Hydraulic rock splitter

[blakester]

yeah an auction seems to be a good thought. We have a Richie bros close by here, maybe Ill hawk the auction before I begin.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Do you live where it freezes hard? If so, and if you aren't in a really big hurry to get the rocks broken up, you could drill holes in the rock in rows and fill the holes with water (a lot cheaper than Dexpan!) and let nature do the wedging. If it didn't work, you'd already have the holes for mechanical wedges (or Dexpan) and only would have lost a few months.

 

[4570Man]

Do you live where it freezes hard? If so, and if you aren't in a really big hurry to get the rocks broken up, you could drill holes in the rock in rows and fill the holes with water (a lot cheaper than Dexpan!) and let nature do the wedging. If it didn't work, you'd already have the holes for mechanical wedges (or Dexpan) and only would have lost a few months.

You might need some kind of liner to keep the water from seeping out.

 

[blakester]

interesting suggestion. it does freeze here. -10C for a couple months. might be worth a try for a first round.

 

[Winmac]

If you do build your own hydraulic splitter, would you need multiple units along the crack line?

We intentionally left some rock with the holes drilled over the winter, even filled em with water for the coldest weeks, no results whatsoever.

 

[blakester]

That's a good question. I would assume that depends on how long a line you want to fracture. good to know about the water though.

 

[henerythe8th]

Do a bit of research about splitting rock with wooden dowels.
If my memory serves me correctly, during one of the World Wars ALL of the explosives went to the war effort and the normally used dynamite for use at the quarries was unavailable.
In place of the dynamite they drove a dried (I want to say walnut) dowel tight into the hole and added water. As the dowel absorbed the moisture it split the rock.

It could be that I just dreamed this and never happened...I'd swear that I read it somewhere!

 

[seaneastok]

Do a bit of research about splitting rock with wooden dowels.
If my memory serves me correctly, during one of the World Wars ALL of the explosives went to the war effort and the normally used dynamite for use at the quarries was unavailable.
In place of the dynamite they drove a dried (I want to say walnut) dowel tight into the hole and added water. As the dowel absorbed the moisture it split the rock.

It could be that I just dreamed this and never happened...I'd swear that I read it somewhere!

Not a dream,you are correct :thumbsup: I have heard that this method has been used for centuries before the advent of gun powder and heavy machinery

Sean

 

[racerboy832]

Having just spend the last few years breaking rock with a 90lb hammer, feather and wedges and Dexpan here is my take. I had a rock in my back yard the size of a truck. It was almost fully exposed and I had a 290 series excavator doing work here. The operator of 20+ years told me that if could prolly pull it off the hill side but there is a great chance that were it flopped over to he may not be able to move it from there. I researched the death out of breaking rock from the Ice trick to blasting company.. I finally got out my hilti with 16" x 1.25 bit and drilled about 8 holes about 24" from the edge. I filled it with dexpan. Took about a bag. About a day later the piece flopped off in the middle of the night. I repeated this about 6 times and made it into slabs. I used my backhoe to move the slabs. The moral of the story is if I drilled 90% of the depth of the rock with 1.5" holes i would of gone broke buying dexpan. Rock is stupid. Once it starts to crack it keeps going. My rock was grey/pink granite. The 90lb air hammer wont even touch it but dexpan did.

 

[blakester]

interesting way to think about that. thats a very shallow depth to get that kind of fracturing. makes me think i should start shallow and see how it goes, my rocks certianly are not the size of a truck, but they are part of the bedrock. Im not sure how that will affect my depth needs but ill sure try it that way to start with. thanks for the info