New Tractor Shed

[awemawson]

Then it was 'Just' a case of trenching down the two remaining sides. One side is adjacent to a stream so it was a bit long winded having to build up safe platforms for the digger to prevent it (and me  ) going into the stream. On the other side I had to concentrate on NOT going through the water and mains cables 

Then a quick clean up and I think things are ready for concrete breaking 

[mattinker]

All of those bolts!

Good luck! Matthew.

[SwarfnStuff]

Yippee,
        The saga continues Andrew. I had forgotten this was on the reading list. As usual, I think there will be much to report if your track record so far continues.
I, along with many others I assume look forward to the next chapter.
Good luck with the demolition and future build.
John B

[awemawson]

Well the splendid Mr Pete turned up today as promised with a REALLY superb toy. Essentially a tracked machine with hydraulic arm and an enormous pecker on the end (no naughty comments in the back please )

Made by Brokk and driven by a 32 amp 415v 3 phase supply its used for demolition where keeping the operator away from the action is a sensible safety precaution.

In my case the operator was Pete, and how obviously skilled he is, making short work of demolishing the 20 panels of the tank - breaking them out of the embedded concrete. His years of experience certainly shone through.We had one setback, with a burst hydraulic hose, but cool as a cucumber he got a spare from his van, and performed the complicated task of threading it though the innards or the machine, restoring service.

[awemawson]

As the vibration of the breaker shook the tank, it was obvious that it was in a terrible unusable state - no great loss!

[mattinker]

That is a cool "game boy"!

Cheers, Matthew

[awemawson]

What was amusing was the casual ease with which Pete got the machine exactly where he wanted it, even reaching over the walls of the tank to break out concrete on the far side - all from a radio controlled console.

He even managed to get the chisel is just the right spot to shear off the bolts that I couldn't undo as their hexagonal heads were too rusty for a socket to grip

[awemawson]

We ended what was a long day for Pete (as he's been working in his day job this morning! ) with all the panels down and freed from their incarceration in a cement overcoat 

After he'd left, I cleared the panels away from the slab with the JCB803 (no pictures as it was pitch dark) ready for tomorrow, when bless him he's coming back to have a go at  breaking the slab.

[PK]

It's inspiring to watch great operators. I bet he could do the dishes with that thing if he had to!
PK

[SwarfnStuff]

Yeah,
      It's marvelous to watch a skilled operator and his machine in action. Honking great chisel located with precision on a rusty bolt head and --- Wham, all done.
     Similar thing, I watched the tiler putting tiles on our kitchen wall some years back. It was as though he was dealing cards, job done, straight lines and equal spacing without any gizmos to aid. Just stood back every so often, looked, and if necessary nudged the odd tile into line.
     Me, I would still be trying to get them right.
John B

[AdeV]

Watching a truly skilled JCB driver is like watching a ballet in machinery.

[awemawson]

Well don't watch me on the JCB803 

I put it down to my lack of 3D vision, (*) but I expect a lot of it is that I'm not in the saddle that often.

(* I'm a Cyclops)

[awemawson]

The light of a new dawn has let me see the destruction we caused yesterday 

A large clear area with no tank and a pile of scrap - very good progress and something I've wanted to do since we moved here ten years ago.

[awemawson]

So this morning Pete came back to continue breaking up the slab. It proved remarkably slow going, so we decided to punch drainage holes in it on a one metre matrix to get the job done in a sensible timescale.

[awemawson]

While he was doing the breaking I took a 'clean up skim' off his Camelback Straight Edge, as it was slightly rounded and would take a long time to hand scrape back. Just a few thou but much faster to remove the bulk of the error on the milling machine for him to finish off hand scraping ready for use in the Scraping Class in December.

Not the best casting in the world, with a few small blow holes in line with the re-inforcing web, probably due to shrinkage during solidification when it was cast. But fully functional.

[awemawson]

On the way back to load the machine into his van, he was waylayed by the chicken, who wanted the concrete surrounding a rotten gate post broken out. 

To Pete a great big thank you for an excellent job 

[Pete.]

Yeah that concrete was a lot tougher than the surface finish led you to believe. Some spots were a bit soft but others were very hard. Lot of flint in it.

[DaveS]

Knowing that you inherited the old tank I was wondering if you know what its original purpose was for?  Would have made an ideal test bed for a small hovercraft.

Dave

[awemawson]

The farm was originally owned by Hastings Water Board, and it's part of their infrastructure last used in the early 1960's - water was settled then pumped out for treatment.

[awemawson]

No progress on Mr Shed Builder, however one thing that has to happen before the frame goes up, is to trim an oak tree that juts out over the site. Oddly this tree has previously been trimmed back on the west side  by a previous owner - this is convenient as it's where the containers are, but the tree has been left rather lop sided.

Now spring being here the tree is coming into bud, and the pruning needs to happen before it's in full leaf.

[awemawson]

Fortunately I rent some land to a girl who keeps her pigs on it, and it so happens that her partner is a tree surgeon, so today he came along and did the fell deed.

[awemawson]

Overall it gives the tree a much more balanced appearance, and I think it's now clear of where the Tractor Shed will hopefully grow later in the year.

[awemawson]

So it looks like I now need to have another big bonfire - but I'll have to time that to co-incide with the Holiday Cottages being vaccant - not fair to smoke them out 

One side benefit is that it provided a few days of winter fuel, but probably not until winter 2019, as oak takes a long time to season. 

[Jo]

Nasty weed, chop it down quick..... I made that mistake about 18 years ago and felt sorry for an Oak that was less that 3m from where my new garage was being built   

13 years later it threw a limb through the roof  not to mention the constant moss it encouraged to grow all over the place, leaves in the gutter/garage, etc, etc.

Made quiet a bang when the trunk fell over, the root was fun to dig out and drop into the hole... still burning the wood for the house heating 4 years later

Jo

[awemawson]

We don't have many 'proper' trees on the farm - I'm loath to hack away at any. This particular Oak was absolutely festooned in Ivy when we bought the place. I cut through Ivy stems thicker than my wrist all round the trunk about 12" off the ground. This killed the Ivy, and part of today's job was to pull the now very dry and brittle Ivy out of the Oak - there is a huge pile of it, and it'll make good kindling to burn the 'tops' when I can have my bonfire