Not to be a smarta**, but a tower is $498 at www.diywake.com incl shipping, mounting h/w, etc. That is pretty darn cheap esp factoring in the peace-of-mind and safety aspects.
I think we have less than $250 in it - we had to spend about $50 to have some SS welding done on the mounting plates.
To keep it simple - we built the top (h-bar as we called it) with slightly larger tubing than the 4 main verticals. That way once all 4 poles were built and bent we assembled it on the boat by slipping the poles into the h-bar and tack welding it when we got it positioned the way we wanted it.
Took it off - finished the welding. Primed and painted.
Going on our 3rd year of use - couldn't have spent a better $250.
This is before the satin blue paint, Bazooka speakers (top pic) and getting all the wiring ran inside the tubing.
Here it mine - It is from Monstertower.com. You have to assemble it yourself but it fits almost any boat. It is very quiet and stable. Where it attaches to the boat it has a heim joint. These are designed to prevent the fiberglass and gelcoat from cracking. It is the best design by far and all the big companies use them.
I made this tower and the tower on my 1st boat. I have a good friend was is a fabricator and he had the tubing bender. I did save quite a bit of $$ butit is alot of work. If I had to do all over again I would just buy a Monster Tower.
Starting to dig up some old dirt here...
Liquid Force, can you provide and SS of the joints on the boat?
Your tower is really simple, and basically exactly how I would need to build mine.
I have all of the equipment (Pipe Bender, Welder, and paint), just confused on the mounting to the boat.
as you may know, some of these guys are "product placemement" like a heineken bottle or pepsi in austin powers but i have a diy.wake.com. good product for the $ not as pretty but just as effective. ALWAYS DRILL FIBERGLASS IN REVERSE ANS SLOWLY AS TO NOT CRACK THE FIBERGLASS! really, how much time could you save? you need some steel backing for your anchors. fish on! pete. wcsparky05@yahoo.com