I am replacing the entire bottom ring on a brock steel grain bin. Measures 60dia by 76 to eaves. I have been told that it can be done without jacking if I do 1 panel at a time. I would just like to get opinions on this. I originally thought I could take 2 panels out 180 degrees from each other to speed things up and also get away from confined space issues. any help would be greatly appreciated.
How long is each panel? I'll tell right upfront I don't know what I'm talking about, but I have been thinking about this same thing. I guess if it settled enough for the bolt holes not to line up, you could jack that spot, or ream the hole?
or get enough pointy bars to pry several holes to line up and put the bolts into the holes on each side of the lever? Also don't know what I'm talking about.
Just replaced a single sheet on a 14' Westeel that was bumped by equipment last fall. We did it without any jacks - unbolted the old sheet, set in the new one and installed the bolts. Granted, this bin wasn't as high as the OP. Therefore, not as much weight above the removed sheet. However, a 14' bin is going to have a lot less sheets around so would likely be a higher risk from a structure standpoint. (ie a larger % of the circumference was removed.) Andrew
I've seen it done but not done it myself, bear this in mind, but when I saw it done, they kept the bin bolted down on all sheets except the one being removed, hooked a jack up to the bin on the outside of the sheet being taken out, for lifting purposes if needed and then unbolted and put the new sheet in, working around the bin as they went, one sheet at a time, but your working on a bin almost 80 feet tall, not sure I'd have guts enough to attempt it without several jacks on it, if things went badly, the cost of the sheets would be minimal compared to setting up some safety jacks, also don't think I'd do it any day with even a slight breeze, more like a day that had dead still air if possible.
Not sure how long the bin sheets are, but Westeel sheets are 10' long, I think. A 60 foot diameter bin is going to have a circumference of 188 feet which is 19 sheets. I don't think taking out 1 sheet is going to be a problem. When I use to haul grain commercially, I was at a canola crush plant one time. For some reason they had to remove some side sheets from a bin - probably maintenance of unload equipment or something. Anyway, they had no jacks at all. The bin did have external stiffeners on it however. Does the OP's bin have stiffeners on it? Andrew