Need a Conveyor

My physical fitness program...
Lost count how many trips I've made. I swear there is more concrete in these beams than the slab had.



Almost got it. about 5 feet left.

 

The bastard is GONE! I was close, the slab itself was 7,000lbs.

 

Red necked me together a portable trolley system. I didn't want to full weld it out so I have some flexibility. The Uni strut can be flipped around to allow more throw out the door. As is, I can close the main door.


These 3 triangle thingies push against the concrete, so the more load, the harder it locks onto the slab.




Real uni strut attachements are almost 20 bucks a piece. F-that. This cost me nothing!



Almost made these, but for 36bucks a pair, this was a no brainer.



Mounted to the top of the 440/880 hoist





And of course me acting like a jackass! Free ride to anyone that can name the TV show playing!

 

I love it man. You're building the dream right here.

 

God no. I drove a guys automatic once... You'd have do be a fool or really desperate to own one. Or scared to drive a stuck I guess. My 4speed is a hooligan to drive around town. It shits and gits!

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/9MxXP7B3GoY?feature=share

That thing is over 100lbs!

 

It's almost that time!!!!!!! I picked up one of those window shade truck bed things they sell at the hazard fart and I gotta say, that thing is damn near priceless! I've hauled over 5000lbs of dirt in the bed of that truck and didn't break a sweat unloading it. It's really that slick!

 

Load Handler!
Mine has outlasted 3 pickups and is now mounted on a trailer. I like it so much that I flipped the axle on the trailer to get more height so the handle had ground clearance and built a custom tail gate to mount it on. I built a divider that mounts under the tail gate so I can gravel a two track road. 2200 lbs has been my largest load. Love that thing!

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/eNlxiIt910o?feature=share

 

Had a little issue. Dirt would fall onto the lower belt and this sticky stuff would collect on the roller. Once a high spot is created, the belt runs off into the rubarb!
Easy fix! Finish the damn hopper!

16g sheet metal




Forgot the mouse hole. DUH!



DONE! Works perfect, I've really tried to overload it and no more tracking issues. This thing lines up the dirt and sends it down the line!
That black crap is my silencer feature. I pop riveted some freightliner mudflaps and now it's almost silent when a load goes in.

 

Jason,
Pretty soon we're going to see you on that Gold Rush show up in Alaska building them rock washers

 

So I had it with chasing the switch on the hoist and made it wireless. Works great. Now when someone stops by to bs, I toss them the remote and make them drive the hoist. lol



4'6" depth. Long way to go! I just can't wait to have to embed that 3" shitpipe into the wall. I checked it and it's more than a 1/4 bubble so the turds should still go down hill after I add a couple of 22.5 degree turns around that corner. I found out ferncos are legal IF you encase them in concrete. Challenge accepted! They do make that extendo-cock coupling in 3". 54bucks. I'd like to think that is the better solution over the ferncos.





I got a couple more of those 50dollar buckets in today. Those suckers are rare as hen's teeth! I'd like to have 10more!
I'm just about the right depth to drill the slab before I get too deep. I have a ton of those to drill and don't wanna do those
on a stupid ladder when I am right here. That might be next!

 

Could you hire a mini digger or is the door to low?

 

Too low...and they don't dig very deep either.

 

CHANGE TO THE CHANGE!!! Got the pipe routed around the corner! I have a 325lb neighbor that has offered to use my toilet for the final test! So far, no issues.
In other news... I have enlisted the help of a civil engineering expert for the princely sum of my new rebar bender when I'm finished. That's a bargain at 3x the price!
After much head scratching the last 2 weeks, the gunite idea has officially been shitcanned! Together we have enginerded sort of a hybrid solution for the construction. I have taken many soil samples, run a few tests and we now know my expansion rate of the soil. In addition, I am getting quite the education along the way. The biggest thing so far I've learned is clay soil does not drain. Clay keeps on absorbing water, expanding along the way and seldom gives up the water. What that means is if I installed a drain network on the soil side of my vault, It will never pump a drop of water! So an external drain system is pointless. So, the new plan is to excavate down, then a pretty complicated footer system goes in. It will have short poured concrete walls. Trapped in these and tied into the footer is vertical I-beams up to the existing slab. Still needing some final numbers will dictate if I can get away with what I want is 16" on center vertical supports. It's a fun struggle between the engineer going apeshit with stuff and the reality of ME having to do all the work AND pay for everything! Doing some rough math, put's this around 40 vertical columns! That's a shitton of I-beams! So on the hunt I went and sourced 3" galvanized I-beams from my favorite scrap yard. I picked up 40 for now and more are available if need be. The only downside is most have the frangible cut across them. (see photo) This means, they will need repair before I can use them. To maintain structural integrity also means again, I don't have the right welder for the job. (or skill for that matter) Never fear, I have a great friend that is going to get me running 7018 with his stick welder. And NO! I am not looking forward to this job. After I weld the cut, I'll install fish plates to reinforce the repaired area.

Some big stuff here, might end up with 4 big bastards just for the corners.


40 I-beams have come home.


The tops of these will be get angle iron welded to them and I'll sink epoxied all thread into the slab, then bolt the tops in place.
The engineer wants some of them soil nailed. I'll explain below.




You can see the frangible slit cut into them here. Those are grade 2 bolts so when some drunk fool plows into it, it breaks.



So the big question is WHY? This new hybrid construction of steel and concrete will allow for error that would occur on my part during rebar construction and layout.
The best part, I no longer have to worry about the expansion rate of the soil on my walls. How you ask? I can now undercut the soil back a foot from the wall and either leave the cavity or fill it with a sort of cushion. If the soil isn't touching the back of the wall, it can't push against it! BRILLIANT! Now that the wall itself isn't actually holding up the slab, it can be made out of tin foil! This means I can skin the wall with anything or nothing at all! In reality, I'll backfill with something like perlite or foam and the face of the walls can be something lightweight like 16g steel. If a problem ever develops, the skin can easily be removed to access behind the verts! In addition, and this part REALLY scared me was the thought of some jackass with a gunite gun blowing concrete INSIDE my garage! If you've ever had a pool built, you know exactly what I'm talking about! This new method will also be a bit cheaper too! Only hurdle still to sort out is how the bond beam will be poured around the top to finish the job.

I mentioned soil nailing.. Here it goes. My engineer wants a handful of verticals on each of the long walls and a few on the short walls soil nailed. This means I need to core out the dirt walls back as far as I can go, say 48". I will then bend a hook into some large all thread and insert deep into the holes. Once filled with concrete and screwed to the verticals, they will forever hold.

How to do it? Scamazon to the rescue. Got this 4" screw for 30bucks.



Cut a 6buck SDS MAX spike and welded the end fat. Turned it to size on the lathe and here we are.


It goes in this hard stuff pretty fast. But ya gotta pay attention or it will try to screw the neighbors cat 3feet in the ground!


Bonus feature, it is faster than the spade for digging too!

 

I wouldn’t have thought of the clay expansion. Of course I’m a printer, not a dirt guy. It sounds like you’ve come up with a solid workaround. I’m wondering if that would give you an opportunity to leave that re-routed section of soil pipe at least semi accessible just in case.

Pete

 

It totally does Pete. Any issue I have behind the skin can be accessed in the future. Totally impossible with gunite walls.

Looking at this today, I need to make a 6ft extension for my auger on a drill. I'll be able to route the sump out a front corner, under a sidewalk and out to my sewer drain. I'll also be able to tunnel out the electric and hydraulic lines to the surface. This just keeps getting easier and better!

I'm still adding a sump for the floor section. I'm not taking any chances of sinking a car.

 

I wonder if you could get an old aircraft manual undercarriage hand pump to raise the platform in the absence of power, like if a hurricane was approaching and the power went out with water in the front yard.

 

Sure! I don't see why not. I'm installing the motor/pump/reservoir on the existing slab. I know of something takes a dump on me, it won't be an actuator! They pretty much never fail and when they do, give you plenty of warning.

Don't get many hurricanes in west Texas, instead we get massive power outages because solar and windmills SUCK! Here we sit on the world's largest patch of oil, yet we have these problems.