pic: Pyramid Problems

[Larry Lewis]

After we posted this we did some more investigation into why it was twisting and how to correct it.

Really the issue we were facing was that the angle of the legs relative to the four corners on the top of the pyramid were off. We did not constrain the angle so the legs were free to twist relative to the top of the pyramid. Another issue not helping us was that the weight on the top of the pyramid was making it hard to straighten out the pyramid. So based on these two major issues we tried a new approach.

The new approach:

• We flipped the top of the pyramid upside down and placed it on the ground.
• Next we put in the inserts that interface the top of the pyramid to the legs.
• We adjusted each leg so that it was at the correct angle relative to the corners of the top of the pyramid (now upside down on the ground). This was done by eye just making sure the legs opposite each other where in line.
• Once they were at the correct angle we pinned the angle of the inserts in the top of the pyramid.
• We then removed the pipes from the newly pinned inserts.
• Then we placed the middle and lower rung levels around the top of the pyramid (yes still upside down).
• We then inserted the poles in the gusset plates on the low level followed by the mid and then finally onto the inserts now pinned on the top level. By just holding the angle of the inserts and ultimately the legs it stopped the twisting issue.
• We then used a jig to set the gap between levels and set the mid level relative to the top level.
• Then once the middle was set we set the distance to the low level.
• Once all levels were set relative to the top we flipped it over and tripped off the excess pipe to get the low level to the 30 inches.

Not sure if this will help anyone but it certainly helped us based on our pyramid design.