KIO Technology
Coupling of the hexbeam to your mast
Shown to the left is the hexbeam coupled to a standard push up mast. The bracket has U bolts that fit perfectly on a standard push up mast of 1.25 inches outside diameter. The U bolts are supplied along with the proper pinning bolt with your hexagonal beam at no extra charge.
Note that a hole must be drilled through your mast for insertion of a pinning bolt to prevent the hex beam from slipping in the U bolts and getting out of alignment with your rotator.
For an extra charge, a Universal Clamp as shown on the right is adjustable for masts of any size, 1.25 inches to 2.5 inches outside diameter. Four bolts hold the stainless steel clamps with their serrated edges to firmly grip your mast.
The Universal Clamp attached to the base plate bracket is shown below. The clamp will fit on any KIO baseplate, no matter how old. Just remove the old flange on the bottom and install the new Universal Clamp with the four bolts shown in the photo. The Clamp can be bought on the Replacement Parts page.
1. Use of the regular base plate flange.
Coupling of the hexagonal beam base plate to a push up mast
Notice the bolt on the flange to prevent “free wheeling” of the beam which will occur eventually if you rely only on the two small set screws in the flange to hold it to the mast.
The entire push up mast can be rotated from the bottom if you fashion an arrangement to mount the rotator to a stationary base of some sort. See a crude example of one of such arrangement here.
Alternatively, you can mount the rotator at the top of the push up mast and get by with an inexpensive TV rotator but this adds weight to the entire arrangement adding to the difficulty of pushing the whole thing up.
2. Use of the optional large base plate flange.
Coupling of the hexagonal beam base plate to a rotator mast.
This arrangement is generally right for a rotator that is in the top of a tower or a roof mounted arrangement such as those sold by Glenn Martin.
The base plate shown here is equipped with the optional large flange on the bottom to fit a larger mast size of 1.9 inches instead of the regular flange.
Note the use of a cross bolt on the flange to prevent “free wheeling” of the beam which will occur eventually if you rely only on the two small set screws in the flange to hold it to the mast.
3. Use of a mast adapter.
Large Mast / Small Pipe Adapter
You can easily fashion an adapter that will make your mast fit into the standard base plate provided with the KIO hexagonal beam. A simple iron pipe “nipple” obtained from the plumbing section of a hardware store along with the bolts shown below is all you need plus some simple drilling work. Saw off one end with the threads on it so it won’t cut into the soft metal of the flange. It is a perfect fit into the KIO hexagonal base plate bottom flange.
Note the use of a cross bolt on the flange to prevent “free wheeling” of the beam which will occur eventually if you rely only on the two small set screws in the flange to hold it to the mast. The small pipe shown is a one inch galvanized pipe nipple obtained from Home Depot or Lowes.
Adapter for fitting large mast to regular base plate flange fitting
