A long time ago there was a farm family with seven boys. Needless to say they often found ways to amuse themselves. A favorite was filling large trash bags with oxygen and acetelene and taking them out a few hundred yards into a plowed field, setting a worn out disc nearby and setting it off with a .243. Once one brother took to filling the bags in the basement (it was cold outside). When he was carrying one up the stairs a static charge set it off and blew out all the basement windows.
Used to work as a heavy equipment mechanic at a strip mine digging coal.
The high wall was drilled vertically ,18”. Holes drilled 100 ft. Deep. They were filled many 100 lb bags of ammonium nitrate, detonators and primer cord. The wall was also drilledhorizontally and packed with the same explosives. These holes extended for 1 mile along the high wall. Then this was detonated sequentially using what looked like a miniature harp n wand connected to a battery. Pretty impressive to see that set off at night. The orange fire that came out of those drilled holes looked like 50-60 missle silos launching rockets. It took the better part of the day for the dust to settle.
Or a little oxy-acetylene under the upside down garbage can, apparently I’m not a rocket scientistOxy-acetylene trash bag fireworks.........ahhhhh.......that takes me back! 1975, I think.
Can't believe they didn't use a bulk anfo truck that mixes fuel oil and fertilizer on site.Used to work as a heavy equipment mechanic at a strip mine digging coal.
The high wall was drilled vertically ,18”. Holes drilled 100 ft. Deep. They were filled many 100 lb bags of ammonium nitrate, detonators and primer cord. The wall was also drilledhorizontally and packed with the same explosives. These holes extended for 1 mile along the high wall. Then this was detonated sequentially using what looked like a miniature harp n wand connected to a battery. Pretty impressive to see that set off at night. The orange fire that came out of those drilled holes looked like 50-60 missle silos launching rockets. It took the better part of the day for the dust to settle.
I see you are still at it. Great photoAnswering Lil Joe and getting away from messing up Bart's post.
Back when I was in the quarry business blasting limestone was part of it. We'd usually shoot 25K tons or so at a time. This particular blast was Bed 12 in my quarry nearby. This ledge was very hard to get breakage towards the top because there was a massive 5 foot bed of rock that broke really hard. We used a pretty tight drill pattern on this ledge. 10"X10' with 4" diameter holes usually about 18' deep. You fill the holes with explosives as high as needed to contain the blast, but still have sufficient breakage so the blasted stone will go through the crusher without plugging it. Out primary crusher would accept a 43" wide rock 38" tall. In a few seconds it would exit the crusher in approximately 5" pieces. We used a water gel on this ledge because there was usually water in the drill holes..i think it was Tovan?? a dupont product. Most blast holes in other ledges we filled to within 8 to 10 feet from the top depending on the laminations. Then we filled the hole to the top with 1" limestone. That's called stemming. Anyhow Bed 12 we filled the holes within 5 feet from the top to get the breakage desired. If the rock was to big to go through the crusher, you incurred costs for secondary breakage which was much more that drilling and shooting. Due to the fact it took about a day and a half to pull the plant and reset it, we blasted with it setting there. You notice the rock blowing way up in the air....but look at the bottom of the shot being blasted...we pushed up a shelf of rock in front to keep the face from blowing out and hitting the plant..(hopefully). There's 2-300 dollars worth of equipment setting there......View attachment 1386714
My daughter was a professional photographer and just happened to be there that day taking pics for our 50th anniversary celebration. Made a great picture.
Later
Dave
I see you are still at it. Great photo
Mort
Three splinters of steelwhat makes you think theres "too much powder?"
Reminds of the time we filled a small plastic model of some battleship, (the type we used to build before sniffing glue became a thing, I know I'm aging myself.) with BP, cannon fuse out the smokestack light er up and float it on down the creek. The waterspout was impressive, so were all the dead fish that started floating upJSH we made a very similar device when hunting season was over every year. We decide we would not risk a misfire on a good buck, so all BP was used from the past season because it might have pick up moisture during hunting season. Half a toilet paper tube 1 foot of waterproof fuse from the hardware, and a trip to Fred's house for tape. He worked for southern bell and would give use a sleeve of black tape anytime we needed it. We used these devices for fishing and with a little prep they worked. Bait fishing hole with dog food or bread for a week, then light fuse and toss in with feed. Fishing was always good.