High tower build

James110

Well-Known Member
I thought I'd share some pictures of a high tower a friend and myself have started building on a friends piece of land.
image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
The 4 legs were milled from 1 long oak log and the rest of the frame is sweet chestnut. The floor which will hopefully be going in tomorrow will be done with hemlock. It stands at 5 metres tall to where the roof will be. It certainly helps having your own sawmill when making projects like this! I will update the thread when there is progress on it
cheers
Jim
 
I'm gonna bang some chestnut stock posts into the ground then bolt them to it. It's pretty hefty as well so It shouldn't need too much
Will you be keeping the frame off the ground so only the chestnut posts rot and can be replaced?
 
Looks like a quality build.
I'm going to do one similar but out of chestnut, cleft and in the round.
Hope you put it in the right spot, you don't want to be moving that far.
Where in Kent are you based?
I sometimes need a Mizer.
 
Looks like a quality build.
I'm going to do one similar but out of chestnut, cleft and in the round.
Hope you put it in the right spot, you don't want to be moving that far.
Where in Kent are you based?
I sometimes need a Mizer.

Haha indeed it would be a right pain to shift, we spent s fair bit of time working out where to put it to maximise the safe shooting area. My sawmill is near Tunbridge wells so not far from Forest Row. I'm fairly new to sawmilling so always eager to help as it will help me learn! Give me a shout if you need a second pair of hands to build your tower.
 
Haha indeed it would be a right pain to shift, we spent s fair bit of time working out where to put it to maximise the safe shooting area. My sawmill is near Tunbridge wells so not far from Forest Row. I'm fairly new to sawmilling so always eager to help as it will help me learn! Give me a shout if you need a second pair of hands to build your tower.


I might well do that Jim.
Have you got a yard where you can mill as could also bring smaller quantities to you?
Would you PM me your number?
 
That will be some high tower and will weather in well.
Can't afford oak but have plenty of telegraph poles on the farm. What is the best way to get them up where a teleporter can't be used/reach the spot? Or in peoples experience is a loader the only way for these poles?
Thanks
 
That will be some high tower and will weather in well.
Can't afford oak but have plenty of telegraph poles on the farm. What is the best way to get them up where a teleporter can't be used/reach the spot? Or in peoples experience is a loader the only way for these poles?
Thanks

Check the poles with a metal detector first telegraph poles normally have lots of nails etc in them, dont want to damage the mills saw blades
Cheers
Ray
 
I don't think anyone in their right mind would mill a teli pole. Though you will trash the chain on your chainsaw. I use an old chain for such jobs.

montyarrow,
If you make the two sides of the frame up and foot the bases you can use a pulley, winch or 4x4 to stand the 2 facing sides up. If you're clever you can lay both frames on top of each other with the bottom of each beam braced and erect them at the same time.
Probably find something on YouTube that will show it better than my explanation.
 
That will be some high tower and will weather in well.
Can't afford oak but have plenty of telegraph poles on the farm. What is the best way to get them up where a teleporter can't be used/reach the spot? Or in peoples experience is a loader the only way for these poles?
Thanks
It depends what is around where you plan to build it. We chose this spot for a number of reasons including that it had that Oak tree behind it that allowed us to pull the two sides of the frame upright and tie them off both sides with adjustable friction knots - this also allows them to be adjusted until they are perfectly level. If it doesn't have anything around it I'd imagine a telehandler or a front loader on a tractor would be the only feasible way of getting them upright. You could probably do a scaled down tower and do it by hand and just tie each side off to a tow bar to hold it there
 
I suppose it depends on the length of the poles and weight. We cut the oak on this one to 5m and transported from the mill to site on a 3m flat bed trailer then man handled them. We made 2 sides of frame on the floor and hauled them up one at a time using rope and pulleys which I rigged up in the oak behind. Once they were in place we Used guy ropes to hold them in position while we screwed in the other sides and squared everything up.

Hope this helps
 
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Update -
Got the floor in, its got sweet chestnut floor joists with hemlock floorboards. All ready for the stud wall, roof then finally the external cladding.

Jim
 
If you are going to put a stud wall and possibly a roof on it I would beef up the bracing on the top and bottom sections (none present on the top section in latest photos). Current bracing is uni-directional and would allow a rotational failure under high wind loading - it really needs to be cross braced in each panel and on the top section which is where the guy is standing on the last photo. I made a similar structure but being free standing, the windload on a structure of this height would be considerable - hence the recommendation. Make each panel an X instead of a / would be my advice. It does however otherwise look a super project and in oak, my favourite !
 
If you are going to put a stud wall and possibly a roof on it I would beef up the bracing on the top and bottom sections (none present on the top section in latest photos). Current bracing is uni-directional and would allow a rotational failure under high wind loading - it really needs to be cross braced in each panel and on the top section which is where the guy is standing on the last photo. I made a similar structure but being free standing, the windload on a structure of this height would be considerable - hence the recommendation. Make each panel an X instead of a / would be my advice. It does however otherwise look a super project and in oak, my favourite !
Cheers for the advice, we did discuss bolting on some extra cross members and we probably will if we have enough material left over at the end. It feels pretty solid at the moment and it probably weighs a fair amount. I get what you mean about the rotational failure though. The stud walling is all going to be 2x4 chestnut which will be coach screwed to the oak posts so it will certainly strengthen the top section. Jim
 
Cheers for the advice, we did discuss bolting on some extra cross members and we probably will if we have enough material left over at the end. It feels pretty solid at the moment and it probably weighs a fair amount. I get what you mean about the rotational failure though. The stud walling is all going to be 2x4 chestnut which will be coach screwed to the oak posts so it will certainly strengthen the top section. Jim

If you have put so much effort in it seems sensible to err on the side of caution and cross brace each of the 'square' elements. If you have a prevailing wind direction, you might consider guy wires after watching it in a high wind, as the overturning moment at the base could in extremis pull the connections to the 'stakes (depends how they are done). Should be no problem up to 60 mph if the direction is on a corner (obliquely). It will be an impressive self build.
Not just 'off the top of my head', I used to be a civil engineer.
 
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