breaking a large boulder with fire

lakill Farm

I read here a few years ago about breaking up a large stone/ boulder by setting a fire around it letting it cool and taking the sledge to it?

whats the exact method?

this stone is approx 5ft high and approx the same across and stuck in a bank/hedge. and its about 25ft away from a full hayshed .

Im asking for a lad up the road. he has tried digging it out with his 6t digger but cant get into in because of the new cattle crush around it

Odelay

I remember that one, think it was a couple of 40kg bags of coal and then when it was good and hot a loader bucket of water fired over it. The more water and faster applied the better. It's the sudden contraction caused by change in temperature that does it.

merryberry

Limstone is burnt and crushed. Is it limestone? U could burn the hedge in the process. Can u go at it with the digger from the other side of the hedge?

merryberry

Limstone is burnt and crushed. Is it limestone? U could burn the hedge in the process. Can u go at it with the digger from the other side of the hedge?

helimachoptor

Rapid cooling is your friend, the FIL did something similar a couple of years back.

Decent sized rock, fire built up under it, used a bag of turf and coal iirc, then a bathtub sized dumping of water and ice, MIL has a pub sized ice maker :P

Cracked pretty good, he put in and iron stake and a couple of hits with the hammer and it cracked almost down the middle

patsy_mccabe

Don't stand on the rock when you pour the water.:)

lakill Farm

merryberry wrote: »

Limstone is burnt and crushed. Is it limestone? U could burn the hedge in the process. Can u go at it with the digger from the other side of the hedge?

I don't think he can did it from the other side. I say its limestone , as everywhere around me is limestone

I haven't been in his yard ever. I presumed if he could dig it up he would have.

td5man

Loading shovel.

lakill Farm

td5man wrote: »

Loading shovel.

access issues

ganmo

Dynamite? Any quarry near ya?
I wonder would the fire work on granite?

Dawggone

Pliny the Elder described how Hannibal broke the hardest of rocks with fire and vinegar whilst crossing the Alps during the second Punic war...



I'd prefer to use a rock-breaker!

sheesh

Dawggone wrote: »

Pliny the Elder described how Hannibal broke the hardest of rocks with fire and vinegar whilst crossing the Alps during the second Punic war...



I'd prefer to use a rock-breaker!

damn it I was going to say this!

alternatively drill a line of holes into it split it along the holes I think that is how it is done in marble quarries

here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5JeIM4WjwI

tomwaterford

ganmo wrote: »

Dynamite? Any quarry near ya?
I wonder would the fire work on granite?

Once upon a time you could buy giliganite in the coop around here....heard tales of lads blasting quarries for filler with heavy gates over it to keep the force down/were widely used around here to knock big trees diameter 8ft+ and afaik it used make people faint/weak if got into your skin

Dawggone

tomwaterford wrote: »

Once upon a time you could buy giliganite in the coop around here....heard tales of lads blasting quarries for filler with heavy gates over it to keep the force down/were widely used around here to knock big trees diameter 8ft+ and afaik it used make people faint/weak if got into your skin

Ammonium nitrate and diesel and....

frazzledhome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wqxWC4OAK0&app=desktop

Would go for small rock breaker if it was me

tomwaterford

Dawggone wrote: »

Ammonium nitrate and diesel and....

Six years in portlaoise?

freedominacup

tomwaterford wrote: »

Once upon a time you could buy giliganite in the coop around here....heard tales of lads blasting quarries for filler with heavy gates over it to keep the force down/were widely used around here to knock big trees diameter 8ft+ and afaik it used make people faint/weak if got into your skin

Famous story in my father's family about an uncle who had no gra for farming and a day blasting rock for a shed foundation. He was freezing mainly because he wouldn't work to warm himself the same day and he "wasn't f'n running anywhere". Needless to say he was first behind cover when the fuse was lit. Serious businessman. Multi million turnover business with over 50 employees now. Farming just wasn't his bag.

mf240

This boulder. Could you just go around it?

Mad4simmental

Make sure it's not an old river rock as they explode when they are heated.

I said

Well did it work?

Qualitymark

but he doesn't say what kind of rock it is - that should make a difference, yes?

Lots of methods in this book:

https://goo.gl/H9tkZ3

Hm, according to this, the type of rock makes no differ:

http://www.academia.edu/194444/_Fire_Cracked_Rocks_An_Archaeological_Experiment

and this says not to try it with flinty rocks: they explode and sharp shards go whizzing around:

http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/801/how-to-avoid-exploding-rocks

Tail painter

Is there an option to dig a bigger hole beside the rock and roll the rock into it. We did it 30 years ago with a big rock that we couldn't lift. It was sticking up catching mower blades etc.

Floody Boreland

I am sure there was a thread here last year or so about drilling rock and pouring in some proprietary compound and then wetting it to split the rock.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ECOBUST-11-lb-Concrete-Cutting-and-Rock-Breaking-Non-Combustive-Demolition-Agent-Type-2-50F-77F-EB211/203335351


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=88328118

Chemical Byrne

Sounds like messing tbh. With the money you'd spend on coal and the time gone on fooling and bollixing with it with a sledge, you'd be better off getting a fella in with a proper excavator and rock breaker to bust it out of there.

You could ask if a fella could drop in for an hour some time he's in the locality with the machine.

lakill Farm

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Sounds like messing tbh. With the money you'd spend on coal and the time gone on fooling and bollixing with it with a sledge, you'd be better off getting a fella in with a proper excavator and rock breaker to bust it out of there.

You could ask if a fella could drop in for an hour some time he's in the locality with the machine.

2 bags of coal - €35

1 day hire for 3t mini digger with hammer €180
Add onto this €30-40 to collect and drop it back

Chemical Byrne

No, don't mind hiring feckin minidiggers.

I've gotten a fella with a 22 ton machine and he charges €40 an hour. Used to be €35. Fair enough, that would be for a day's work tho. But as I said, you could say to him "hey, if your working in or passing near my area some time in the next 2 weeks you might call into me, I've an hour's work breaking a boulder.

I don't know what the set up is but a bigger excavator might be able to reach in over the crush.

I'd wouldn't hire a JCB or minidigger unless access was very tight for a bigger machine. You get far more work done with a bigger machine and the cost per hour is only marginally more. Bigger machine is far, far better value for money.

Anyway, even if twas €70 would that not be preferable to €35 given that you have a machine do the hard work and you save your back. I'd rather pay a bit more than waste a whole day fooling and clown acting around with coal and water and sledges and running the risk of injuring myself or others. Sounds like a mugs game to me.

Surely OP has better and more productive ways to spend his day and more important things to do than trying to manually dissect a boulder?

Nekarsulm

We have a kind of a sunken lane, which has always had a lump of bedrock sticking out into the side of it. I have broken teeth on the jcb bucket trying to break or shift it. The sledge would bounce back up off it higher than your head.
Hired a con-saw with a diamond blade and ended up cutting slots in it and sledging them out with wedges. Came out in pieces as sharp as razor blades. Please wear goggles if you go at it.

Chemical Byrne

With all that messing, to hire a fella in with a proper rockbreaker would probably have worked out cheaper for you and you'd have less headache.

Nekarsulm

Lane way too narrow for tracks of most 12 tonne diggers. Anyway, no one is going to come to you with a rock breaker for 10 minutes work. Or at least, not without charging for a half day. Anyway, I am too miserable to pay.

td5man

lakill Farm wrote: »

2 bags of coal - €35

1 day hire for 3t mini digger with hammer €180
Add onto this €30-40 to collect and drop it back

You'd do more with a sledge than a 3t breaker. 12 tonne or bigger.

Odelay

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Sounds like messing tbh. With the money you'd spend on coal and the time gone on fooling and bollixing with it with a sledge, you'd be better off getting a fella in with a proper excavator and rock breaker to bust it out of there.

You could ask if a fella could drop in for an hour some time he's in the locality with the machine.

That's all very well, but sometimes it verry rewarding to light a good aul fire and watch it do the work without the need for 20 ton of modern machinery.

Chemical Byrne

Odelay wrote:

That's all very well, but sometimes it verry rewarding to light a good aul fire and watch it do the work without the need for 20 ton of modern machinery.

That's all very well, but sometimes people have better, more important things to be doing than wasting half a day standing around, watching a burning rock and breaking their backs hopping a sledge of it.

Miname

Years ago they used to split rock with beech timber. Beech expands more than any other timber, so they used to spend days boring into the Rock faces then wedging beech logs into these holes then kept soaking them until it expanded enough to crack the rock faces.

Odelay

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

That's all very well, but sometimes people have better, more important things to be doing than wasting half a day standing around, watching a burning rock and breaking their backs hopping a sledge of it.

And sometimes they don't, simple things in life and all that. Btw, dont know of any lad that "broke his back hopping a sledge off it", trick is to let the fire do the work.....

ganmo

Odelay wrote: »

And sometimes they don't, simple things in life and all that. Btw, dont know of any lad that "broke his back hopping a sledge off it", trick is to let the fire do the work.....

if you know of anyone who'd like to spend an afternoon firing a rock I know where they can enjoy the simple things...with no phone signal either

jimini0

ganmo wrote: »

if you know of anyone who'd like to spend an afternoon firing a rock I know where they can enjoy the simple things...with no phone signal either

And a wee ham sandwich washed down with a bottle of cold tae. Or maybe a bottle of Guinness.

ganmo

jimini0 wrote: »

And a wee ham sandwich washed down with a bottle of cold tae. Or maybe a bottle of Guinness.

spuds and sausages cooked in the fire

Wanderer78

FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!!! fire rocks!

lakill Farm

td5man wrote: »

You'd do more with a sledge than a 3t breaker. 12 tonne or bigger.

access.

you do more with a 3t digger at the job than a 12t 50yards away because it cant actually get in to do the job

no different that digging graves. 12t would be ideal sure. a few scoops and grave dug. but only any use in new graveyards

in older graveyards they are using the 1.5t .

But its a lot quicker than a shovel and pick

lakill Farm

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

That's all very well, but sometimes people have better, more important things to be doing than wasting half a day standing around, watching a burning rock and breaking their backs hopping a sledge of it.

Like pulling calves with tractors

Qualitymark

So what happened? My tenterhooks are feeling the strain.

lakill Farm

Qualitymark wrote: »

So what happened? My tenterhooks are feeling the strain.

I don't know if he tried it yet.

Chemical Byrne

He's too busy stoking the fire and fanning the flames to be offering updates on boards.

He should really have set up a live feed webcam so we can give running commentaries on the ins and outs of it.