Building a Flagpole.

[gnihcraes]

So I've been a bad American for years, usually not putting up the flag on the days I should etc. I did find my flag though, and it's in rough shape. I'll have to get a new one. Guess it should be disposed of properly and I guess that would be done at (elks? american legion? VFW?)??

So...

I want to build a flagpole on my property. Hopefully the city won't find out and give me a bunch of code violation crap. I'm going to give it a shot with these directions and materials found here:

Not promoting the business, it's just nice to see they give you directions, material suggestions and kits to purchase to finish it up. I appreciate that.

http://myrtlebeachflag.com/HowToBuild.html

and with this kit of parts if I get the rest of it up:

https://myrtlebeachflag.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_352_581&products_id=2819

Thought some others might want the information to try it.[Pepsi]

time to start digging a hole... [Marine]

[Marlin]

You're not in a covenet controled neighbrhood are you? They may harass you more than the city would.

[gnihcraes]

no covenant, just old grumpy nosey people. Hopefully all veterans.... worst case, I just made a great hole in the ground to hide ammo.

... got the hole dug, got the concrete tube ready, just double checking my plans and will pour concrete in the next hour or two...

[Half Live]

Ask a local Boy Scout troop to properly dispose of the American Flag. When I was in Boy Scouts, every year we would take a camping trip to the Air Force Academy and we would properly dispose of old American Flags there.


You should also put a light on the top so you can fly the American Flag all day and all night.

[StagLefty]

Ask a local Boy Scout troop to properly dispose of the American Flag. When I was in Boy Scouts, every year we would take a camping trip to the Air Force Academy and we would properly dispose of old American Flags there.


You should also put a light on the top so you can fly the American Flag all day and all night.

^ This-I was late reading today. [Beer]

[Marlin]

Doesn't have to be on top, The flag just has to be illuminated..

[Beprepared]

You should also put a light on the top so you can fly the American Flag all day and all night.

Solar powered garden spot lights work well for this. Not to bright to annoy neighbors. They are easily found at any local walmart type garden center.

[Half Live]

Doesn't have to be on top, The flag just has to be illuminated..

True. It just needs a light pointed at it.

[gnihcraes]

Flagpole base is dug, installed, and concreted. Will do some finish work on that tomorrow. (pictures tomorrow too)

Sounds good, I'll check with local Boy Scouts to dispose of the flag.

Lighted, yes, I have plans to light from some direction, bottom, top or both. Probably solar LED spot landscape light I saw at home depot a while ago. (depending on how bright it actually is)

Having a difficult time finding flagpole parts at the moment... and prices are higher than I thought for the parts.

2 inch galvanized pipe, is like $50+ at home depot. Ouch. They don't seem to carry the other reducers I need either. I found some online from $8.00 to $50 just for a reducing coupler. Double ouch. Not sure how there can be such a Discrepancy in price?? Never thought I'd buy "Pipe" parts off the internet, but that might be the way to go.

I can buy an aluminum pole kit for what it's going to cost in galvanized pipe parts.[Rant1] so much for going cheap.

[gnihcraes]

Pole is up, temporarily. I still need to order the misc items: truck/cap, halyard, cleat, gold ball etc. Leaning slightly in picture because it's not set in the sleeve yet, I need to take it back out and install all the other parts before setting it in the sleeve more permanently.

Trouble finding parts. Ended up having to use Rigid Electrical Conduit, it was $10 cheaper per stick and each one came with the couple already for that price. Only drawback to the electrical couplers, they are straight thread, not tapered pipe thread, so I had to really crank down on them with pipe wrenches and cheater bars to get everything good and tight. I had to buy two threaded bushings to connect each piece of pipe.

Parts: (home depot)

2 Inch Rigid Conduit 768499 $41.66
1.5 inch Rigid Conduit 687280 $31.69
1.25 inch Rigid Conduit 562109 $28.06
2 inch to 1.5 bushing 607324 $4.33
1.5 to 1.25 bushing 349909 $3.88
Two bags 60# of concrete $5.00 or so
One 36inch x 8inch concrete tube for footing. $10 or so
4 inch PVC pipe, already had - Free

Makes a flagpole 27 feet. I cut the top section down so it's a total of 20 feet. 27 Feet seemed a little flimsy up top and would be difficult to stand up by myself.

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=662&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=665&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=668&g2_serialNumber=1

[Marlin]

Only drawback to the electrical couplers, they are straight thread, not tapered pipe thread,


Easier to pull wire that way..[Abused]


Looks like it should work..

[gnihcraes]

yeah, guess I could pull wire up it for lighting... NOT! after my last fiasco with electrical, I wouldn't want to attempt making this to "code". Will probably do something solar, small battery, landscape light.

[TS12000]

[Beer] looking good so far

[gnihcraes]

^^nice. No excitement like that here. Didn't even drop it on the car while standing it up to place in the ground sleeve... maybe when the rest of the parts show up and I have to lift this thing out again something will happen... could fill it with gas and light the top of it on fourth of July I guess?

[Irving]

Do you live across the street from a school?

[theGinsue]

I was wondering the same thing - based on the background in the pic's.

[gnihcraes]

Yes. ? Is that good or bad? :) I still can't decide after 15 years... been great for my kids... "GO TO SCHOOL" kick them out the door. ha ha...

[Irving]

I was actually going to ask you if it was good or bad. They are building a school across the street from me. I'm eager to use the playground, but now I'll have to leave my gun at home.

[gnihcraes]

yeah, no kidding, huge gun free zone, that's about the worst part of it. The things that have bugged me over the years:

1. Gun Free zone, the park and school property are not marked, so I have no idea what section of the park behind the school is legal for CCW. (I need to figure this out somehow??)
1. No Respect. Trash, Vandalism, etc of my fences, yard, landscaping. (not bad, but some, usually from the parents!).
2. Traffic, cars blocking driveway etc during school events and after school pickup times.
3. Non-Community people using the ball courts etc. We're just a few blocks from Denver, so there are many groups of people that drive in from there to use the fields and courts, sometimes this causes problems for little league groups who schedule to use the fields.

Pluses:

Use of ball courts etc. Great parking lot for the go kart, especially with the gravel on it. :) COOKIES! POWER SLIDES. too bad I sold the go kart. ha ha...

Extra parking for my backyard events - parties etc. (rare but nice to have the parking space)

Very nice for sending the kids off to school, great to have it close to home. Bad that everyone at school knows where you and your kids live though. Hasn't been a problem though yet. I've kept on people, parents, teachers and kids for years, they know to not mess with my stuff for the most part. Respect.

Take a large walking stick with you to the school instead of ccw, gives you some peace of mind. (does for me anyway)

[gnihcraes]

Update: Got the rest of the parts today. Will get to work on it tomorrow evening and hopefully have it up and ready for the flag.

[funkfool]

Up for Memorial day!!!

[gnihcraes]

It's up! Haven't bought a new flag yet, this one is getting pretty bad shape, but will do for this weekend. I'll buy a higher quality flag sometime soon. Time to work on the lighting for it...

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=680&g2_serialNumber=1


http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=683&g2_serialNumber=1

[Marlin]

Looks good..

[Fentonite]

Nice Job!

[gnihcraes]

Thanks! I like it, wife likes it, seems to anchor the house.

[ChunkyMonkey]

I agreed..great location for it.

[Irving]

It looks very nice.

[jerrymrc]

The wife and I talked about this yesterday. We have a flag and fireworks place just down the road. As I drove by today I noticed that the had a sign saying "used flagpoles for sale" I need to go check them out this week..

[theGinsue]

Very nice job and fantastic location.

[funkfool]

The wife and I talked about this yesterday. We have a flag and fireworks place just down the road. As I drove by today I noticed that the had a sign saying "used flagpoles for sale" I need to go check them out this week..
Jerry - called you and left a message...
I talked to the gal at Affordable Flags...
used 25 footer $250.00
I am in the market too and was looking at those...
also - one of the neighbors has one of these:
http://www.awltovhc.com/image-3965215-10474444 (http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3965215-10474444)
PM or email me if you want to see about a 'group' discount'....
Thanks.

[funkfool]

gnihcraes:
You inspired me - I always wanted to put up a flagpole...
so I ordered one last week - it arrived Friday - I poured my concrete this morinig and tomorrow is FLAG DAY!!!

[gnihcraes]

cool. post up pictures! Mine is still flying.

[funkfool]

Here it is:
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac313/funkfoolery/family/pole_pour1.jpg
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac313/funkfoolery/family/pole_pour.jpg
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac313/funkfoolery/family/flagpole.jpg
Cost: $255.00
Telescoping Flagpole from
http://www.awltovhc.com/image-3965215-10474444 (http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3965215-10474444)
229.00
3 bags concrete 15.00
1 12" form 10.00

[cowboykjohnson]

Looks great!

[blackford76]

Nice job [Beer]

[cowboykjohnson]

I just need to buy a house so I can put one up...a decent job might help with that.[Bang]

[gnihcraes]

looks great! Hopefully this will catch on...

[newracer]

I think I may need to upgrade my post mounted flag to a taller flag pole. Nice work guys!!!

[gnihcraes]

Flagpole Update: Went hunting this weekend, and the wife was gone for a while Sunday morning, when she received a phone call from local PD. Someone missed the corner and wiped out two fences and my flagpole. I'll try to get photos of the vehicle, but the flagpole won the contest I believe. See below for the rest of the story!

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=882&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=885&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=888&g2_serialNumber=1

Hopefully I'll be getting a nice shinny new aluminum one in exchange for this heavy pipe one I built.

So, my neighbor heard/saw this all go down and the two people involved were trying to free their vehicle from the carnage to leave the scene. He raced over, and they didn't speak english. He was calling the police, and one of them said in Spanish - "Hit Him", apparently so he wouldn't call the police and they could leave. Well, my neighbor apparently knows enough spanish, or more than I thought, and knew what they said. He showed him his XD40 under his shirt (CCW) and they decided to stick around and not make things any worse. (he also has many many years of taekwondo and kung fu experience, so I doubt it would have been fun either way)

I'm buying my neighbor something nice!

And the one weekend my wife happens to bring home the company truck for use on monday morning, parks it right where I always have my truck. Parts and pieces of fence, flagpole, car parts everywhere, not a scratch that we can find on the company truck. Whew!

[Irving]

If I say what I'm thinking, I'd be a hypocrite. Sucks about your flag pole. Let me know if you need any manual labor help.

[gnihcraes]

Hey, thanks! I hope to have it professionally installed on their dime, but we'll see. I'll probably have to pull and reset the base, it's intact, but it doesn't look good. I might be able to pour a larger tube around the existing one.

I have many thoughts on this, but won't say anything either. Glad I wasn't home I guess, cuz I probably would have lost my temper and beat them with the flagpole.

I just hope to heck it f**ked up their vehicle, which it probably did. ha ha.

Funny thing too, the plates on the vehicle are from Indiana? But with very spanish registered owners and drivers. But insurance is local? Strange setup, but glad there is insurance I guess.

[Irving]

They had insurance? Then why run? I hate that people don't understand how insurance works. Probably didn't have coverage on their own car and didn't give a shit about your house. Having local insurance with out of state is no big deal. I don't think it is supposed to work that way, but there are a lot of shady agents who will overlook stuff just for a sale.

[funkfool]

Oh man ... bummer. Glad no one was hurt.

[gnihcraes]

LPD called late this afternoon, my CD of crime scene photos is ready. I'll get them and post a few of them up. Should I post the pics of the perps?

[Irving]

Why not?

[gnihcraes]

Well, I went through a small version of hell to get the police report and crime scene photos, I guess since it's my property they damaged I'm not entitled to anything. I believe the PD doesn't like to give out the photos for fear of retaliation or something?

I'll get the pics and see what I've got to post.

[Irving]

You see people's pictures in the paper and stuff. Not to mention www.thesmokinggun.com is an entire website dedicated to publicly posting police reports and photos.

[gnihcraes]

I'll have to review all the paperwork I signed to get this stuff. :)

[Irving]

You had to sign stuff just to get a police report? Or did you get more than that? Your insurance company should have been able to at least get a hold of the copy of the report for you; on their dime no less. Glad your claim is moving along though.

[gnihcraes]

Going through the perps insurance, some crazy Viking insurance, who is part of Sentry Insurance. I didn't even ask them about he reports or photos, doing that all on my own. Yes, PD had me sign about 6 triplicates to get the report and photos and $21 cash of my own property as I see it. Such is life I guess.

I'll pick up the photos tomorrow. That took several days and multiple PD employees to get too.

[Irving]

I'm trying to remember who owns Viking for you, but I can't remember off the top of my head. It is basically the cheaper version of a bigger company. Sentry 21 insurance (you may have seen some of the commercials lately) is just the new name for AIG since they almost bankrupted the entire world. I believe that is the same one. Either way, it sounds like they are doing right by you so far.

[gnihcraes]

Yes, I believe it is Sentry Insurance, and you're probably right about the AIG.

Here we go... these are the best of 71 photos. The driver is from Honduras.

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=893&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=896&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=899&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=902&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=905&g2_serialNumber=1

http://www.dcandh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=908&g2_serialNumber=1

[gnihcraes]

No word from insurance, just a "Check" in the mail. They are shorting me $270 according to my quotes received for fence and flagpole. I guess I lose more unpaid time dealing with the stupid insurance company trying to get paid and made whole. What a pain. I Always get screwed.

[gnihcraes]

Update: Insurance sucks. Lying, cheating @$^!#!@$.

Finally got enough payment checks from multiple insurance agencies to cover the costs of repairs. Fence was repaired yesterday and looks awesome! I'll post up the guys information that did the work, really great people. They also did the fence work for the Bobby Wallace guy in Wheatridge.

Waiting on flagpole re-installation now. Weather might delay that a little.