Cumulus Support

Hi
Looking at Repairman's picture of his new screen I wonder if he (and others) have braced the top to the pole.
The support at the bottom is not exactly meaty and I think the added wind resistance might cause a failure.
Mine, with 7inch saucers actually bent a 40mm pole slightly - that's Cornish winds for you !
Regards
Alan

apenwith wrote:Hi
Looking at Repairman's picture of his new screen I wonder if he (and others) have braced the top to the pole.
The support at the bottom is not exactly meaty and I think the added wind resistance might cause a failure.
Mine, with 7inch saucers actually bent a 40mm pole slightly - that's Cornish winds for you !
Regards
Alan

Hi Alan, the strong L-shaped metal bracket is bolted to the bottom of the 6mm threaded rod which holds the saucers together and tie-wrapped to the supporting arm. It held up in the gales that we had a few days ago so I think it'll be OK.
I think that if it had just been resting on the sensor unit it may have been dislodged. The only problem I had in the gales was a loosening of the 12V supply cable which has now been rectified.

However if we had a repeat of the 1987 gales I'm not sure any of our WX stations would come through it totally unscathed.

I may add some struts to the whole system on the pole at some time to stabilise it in high winds and stop the errors on the rain sensor; unfortunately there's no easy way to move the rain box to a better location at the moment without a lot of extra work.

Mike.

Hi Mike
I din't mean to criticise your installation but your thumbnail happens to illustrate the point. There's a hefty bending moment imposed on the support arm.
Regards
Alan

apenwith wrote:Hi Mike
I din't mean to criticise your installation but your thumbnail happens to illustrate the point. There's a hefty bending moment imposed on the support arm.
Regards
Alan

No Alan, I don't mind constructive criticism; I suppose it could do with a support at the top; and I was wondering how strong the support arm actually was; it's a good quality plastic so I don't think it'll actually snap off. There are so many mods you can do with these things. I will get around to it as soon as we get a nicer day, but it's pretty dire weather here for climbing about on the roof.

Mike.

... I was wondering how strong the support arm actually was; it's a good quality plastic ...

That will definately degrade with both weather and 'distress' through weather (Sun, rain, chill).

The beteljuice has tried a few 'home brew' set ups, and the long term problems have always been materials used and / or fixing mounts.

beteljuice wrote:

... I was wondering how strong the support arm actually was; it's a good quality plastic ...

That will definately degrade with both weather and 'distress' through weather (Sun, rain, chill).

The beteljuice has tried a few 'home brew' set ups, and the long term problems have always been materials used and / or fixing mounts.

Yet another job to do when the weather improves a bit then. Been pretty dire over the past few days here.
Certainly not 'ladder' type weather.

Mike.