hardfacing

Didn't you just get out of the hospital? I think you should take it easy for awhile...

Yes, but it doesn't keep me from thinking or planning. My doctor told me not to lift anything heavier than my dick for two weeks. The he saw that and said, "Let me rephrase that."

Steve ;-)

"Steve B" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.infowest.com:

Nice to see your sense of humor survived unscathed.

Doug White

Steve. I have a layer of approx 6" thick Caliche at the bottom of my basement. I wanted to put a drain hole thru the Caliche into the sandy layer beyond. Post Hole digger?? No way. I welded a wood drill bit onto some re-bar and proceded to drill thru the Caliche. When I tried to pull the drill out I couldn't. Evidently it had "Threaded" its way thru the Caliche and the whole drill bit was now below the layer. Couldn't back it out. Nothing I did seem to help. Even with a hydraulic engine hoist all I did was break the 1/4" chain. Nothing worked until I made up a water pick with a 1/2" pipe and the household water pressure. I was able to pick a large enough hole to pull the drill out. I talked to a local grader operator who said he had seen the front wheels off the ground and the blade only taking a very thin cut of the Caliche. He said it would have been faster with 80grit sandpaper.

Good luck with your Caliche digger. Smart use of dynamite might just help out.

Stu

I figgered he was just braggin' .....

Steve,

Can you email me in about ten days?

I have a contact place for replacement hoe teeth in my file. It rimes with or is similar to valentine. Don't remember exact name. Good deal works great. Just weld new ones on.

My dad had to bust callechi. Get under it, use the hoe bucket like a pry bar and bust upward.

Karl

We arrived at a mutual plausible solution today. We will install vertical pipes in strategic locations, and we can pump the field if the level ever gets high within it. We did dig a branch off, looking for the old line, but never found it. It rained, then snowed 2". The pond in the ditch DID drain in 12 hours, so apparently we have reached fractured rock. But anyway, we will put "inspection pipes" into the field as we refill it, and then pump them if the level ever gets high. I have adjoining farm acreage, and the effluent will go to fertilize it.

I wanted to see the dynamite, tho.

Steve

Have saved your post to file, and will post some pics on flickr. We're talking about caliche three feet thick, and veins of non porous lava here.

Steve

NEVER pass up an opportunity to blow something up!

Caliche can be some tough stuff. When we put in the swimming pool at my dad's house we banged that poor backhoe around for two days before we got smart and borrowed a heavy dozer with rippers. My poor little 33 horse John Deere tractor can barely take a couple inches at a time with a single blade in the stuff. LOL.

I have seen chain trenchers (big ones) sit in place just grinding away and spinning the tires.

When I worked for the phone company we put in buried cable with a plow. (special one where the cable fed out through the tooth.)

"Karl Townsend" wrote

Ah, if it was only that easy .............

"Buerste" wrote

Saw some pretty amazing things when working in offshore oilfield. Underwater charges are particularly spectacular. Also saw some really scary things with perforating guns going off on deck. No one had to tell us twice to stay in when the perforating guys were working. Once you saw what those things will do, all you need is one announcement. Not allowed to go outside for any reason. Which was a chance to eat or relax.

Steve

What is a "perforating gun"? I did Google it and it seems they are supposed to go off IN the well and not on deck. Do oops's happen often?

I STILL say that no problem can't be solved with gratuitous use of explosives! Got a video camera? Use more than you think you'll need.

The short answer: A perforating gun is an explosive device that looks like a pipe with nipples sticking out to the sides. The predetermined depths of where the oil bearing rock is has been already identified by seismic and standard paleologic means. When an oil well is drilled, the successively smaller pipes have no holes, or the oil would seep into the drilling mud and apparatus, making it messier than it already is. When TD (total depth) is reached, and all is right, they lower these guns into the hole beginning with the deepest. Explosive shaped charges blow holes in the pipe, and fracture adjoining rock to assist the flow of oil into the well pipe. Higher levels will have more layers of pipe and concrete to go through, so each must be successively stronger. Imagine putting a series of smaller diameter pipes inside each other, but each one 500 or 1,000 feet shorter than the previous. They are set off with an electric impulse or radio signal.

On deck predetonations can be caused by a stray radio transmission, static electricity, lightning, most anything, and sometimes the cause of which is never determined.

Injuries can be caused by the direct shock wave, flying parts, or most anything accelerated to 24,000 feet per second. If you've ever seen what an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) has done to steel plate, that's about what the deck looks like afterward, only a hole every three feet. Those pointing sideways and up throw their force at whatever is near. Now imagine a 100' string of that going off.

And yes, most explosives I have seen detonated were in excessive quantities except for the shaped charges we used to place.

Steve

Sounds like something a terrorist would love to put in their parade float...

And a rig survives 100' feet of these? Scratch "Rig Hand" off my to-do list!

"Buerste" wrote

Once you step outside the living quarters, most everything can kill or hurt you. Everything is dirty, slick and/or dangerous.

Steve

Or that he was into collecting miniatures! ;-)

QUIT!