Lifting stones from / to stone wall : sling / cable / chain?
TerryKing
make rustic stone steps and repair some walls closer to the house. I
have a front-mounted crane on my truck and a trailer to place the
stones on. I need to find an easy and secure method of 'grabbing' the
stones to lift with the crane.
This seems to be the only group where people really Do stuff... I did
a lot of searching without much result on this one, and I'm hoping
some of you have done this kind of thing.
I envision some kind of sling or rigging arrangement made with cables
or chain that can be quickly rigged or adjusted on many different
irregular shaped stones to lift them. Oh, and easily removed :-)
These stones are typically 100 to 500 pounds or so.
Anyone seen something like this?? The various commercial products
for lifting curbs and tombstones don't seem like they'd work well on a
bunch of irregular stones.
Thanks!
rjma...@yahoo.com
I seem to be in the habit of moving lots of big rocks lately.
I use a tractor with a front end loader. Sometimes I put the in the
loader
and sometimes I just have to push them along the ground.
Good heavy duty straps might work to cradle the rocks and lift them
into
place.
How high do you need to lift them ?
How far to you have to move them ?
Randy
TerryKing
and place them.
I expect to lift them, put them on a trailer to move to destination,
then lift them and place them.
"Grabbing" the varying shaped rocks is the problem I'm trying to
solve.
I have a small crane, no loader etc...
Any ideas welcome!
Sheldon
Since you have a crane mounted on a vehicle you have the job 95 pct
completed... the folks who originally built those stone walls had no
crane, essentially had just their own muscle. There are thousands of
miles of stone walls where I live, my entire acreage is enclosed and
criss crossed by stone walls, as are most of my neighbor's. Hardly
any of those stones can't be lifted by one man, certainly can be
lifted by two, that's how they were built.
You're making a big F-ing deal out of nothing... sounds more like
you're lazy and cheap... you want someone to do this job for you
whilst you sit on your ass and you don't even want to supply the
tools. And anyway it's a sad thing to rip down those stone walls for
any purpose... go to a quarry and buy proper stones.
http://www.industrial-rigging.com
---
enigma
news:ef824b0a-33ca-42d5...@w7g2000hsa.googlegro
ups.com:
> On Aug 25, 8:15�am, TerryKing <te...@terryking.us> wrote:
>> Randy, and others, I need to lift the rocks, move them 200
>> to 500 feet and place them.
>> I expect to lift them, put them on a trailer to move to
>> destination, then lift them and place them.
>>
>> "Grabbing" the varying shaped rocks is the problem I'm
>> trying to solve.
>>
>> I have a small crane, no loader etc...
>>
>> Any ideas welcome!
>
> Since you have a crane mounted on a vehicle you have the
> job 95 pct completed... the folks who originally built
> those stone walls had no crane, essentially had just their
> own muscle. There are thousands of miles of stone walls
> where I live, my entire acreage is enclosed and criss
> crossed by stone walls, as are most of my neighbor's.
> Hardly any of those stones can't be lifted by one man,
> certainly can be lifted by two, that's how they were built.
you're talking out your arse again. do you want a lesson on
pre-industrial farm tools, or would you prefer to remain
ignorant?
> You're making a big F-ing deal out of nothing... sounds
> more like you're lazy and cheap... you want someone to do
> this job for you whilst you sit on your ass and you don't
> even want to supply the tools. And anyway it's a sad thing
> to rip down those stone walls for any purpose... go to a
> quarry and buy proper stones.
and the OP should check his state laws before he starts
dismantling old walls for the stones. i think VT has laws
similar to NH that make removing or altering old walls
illegal. in certain curcumstances one can get permits to alter
walls (drive entrances for example).
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.
Neon John
wrote:
I was going to write up a long description of how we did it in TVA when I was
a heavy equipment operator but then an idea struck. I went to google and
typed in "rigging rocks for lifting". Shazam! Pagest and pages of info :-)
Google is your friend.
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
So you're a feminist... Isn't that cute!
TerryKing
I have a rig almost together; I'll report how it seems to work...
RE:>Hardly any of those stones can't be lifted by one man, certainly
can be lifted by two, that's how they were built.
When I helped my Uncle Bert move a few large stones out of his
pasture, they were more than two men could lift. They were crowbared
onto a flat "stone boat" which looked just like the ones I see in our
town history. We used the tractor rather than a horse. They were
crowbared onto the 'wall' . Lots of smaller rocks traveled on the
'boat' and we did lift thos up higher on the wall..
RE: >. i think VT has laws similar to NH that make removing or
altering old walls illegal.
Nope: This is Topsham, Vermont. No zoning, no building permits, no
inspections, unwritten law" "Don't Be Stupid".
I can carry my unlicensed handgun into the Bank and they say "Hi!"..
These 'walls' are linear collections of rocks totally within my own
property and I will arrange them where I will, just as the previous
owners did.
Thanks for the ideas; I'll let you know how this worked out.
enigma
news:7f81f44d-6cc3-4f5b...@s9g2000prg.googlegro
ups.com:
> These 'walls' are linear collections of rocks totally
> within my own property and I will arrange them where I
> will, just as the previous owners did.
internal walls aren't really covered by laws in NH either,
just the "scenic" ones along the roadways. my "scenic" walls
are pretty much either buried by 200 years of leaves, or
hidden by brush, i mean shrubs ;)
i have a huge rock pile behind one internal wall (originally
probably sheep pasture) where all the rocks went that weren't
needed for wall building. a lot of rock walls were built
simply to get the rocks out of the way.
Ann
> TerryKing <te...@terryking.us> wrote in
> news:7f81f44d-6cc3-4f5b...@s9g2000prg.googlegro ups.com:
>
>> These 'walls' are linear collections of rocks totally within my own
>> property and I will arrange them where I will, just as the previous
>> owners did.
>
> internal walls aren't really covered by laws in NH either,
> just the "scenic" ones along the roadways. my "scenic" walls are pretty
> much either buried by 200 years of leaves, or hidden by brush, i mean
> shrubs ;)
> i have a huge rock pile behind one internal wall (originally
> probably sheep pasture) where all the rocks went that weren't needed for
> wall building. a lot of rock walls were built simply to get the rocks out
> of the way.
>
> lee
The stone walls seldom got built here. This can cause confusion about
property lines because the stone piles are short of the line ... to leave
room to build the wall.
enigma
news:pan.2008.09.04....@epix.net:
> The stone walls seldom got built here. This can cause
> confusion about property lines because the stone piles are
> short of the line ... to leave room to build the wall.
i forget which part of PA you're in... north central? i do
know you have different rocks than NH. i think yours are
mostly shale & sandstone or puddingstone aren't they?
at any rate, i think as the frontier moved west, fewer
farmers bothered building walls. it may also have to do with
what country the original settlers were from. the English
built walls & the Dutch built houses & barns with their rocks.
VT has different base rocks than we do, but pretty much the
same glacial dross on top, & it was also predominately settled
by the English. more walls, less messy piles...
Sheldon
>
> The stone walls seldom got built here. �This can cause confusion about
> property lines because the stone piles are short of the line ... to leave
Generally the stone walls in the northeast are pre Revolutionary, they
were built before there were accurate surveys. Most stone walls were
built from stones plowed up for crop planting. Dairy farms are
typically on hilly and steeply sloped lands, many of which have to
this day never been planted with crops, so have no surrounding stone
walls but will often have boulder piles partially enclosing the
various foraging areas, and originally placed to prevent erosion from
animal's hooves on hil sides. Accurate surveying methods came much
later with the old stone walls becoming the basis, as they were
obviously erected jointly by those on either side, in most all
instances property lines fall in the center of the old stone walls.
When the original stone walls fall entirely within a single property
it's because those properties were subdivided and sold, often several
times, with the subdivider wanting to retain the entire wall and an
additional few feet on the other side as a way of preserving the wall
from scavaging by new neighbors. It takes a very low IQ pinhead to
desecrate those old stone walls, the same kind of ghastly ghoul who'll
rob grave markers.
Ann
> Ann <nntp...@epix.net> wrote in
> news:pan.2008.09.04....@epix.net:
>
>> The stone walls seldom got built here. This can cause confusion about
>> property lines because the stone piles are short of the line ... to
>> leave room to build the wall.
>
> i forget which part of PA you're in... north central? i do
> know you have different rocks than NH. i think yours are mostly shale &
> sandstone or puddingstone aren't they?
NC, about 5 miles east of Rte. 15. Sandstone. Most of the old houses and
barns are wood with stone foundations, There is a stone field wall about
1/4 mile from me, but it's one of the few.
> at any rate, i think as the frontier moved west, fewer
> farmers bothered building walls. it may also have to do with what country
> the original settlers were from. the English built walls & the Dutch built
> houses & barns with their rocks.
Most farmers here were UK ancestry. There are enough reasonably flat
stones available to build pretty much anything one wanted. <g> I think
it was more a matter of wood for fence posts being plentiful, so why go to
the effort of stone walls.
TerryKing
I finally put the rigging I had in mind together today, put the crane
boom on the GMC, and moved that rock I've been mowing around for 20
years...
Photos of the simple rigging, and well as information on the crane
(which I had promised a couple people earlier) are here:
http://www.terryking.us/photoalbum/v/SHD/stone-crane/
The rig is two parts: (1) a section of chain with a grab-hook which is
set to circle the rock near it's base, and is hooked to be quite
smaller than the maximum dimensions of the rock, and (2) a 3-leg
lifting rig made from 3/16 aircraft cable, thimble, cable clamps and
hooks.
First the chain is set around the rock (A partially-buried rock may
have to be dug out a little, or crow-bared up on a block or two).
Next the rig hooks are clipped to the chain at appropriate spacing,
depending on the shape of the rock.
Then the crane lifts the rig at the thimble.
Better seen in the photos. You can click on a photo to enlarge, click
again for a real large version.
Works well on first two samples: a long irregular rock (in the photos)
and a relatively-round rock of about 300 or more pounds.
NOTE: Moving the truck/crane with a large rock on the crane is
difficult: the rock can sway around violently. It is best to move a
rock any distance by putting it in a trailer or truck. But a short
move can work if you tie the load back to the boom tightly, and move
carefully. I moved and placed all the posts and beams for the barn
this way.
Also: A "load leveler" used for removing and installing engines is
great for beams: you can exactly level the beam and then position it.
I get no commission, but Harbor Freight was the source for my boom
winches, stabilizing jacks (Trailer jacks) and load leveler.
I don't know how I got along without a crane, before I was 60 years
old :-)
Regards, Terry King ..In The Woods In Vermont
..Back from the South China Sea in Shekou
te...@terryking.us
Neon John
>Thanks for the help and the interesting comments.
>
>I finally put the rigging I had in mind together today, put the crane
>boom on the GMC, and moved that rock I've been mowing around for 20
>years...
>
>Photos of the simple rigging, and well as information on the crane
>(which I had promised a couple people earlier) are here:
>http://www.terryking.us/photoalbum/v/SHD/stone-crane/
VERY slick! Did you make up the crane for this job or had you built it
previously?
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
Nuke the Whales!
rjma...@yahoo.com
You put some serious thought into that device.
Good job. Now quit taking pictures and get moving rocks.
Randy