"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 7, 8:22 pm, " wrote:
HEY! This is akin to someone coming here looking for a source for
blocks of ice for their ice box and being informed theres a new
product, a refrigerator that can do the same job easily and more
convenient.

Perhaps he wants to re live his youth working with a star drill? Dont
laugh occasionally I do wierd stuff I had last done as a child just
for the heck of it although I avoid the hard work ones these days

in any case his question has been asked and answered. Hopefully he
will remember to wear safety glasses. Star drills can be dangerous

And gloves and knee pads, because he is going to be on the ground at
least two days stubbornly whacking at something that many of us have
done in under an hour. Sheesh...

Joe


In the two communities of Tonopah and Pioche, Nevada, they have annual
celebrations. One is for founders day, the other for Labor Day. It's just
really an excuse to drink for three days and eat a lot of spicy food, but
they have Glorious Titles on them nonetheless.

One of the competitions is mucking. That's seeing who can load the most
gravel and rock into a container in five minutes. It comes from the old
days when muckers used to go in after a shot and clean up the debris created
by the shot. And they worked twelve hour shifts.

Another competition is called single jacking. One man has a hefty sledge
hammer, and the other has a star drill with a shaft of about one inch, and a
star bigger than that. Remember that this was to put in sticks of dynamite,
so the hole wasn't small.

One man would hold the drill. The other would strike it with the sledge.
Then the drill holder would rotate the drill, and the hammer man would
strike it again. They had a set time limit.

In the old days, poor boy operators did all their blasting with single
jacking. Many times with just one man. Lots of mines were one man
operations. Drilling came in later, and was the cause of silicosis which
limited a man to three months of working in the mines, and at that time, he
was coughing so much he was worthless. Then the advent of hydraulic
drilling where they simply put a stream of water through the center of the
bit, and the dust was eliminated. Dust from other sources in the mine still
caused silicosis and miners didn't have a long life span as a group.

Single jacking was an orchestrated ballet. A good team could perform well,
but it was a tenuous thing. One miss with the hammer, and the drill holder
was off work for a few weeks or months. Swinging a heavy hammer at a steady
rate at sometimes overhead angles was something a lot of men simply couldn't
do more than five minutes.

The competitions I witnessed in Pioche and Tonopah were on a flat level
surface. In the real mines, they were in every imaginable angle.

It's always fun to watch other people work their butts off, and holler HURRY
UP while you're drinking a beer.

Steve