06-15-2019, 02:55 PM
They want a nominal 4" schedule 40 pipe. They won't accept less. I should know. I tried 2 1/2" pipe and the installers turned up their nose at it. This despite my asking the Hawaiian Telcom people over the phone. The people in the office couldn't tell me the lowdown so I had to remove the smaller pipes and install the 4" pipes.
Never mind about the 5' embedment. They had no way of confirming that and didn't even ask. My place is all rock. I dug down as deep as I could with my rotary hammer, about 18", and cast concrete around the base of the pole. The Hawaiian Telcom installers might bother you about how deep if you had soil but probably won't say boo if they know it's lava land. In lava, those pipes ain't goin' nowhere.
The 4" schedule 40 pipe comes in 21' lengths which weigh something like 275 lbs and cost something like $400 each. I used the two 2 1/2" pipes and a 20' ladder to make a sort of tripod that I could climb then used a come-along to raise the 4" pipes enough to get them started. I had already installed hooks at the top, one on each side, and tied 3 ropes to these hooks so I could guy the pipes up vertical as I removed the tripod. I used ratchet straps at the ends of the 3 ropes, secured to trees and a nearby fence to tighten the ropes and fine tune the verticalness (verticality? verticalitude?) of the poles.
The fiber optic cable is secured to the poles with chinese finger grippy things that grab the cable and have a wire loop that goes over the hooks at the top of each pole. The cable approaches the pole on one side (first hook) and leaves on the other side (second hook) with a loop of slack hanging down about 18" in between. The installers gave me a couple of the hooks they use on the first visit as a sort of consolation prize. I bought a couple more S-hooks of about 3/16" dia stock that I crimped closed on one end and twisted the other end 90 degrees so that it would stick out from the pole in general hook-like fashion when the crimped end had a bolt through it bolting it to the pipe. I used a single 1/4" dia bolt about 6" long straight through the top of the pipe to secure both hooks, far enough down from the end to allow the end cap to be installed. I got the pipes at Hilo Steel. They had sheet metal caps that press-fit on that cost $25 each. Central Supply had Sch 40 threaded caps at the affordable price of $150 or so so I went with Hilo Steel.
There was no need for a ground rod for FO cable.
Never mind about the 5' embedment. They had no way of confirming that and didn't even ask. My place is all rock. I dug down as deep as I could with my rotary hammer, about 18", and cast concrete around the base of the pole. The Hawaiian Telcom installers might bother you about how deep if you had soil but probably won't say boo if they know it's lava land. In lava, those pipes ain't goin' nowhere.
The 4" schedule 40 pipe comes in 21' lengths which weigh something like 275 lbs and cost something like $400 each. I used the two 2 1/2" pipes and a 20' ladder to make a sort of tripod that I could climb then used a come-along to raise the 4" pipes enough to get them started. I had already installed hooks at the top, one on each side, and tied 3 ropes to these hooks so I could guy the pipes up vertical as I removed the tripod. I used ratchet straps at the ends of the 3 ropes, secured to trees and a nearby fence to tighten the ropes and fine tune the verticalness (verticality? verticalitude?) of the poles.
The fiber optic cable is secured to the poles with chinese finger grippy things that grab the cable and have a wire loop that goes over the hooks at the top of each pole. The cable approaches the pole on one side (first hook) and leaves on the other side (second hook) with a loop of slack hanging down about 18" in between. The installers gave me a couple of the hooks they use on the first visit as a sort of consolation prize. I bought a couple more S-hooks of about 3/16" dia stock that I crimped closed on one end and twisted the other end 90 degrees so that it would stick out from the pole in general hook-like fashion when the crimped end had a bolt through it bolting it to the pipe. I used a single 1/4" dia bolt about 6" long straight through the top of the pipe to secure both hooks, far enough down from the end to allow the end cap to be installed. I got the pipes at Hilo Steel. They had sheet metal caps that press-fit on that cost $25 each. Central Supply had Sch 40 threaded caps at the affordable price of $150 or so so I went with Hilo Steel.
There was no need for a ground rod for FO cable.