Too much tech here, sayeth this old research technopuke. It doesn't matter if the pole is a bit wonky; one can descend down a slack rope right quick just fine. I think the purpose of a fireman's pole is to allow rapid descent at a rate consistent with the descender's ability to land without injury. The drill may be to freefall most of the way and brake just before landing. Smooth is good; rope rips bare hands or shirtsleeves used as brakes.
The ones I'm familiar with don't go to the ceiling. About 6' above floor level (on the top end) is 2 more brass pipes that attach via a brass fitting at the pole and then to the wall, forming a V shaped bracket. The poles do have quit a bit of flex in them. Also at the top is a semi circular cage of smaller brass tubing to keep you from stepping in the hole in the dark bunkroom on your way to the head. The bottom is a brass fitting anchored to concrete, with a 2" rubber pad for landing. Some Houses have hole covers that are spring loaded and swing down when you slide down the pole.
Right. At the top of our pole, I machined out a pipe flange to have a
0.010" clearance around the OD of the stainless pipe. The main reason we did that was because it's a steel truss roof and you don't want any vertical force induced into the truss system.
pole under action.
Yes. It dampens pretty quick, probably because I have (O.D. turned down) couplings every 2 or 4 feet inside. I'm not really convinced that the water pipe added any strength at all, because it sagged quite a few inches over the 19' length, where the stainless pipe didn't deflect at all under it's own weight (or with the water pipe inside) when it was horizontal.
ring that contains
Slip fit into a pipe flange, pipe flange bolted & welded to a piece of angle iron which bolts to adjacent...um...purlins in the roof structure (which run perpendicular to the roof trusses).
design versions ! I don't know, but if you want I could lift the ceiling tiles & take some digital shots of what we did. It rattles a bit, but we consider that to be a feature. (besides, it's for looks only, and as I mentioned earlier, it's been there for many decades and nobody remembers when it went in but it was long, long ago. And those scrapes aren't from people using it.)
3" might not sound like much, but it really is pretty big pipe. That's good for strength, bur you might have problems getting a good grip on it. I would think that 2" would be about right. Bob
Best way is "suspended" from the top so the pole takes all the load in tension, and restrained at the botton in a rubber "sleave" in the floor. The top mounting should be pretty firmly restrained.
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