DIYbanter - View Single Post - 1930s cast iron downpipe fixings

newshound

On 24/09/2017 16:22, wrote:
On 20/09/2017 00:50, wrote:
Some numpty (not me) seems to have dropped a long length of hardwood
down one of the downpipes on my "new" house - presumably when clearing
the hopper some years ago. I need to get the bottom discharge "shoe"
off to get the wood out but it probably hasn't been touched since it
was built (1930s) and I can't work out what the fixings are. I've got
the paint and render off the fixings and the heads seem to be domed,
but no slot or other means of undoing the things.
HELP!

Solved! Pass a length of small bore plastic heating pipe down the
downpipe and out of the shoe at the bottom, rigidly attach a 40mm (ish)
plywood disk with an 8mm bolt into the plastic pipe, pull pipe gently
from the top (jiggling at appropriate moments and supplicating
appropriate deities to ensure the disk doesn't get irretrievably stuck)
to lift the offending piece of wood within reach of the hopper.
The offending piece of wood was a surprisingly heavy length of oak
beading, about 2m long and 20mm across.
Thanks for the various responses and suggestions.

Well done, that's a really ingenious result. I do like the idea of using
relatively stiff pipe to maintain the collector disk roughly
perpendicular to the axis.