. Either, as you say, a rats nest, or you could cut a piece out of the pipe to allow room for a nut and washer. If the latter and no access is required, then the mounting is easier.

If you take a look back on page 1 of my build, 2/3 down the page is a picture of my mount on a pier. The 3 studs are threaded into the pier top with another plate holding the adapter and the NEQ6. Once the mount is attached to the pier, I can reduce the height of the rats nest to just 3 or 4 cm, so reducing any issues with that method. This was the easiest method to do, as the pipe is 20cm bore and very heavy walled ( 8 or 9 mm thick).

Hope this helps.

[spillage]

How are you going to attach the bottom plate and will you not need an owls nest? 

[StarDodger]

8 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Coming up with to 2 weeks now since I first poured the concrete so thought should pick up my work on the pier (work life got in the way) and noticed that the pier adapter holes for the bolts sit almost flush to the diameter of the pier pipe. This means I won't be able to get the bolts through the pier adapter and also use the nut. (see pictures below) 

The only two possibilities that I can see are:

1) (Sorry for using this term) Rats nest

2) Screw tap the top pier plater and then screw in the bolts. Since my top pier plate is 10mm in thickness, that's all what I can afford. 

Unless anyone else has any other ideas? 

 

Hmmmm, maybe should have measured those hole spacing before getting the pipe..?? Would have saved a lot of work...