John Meixel Wrote:
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> I have convinced our leaders to get a heavier
> version of the electric paving breaker shown.
> That one only weighs 30 lbs and could knock the
> spike most of the way in. Dewalt has one that
> weighs 68 lbs that should work fine. That's what
> we plan to use next year. Yes I know you WW&F
> guys do it all by hand but you're also working at
> sea level. We're at 10,000'!
I'm actually inspired by Como using the re-purposed pavement breaker. I keep saying that if you gave
Carson Peck and his employees the choice between hand tools and electric/pneumatic tools they would NOT automatically chose the hand tool. It's the fallacy that people of the timeframe were a bunch of Luddites, they just didn't have access or affordable access to the technology.
WRT to "jackhammers", pneumatic technology goes back to the 1850s with more general access in 1890s-1900s. Electric technology worked its way out faster, with general access starting in very late 1910s thru the mid-to-late 1920s.
My grandfather was a deep-shaft coal miner in the early 20th century, he started with mostly hand tools and some pneumatic ones, then technology quickly rolled out so that the ratio flipped. Miners would save their money so they could upgrade their tools so they could mine more coal and safely be more productive, thus earn a better living for themselves and their team.
I agree with you John, the Dewalt will work fine. I actually have one and verified that it will in fact nicely drive the spike home correctly assuming you properly operate it. What did you end up using for the driving tip? I've been experimenting with a fabbed-up cup, but I think it might be better to have small wings.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2018 06:15AM by MSLRR.
