Homemade Post Driver/Pounder

   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #1  

HCb

Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
30
Location
Bowie, Texas
Hey, all, I had seen a few different styles of drivers for putting posts (other than T posts, but I guess this could be used for that, too) in the ground. I saw one a local guy was using for doing fencing work that simply hydraulically hit the top of the post with very little steel involved and rapid action (small bore, large rod cylinder driven single-acting on retract) and several online including a falling-anvil that the company claimed weighed 800 pounds (and cost almost $4k). I decided to build one myself.

I've posted a YouTube video of it in use. I don't have any still photos of the unit but I'll post some if anyone is interested and asks. Basically, I got a piece of I-beam from the scrap yard that was 9 feet tall, built a homemade quick-tach setup with a pivot, and then hung a heavy anvil on it. The anvil is made from 9-5/8" pipe sitting on a plate of 1" thick, 10" x 16" steel. The pipe is filled with smaller and smaller diameter pipe (whatever I had or could get from the scrap yard) and then filled with sand and capped. I tried a few variations and two different cylinders. I tried single-acting and double-acting with both cylinders. I ended up with a DA setup on a 2" x 16" cylinder. I tore the cylinder apart and bored out the fluid port passage on the rod end because the port was a 3/8" NPTF but the fluid passageway was only 1/4". The fluid passageway on the other end was large enough, I thought, and I left it alone. I used double pulley blocks I constructed. I started with some Horrible Freight pulleys rated for 4,000 pounds. They might HOLD 4,000 pounds in a static situation but they didn't handle this weight for crap in a dynamic situation. I blew two pulleys at different times. I then punched out the pulley plates and wheels to take a Cat 0 pin which I bored on a lathe and mounted a grease zerk in. Then I cross-drilled the pins to allow the grease to get to the pulley wheels. With the pulley wheels greased and the hooks mounted on 1/2" grade 8 bolts, they held up fine. The wire rope is 1/4". With the line being quadrupled, I get a nominal 54" of travel from the anvil at 4 times the cylinder speed. I have successfully driven 2-7/8" steel pipe with approximately 0.250" wall 3 feet into the clay soil we have around north central Texas. In the video I drive a 10' post 3' in the same soil.

I took some time to search for similar projects on this site prior to posting this and I'm sure I didn't see every thread about such projects. I'd love to hear any ideas for making this better. I did see one thread where a responder had suggested using an air reservoir with 100 PSI for the drive direction of the cylinder...a great idea I wish I'd thought of.

As it sits, I got most of the steel from the scrap yard. Some I had around already (like the 10" x 1/4" flat bar I used for the quick-tach shoes). I have about $500 in this thing including $100 for custom hydraulic hoses I, ultimately, didn't need, and another $100 for the 1-1/2" bore cylinder I started with but, ultimately, was not what I needed.

I would love some feedback, particularly ideas for ways to make this better.

Thanks.

YouTube - PostDriver.wmv


--HC
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #2  
Great job HC!
I would really like to see some still photos, especially showing the wire trusses setup.
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #3  
Watched your video. Looks like you made a handy attatchment for your tractor. Nice job. I think I would position the controls farther away. Looks like you have to stand almost underneath to operate. Maybe to the side away from the hammer. Commercial drivers "hold" the post while its being driven. Simple cradle holds it in position keeping the operator away from dangerous accidents. Nice job again.
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #5  
Can't find it on youtube so could you give us a link for it.

I am wanting to build one so pictures would be great.

OOPS HAVE JUST SEEN THE LINK!!!!!!!!!

Jon
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #6  
Looks good.

I am going to make something similar only on the 3pt as no loader on my tractor.

I have some double acting cylinders to use so how do i plumb them in to work as a single acting?


Jon
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder #7  
looks like you need rear ballest. box blade for weight example extra weight on the box blade. and put box blade on ground. to help stabilize the tractor some. granted front end will bounce some. but perhaps not as much. and give you some better stabilty when on a hill. and working the driver.

i am with others moving controls back away.

from watching video. it looks like you could make generic hinges. out of say 6" or 8" pipe. that you can open close with a hand pull pin to lock them.

or perhaps welding a chain to one side and a hook on other. so you can just swing the chain around the post and hook it. with some slack in it.

car rim cut in half and each half welded to create a grove / hole pipe fits into.

flat bars with groves idea (see diagram/picture)

at moment i could see end of pipe jumping out and do some serious damage to ya. or pipe bending and knuckling ya as it jumps out and away. seen it happen a few times. i tend to use the backhoe myself. i will put a larger size end that slips over top of post. then push the ground rod, t post or like down into the ground, by using the backhoe bucket. and i know them posts can do some pretty good jumping and flying around.

but i have never seen a post driver up front and personal so the ideas for locking post in spot may be pretty far out there. or at least keeping the post were it should be and not some place else completely.
 

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   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Hey, all, I had seen a few different styles of drivers for putting posts (other than T posts, but I guess this could be used for that, too) in the ground. I saw one a local guy was using for doing fencing work that simply hydraulically hit the top of the post with very little steel involved and rapid action (small bore, large rod cylinder driven single-acting on retract) and several online including a falling-anvil that the company claimed weighed 800 pounds (and cost almost $4k). I decided to build one myself.

I've posted a YouTube video of it in use. I don't have any still photos of the unit but I'll post some if anyone is interested and asks. Basically, I got a piece of I-beam from the scrap yard that was 9 feet tall, built a homemade quick-tach setup with a pivot, and then hung a heavy anvil on it. The anvil is made from 9-5/8" pipe sitting on a plate of 1" thick, 10" x 16" steel. The pipe is filled with smaller and smaller diameter pipe (whatever I had or could get from the scrap yard) and then filled with sand and capped. I tried a few variations and two different cylinders. I tried single-acting and double-acting with both cylinders. I ended up with a DA setup on a 2" x 16" cylinder. I tore the cylinder apart and bored out the fluid port passage on the rod end because the port was a 3/8" NPTF but the fluid passageway was only 1/4". The fluid passageway on the other end was large enough, I thought, and I left it alone. I used double pulley blocks I constructed. I started with some Horrible Freight pulleys rated for 4,000 pounds. They might HOLD 4,000 pounds in a static situation but they didn't handle this weight for crap in a dynamic situation. I blew two pulleys at different times. I then punched out the pulley plates and wheels to take a Cat 0 pin which I bored on a lathe and mounted a grease zerk in. Then I cross-drilled the pins to allow the grease to get to the pulley wheels. With the pulley wheels greased and the hooks mounted on 1/2" grade 8 bolts, they held up fine. The wire rope is 1/4". With the line being quadrupled, I get a nominal 54" of travel from the anvil at 4 times the cylinder speed. I have successfully driven 2-7/8" steel pipe with approximately 0.250" wall 3 feet into the clay soil we have around north central Texas. In the video I drive a 10' post 3' in the same soil.

I took some time to search for similar projects on this site prior to posting this and I'm sure I didn't see every thread about such projects. I'd love to hear any ideas for making this better. I did see one thread where a responder had suggested using an air reservoir with 100 PSI for the drive direction of the cylinder...a great idea I wish I'd thought of.

As it sits, I got most of the steel from the scrap yard. Some I had around already (like the 10" x 1/4" flat bar I used for the quick-tach shoes). I have about $500 in this thing including $100 for custom hydraulic hoses I, ultimately, didn't need, and another $100 for the 1-1/2" bore cylinder I started with but, ultimately, was not what I needed.

I would love some feedback, particularly ideas for ways to make this better.

Thanks.

YouTube - PostDriver.wmv


--HC

I'm adding a link to my photobucket album for this thing. I have several albums and this post driver is in its own sub album (in case you get to the main album and don't see the pics).

Post Driver pictures by nunyabusiness11 - Photobucket

--HC
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Great job HC!
I would really like to see some still photos, especially showing the wire trusses setup.

Thank you. I've added a photobucket link to the thread. Hopefully that will cover what you want to see. I have re-wired the rope from the way it was in the video because the top pulley block was twisting slightly and causing the rope to drag against the pulley block housing and wearing a groove through it. I'm not thrilled with the way the rope runs now (but it works and I drove three more 10' pipes 3' in the ground yesterday) and may just put it back and figure out a way to lock the pulley straight at the top. The problem is the cable that comes from the driven-side comes in straight but the pulley block at the top of the drive-side twists because of where I tied the cable off to the spring. That causes the cable to pull off the side if the pulley to the driven-side and it's wearing the pulley wheel off and wearing into (and eventually it will wear through) the pulley block side plate.

--HC
 
   / Homemade Post Driver/Pounder
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Watched your video. Looks like you made a handy attatchment for your tractor. Nice job. I think I would position the controls farther away. Looks like you have to stand almost underneath to operate. Maybe to the side away from the hammer. Commercial drivers "hold" the post while its being driven. Simple cradle holds it in position keeping the operator away from dangerous accidents. Nice job again.

Thank you. It looks like I'm under the thing but I'm off to the side a little bit (hopefully the photos on photobucket will show where the side arm with the top-link is. That arm is where the controls are. It's still not ideal, I'll grant you that, but it's my first driver and it works so I'm happy for now. The original design/intent was to drive no more than an 8 foot pipe maybe 2 feet in the ground which would have lowered the unit enough that I would not be standing on tiptoes to operate it.

I had thought about a holder of some sort but did not have inspiration of what/how to do it in a way I was happy with and have foregone that for now. I was hoping this thing would also drive wood posts so I had a wide number of sizes to consider the holder would have to accomodate. Since the driver is a bit lethargic in its movement I may not drive wood posts at all (I don't think it has sufficient striking force to drive the larger footprint of the wood posts). For now it will do what I want. But I will consider adding a holder.

This whole thing may morph again, I may add two more pulleys to the blocks to give me 6 times the hydraulic cylinder at the ram...I'm not sure. I built this with one specific job in mind, a run of about 200 feet of fence I want to build on my dad's property. If it does that okay I may not use the unit anymore and not need to modify it any more (it takes a pretty good amount of time to bore and drill the pins and punch the pulleys and so forth and I'm under the gun to get smokers done for the season this year).

You can see a couple of pics of the smokers I build in the main album I have on photobucket.

Thank you again.

--HC
 
 
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