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Today was spent digging holes and casting concrete anchors for the backyard aerial silk frame. The idea of digging 4 12+ inch diameter 4-ft deep holes by hand seemed completely ridiculous. So i rented this mofo machine from O'Connors Hardware in Billerica.
sensesurfers' van was used to tow it home, along with buttloads of concrete mix. (I did haul 1000 lbs of concrete mix home in the xB, but in 2 trips). I had the machine outfitted with 15 inch auger.
This machine worked exceedingly well for two of the holes, carving out two 15 inchers 4-5 feet down in a matter of minutes. But the other two holes needed to be drilled in a lower location in the yard, where the Dreaded New England Rock Layer reared its head. That, combined with the very high water table, made it impossible to sink 4 feet of Sonotube. Instead, we ended up digging wider 3-foot holes 6 inches down past the water table, undercutting them, and pouring these inverted concrete mushroom shapes into the resulting holes, using doubled up 3-mil contractor trash bags as a barrier to the water such that the concrete would cure. Some of the rocks we hit were large enough to cause even this machine (the largest O'Connors had to rent) to stop dead in its tracks. and we had to relocate one of the holes a bit. I've heard that in the midwest folk have to *pay* for rocks... Anyhow, the machine worked well enough that we were able to get it back to the store in time to only get charged for a 4 hr rental rather than a day. We spent more time measuring and driving the machine back and forth than actually digging. Mixing and pouring close to a ton of concrete still takes a bit out of you, though.
sensesurfer and i spent the whole day on this, with some help from
klingonlandlady, who is fighting whatever current Ick is going around, and really should have been getting more rest that she did.
Next to be done for this project is to weld up the new crane bar, and the extension pieces that will raise the height of the frame from 20 to 24 feet, while widening it another 5 feet as well. Perhaps i can set up some sort of tarp/canopy such that i can weld outside in the rain tomorrow. Meanwhile, off to sleep now.
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This machine worked exceedingly well for two of the holes, carving out two 15 inchers 4-5 feet down in a matter of minutes. But the other two holes needed to be drilled in a lower location in the yard, where the Dreaded New England Rock Layer reared its head. That, combined with the very high water table, made it impossible to sink 4 feet of Sonotube. Instead, we ended up digging wider 3-foot holes 6 inches down past the water table, undercutting them, and pouring these inverted concrete mushroom shapes into the resulting holes, using doubled up 3-mil contractor trash bags as a barrier to the water such that the concrete would cure. Some of the rocks we hit were large enough to cause even this machine (the largest O'Connors had to rent) to stop dead in its tracks. and we had to relocate one of the holes a bit. I've heard that in the midwest folk have to *pay* for rocks... Anyhow, the machine worked well enough that we were able to get it back to the store in time to only get charged for a 4 hr rental rather than a day. We spent more time measuring and driving the machine back and forth than actually digging. Mixing and pouring close to a ton of concrete still takes a bit out of you, though.
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Next to be done for this project is to weld up the new crane bar, and the extension pieces that will raise the height of the frame from 20 to 24 feet, while widening it another 5 feet as well. Perhaps i can set up some sort of tarp/canopy such that i can weld outside in the rain tomorrow. Meanwhile, off to sleep now.
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Date: 2005-05-07 02:31 pm (UTC)