My first pier

After 9 months of hauling the tripod outdoors in the evening and indoors in the morning, a permanent pier began to have an overwhelming appeal for me. I needed to act fast since the frost is coming soon. I dug down all the way until I hit ledge, which was only a little under 4'. I think that'll make a nice solid base. I laid some rebar in the lower portion, as I'd heard due to lightning and ground surges they shouldn't go all the way up the pier. I mixed and poured 9 x 80lbs bags of Quikrete. The last bag went into a scrap of 16" sonotube from my club's project. Into that I sunk 3 large anchor bolts which I had fastened into a plywood template to hold the bolts straight.

The pier itself has a story behind it. It was the base of an old fire alarm call box and is made of sturdy box aluminum. The man who built my house had been a firefighter and the fire alarm call box was setup as a path light. Can't beat a free pier ;-) I'll post photos of that soon.

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Ready to pour...

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Very nice, Charles! I've hand-dug 31 post holes 40+ inches down in the name of Astronomy! And two MASSIVE piers. One needed a ladder to get out of... My will directs that I be frozen in liquid nitrogen and pounded into the ground beneath my dome... ~RIP~ Tom

Looks good, Charles. Any plans to erect a special purpose building around that block of concrete?

Here's a few photos of the aluminum pier. I removed the red and white striped fire alarm paint and at the wife's suggestion used some nice Rustoleum (had it on hand) paint called Hammered Steel or something to that effect. It's a nice greyblack paint that's not too shiny but not too flat. Will see how it works in the dark soon. :-)

Here's a closeup and the next post will be the full length.

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First light with the pier earlier this week. Seems quite sturdy. I might fill the pier with sand for further vibration dampening.

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wondering how you aligned the pedestal to true north.  I have seen lots of methods but they don't seem very precise. Thanks.