Glad that method worked for you however I don't think it could help me. A stump that big would bee a challenge for even a big tractor but it seems to me you are still going to have to cut through several of those lifeline cables known as roots. Maples are of course a hardwood and until you get around the stump and cut off all those cable like roots that stump is going to stay tethered to the earth just like a boat stays tied to a doc.
I can see where that method you used might help me in a different way. I like to undermine some of those big stumps and if I could get a blast of water under there like the errosive effect from a garden hose I believe you could jet the earth clean away from those roots. In my case however my soil is gravel and the water can practically race into the soil. In other words it just would not pool before it would be traveling down and away. The stumps I have dug I am afraid would fail to float any way because of all the weight from the gravel it comes out of the heavy earth soil attached to those roots.
Pretty clever effort and glad you got that old stump out.
I can see where that method you used might help me in a different way. I like to undermine some of those big stumps and if I could get a blast of water under there like the errosive effect from a garden hose I believe you could jet the earth clean away from those roots. In my case however my soil is gravel and the water can practically race into the soil. In other words it just would not pool before it would be traveling down and away. The stumps I have dug I am afraid would fail to float any way because of all the weight from the gravel it comes out of the heavy earth soil attached to those roots.
Pretty clever effort and glad you got that old stump out.