On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:41:26 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:
On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:18:22 -0800,
wrote:

(...)

Yup. I was thinking of an internal 'scissor grapple' that would
tighten against the inside of the square hole as lifting force was
applied for those rare instances when I have a 'complete'
footing to remove.

That would simply break it apart, as my digging bar does, unless you
excavate under the concrete plug and can get the jaws to expand beyond
the hole. Then it would simply lift, not spread while it tried.

The big footings my pal put in would've popped out before
breaking, without question. Mr. Sledge had a heck of a
time breaking them up!

I'll take your word for it.


Just
put it in the hole of the concrete so that its spring loaded "toogles"
will flair out on the bottom side of the concrete block and yank out

Hey, who misspelled "flare" on me?


the block with whatever lifting force you want to rig up to this
gadget.

Still too iffy IMHO. Requires the footing to remain in one piece.
I really like anchoring the ferruled ends of an aircraft
cable loop to a couple three places on the footing and yanking
the whole mess out of the ground via a tripod mounted winch.

I still think I'd prefer a truck-mounted winched model, though I could
still build and use the other type in the occasional odd situation.


It'd work on cracked footing pieces and be Quick and Fun!

Oh, suuuuuure.


Most often, I'm left with a few teensy tiny concrete rocks or a
leetle concrete ring. There normally isn't a lot of area to grab.
So the challenge is to find a hand tool that'll generate the couple
hundred lbs of force necessary to grasp and pull little shards out

The concrete ring would be a heavy bear, but a 1/2" hooked rod should
do it.

The challenge is to have the proper tools on hand
to clean out the hole efficiently, no matter what
size or shape.

Verily. I end up taking 400+ tools on my daily grind. (Right, Gunner?
You, too.)


of the clay a couple feet below grade. My slate bar is a champ for
loosening this stuff up, for example.

Whoa, how'd you make a bar out of _slate_, Mr. Wizard?
Ain't she fraggle, er, fragile?

http://www.restockit.com/images/Prod...27-1174300.jpg
It's made of steel! About 5' long. Amazingly useful.

Mine's an HF special which looks the same but for the dogleg.
My carved up Dodge torsion bar was loaded on the moving van but never
made it into my house when I moved up here. It made a good tamping
bar, and I'd ground a point and notch into it on the other end. Took
forEVER, even with a 36 grit angle grinder stone.


sniff, sniff Hmm, smells like my teriyaki boneless beef ribs are
getting done. Time to make the rest of supper.

A pal is dropping by in an hour with Chicken and Dumplings or
BBQ ribs (She can't decide which). I will happily eat either.
Yum!

My Certified Angus (supposedly "Choice" beef) was tough. Time to get
that guaranteed refund. sigh

--
Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins
when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in
order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary.
-- Peter Minard