Anyone split boulders?

[Dick2]

There are some large boulders at the farm deposited by a glacier of old. A couple are approximately 6-8 ft. diameter; they are really hard granite rocks. Can't move them with a D8, but if they were split in two a D7 dozer could handle them. Anyone know how to do that job?

 

[Angle Iron]

Drill holes and use wedges and feathers. A good hammer drill will be needed. Google wedges and feathers there should be some pretty good videos out there. May have to drill pretty deep. Its how stone has been split for years.

 

[Billy NY]

Well I would not attempt this, but my grandmother and grandfather bought an old farm in in the mountains of eastern NY, same range as the Berkshires just over the Mass. border. I believe it was in the 50's. Well these areas are loaded with boulders, but its not granite, but still quite hard. I don't believe they were as big, but I have seen plenty of that size in the same area. I've moved a few with smaller dozers in similar conditions, way too heavy.

She would build a bonfire, get the rock really hot, then somehow douse it with water ! That to me sounds like a potential bomb or grenade, she said they would split. I'd have to set up a scaffold and hung a was tub or small trough, fill with a hose, then pull it over with a rope from a far away place LOL !

 

[P I Pete]

If you live in an area where it freezes in winter drill a lot of holes in it and fill with water, you know what happens to radiators in winter with no anti freeze. Pete

 

[old]

Back when I first moved to where I live now I split and or made a good number of big rocks smaller but I can not buy the stuff any more. The stuff was called Ni-Pack it came in a tube that you mixed with a liquid that came with it and you put a cap on it and ran a wire to a battery and it made short work of thing. Sure wish I could still get that stuff and or wish I had stocked up on it back then. Other then that if you lived where it got real cold you could drill hole in it and fill them with water and let mother nature do it for you

 

[Steve in VA]

Billy NY has a good solution. If possible, heap up brush and cook them to death. The breakage will be random compared to feather and wedges but if your objective is make big rocks small, that's how I would go.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Any market for landscape boulders there?

Someone might come take them away for you.

 

[jeffcat]

You have it on the nose! Go on U-tube and start watching how those guys break big rocks. Fire and then douse them with water. The wedges work too. They break huge rocks! The way they did it hundreds of years ago. Just type in "Breaking rocks with fire" and watch from there. You can use holes and black powder but you need the detonators. You can do like those crazy guys that go out and shoot anvils. Somewhere on U-tube I am sure someone will show you how to do all of this crazy stuff. The holes, water, and winter time sounds good too. Hope you have fun doing that rock thing.

 

[Hanky]

My grandfather told me about doing the exact same with a huge rock on the farm in the 1930's, they build a huge fire around it, kept it burning overnight, and then hit it with cold water from the well, he said lucky no one was injured as pieces of the rock exploded, but it worked.

I grew up where there was a sandstone quarry years ago and they claimed to have drilled holes and filled them with water and let the freezing water fracture the rock, guess it makes sense, I've seen frozen water split many things over the years.

 

[Delawaresurfman]

At work we have used a product called Dexpan. We use it occasionally for splitting blue rock granite in the replacement of sewer lines. Drill your holes pour it in and come back in a day or two. More holes the better. We had to do it in lifts to get it to the depth of the trench we needed. I'd say it would work easier in a rock out of the ground as the trench we had it basically couldn't move and split. Did a great job for us. The excavator with a jackhammer just wouldn't budge it.

 

[Mac AR]

I don't recommend it, but.... the old man would drill a 2 inch hole in a rock (or stump), pack a half a pound of black powder in it, stick a 2 foot fuse in it, light it and run like Hades. It worked, but it knocked the windows outta his old f100 once!
I do recommend that you go find someone with a jack hammer to see if they could split em for you.

Mac

 

[John,PA]

WOW!


Splitt'N Marble all over again............

Best way......drill holes in straight line. Let NATURE take over for about awhile, here in the latitudes where the granite rock is located. If'n you want the "rock" to make you more $$$$$$ quicker...Simply take YOUR chisel (pneumatic) and connect the "dots".

Risky, though. Hence the "grain" of the granite may not bee to your particular likeing for that counter-top. Howevers, low grade is better than nutt'n.

Try this method FIRST.

John,PA

 

[MtMan]

Not sure where you live but in NEPa. you probably could sell them to a Quarryman for a good piece of change.

 

[MSD]

My uncle would dig a big hole beside the boulder and then push it in and cover it back up. He buried some pretty big ones that way.

 

[2x4]

ya, in the early '70's natural gas company trained my friend in the use of that stuff. Hadn't heard about it lately so figured they'd nixed it.

 

[Charles in Aus.]

You could ask the Aliens to do it for you Dick

http://www.desertusa.com/dusablog/area-29.html#jp-carousel-13366

Seriously though , fires lit by campers and visitors to Giant Rock caused this massive fracture .

 

[Billy Shafer]

We split them with fire. Just as you said.Or you could find a fine arts museum. Claim there art and sell them.Museum in Dallas bought three rocks several years ago.I think they paid thirty to forty thousand for them. James and Nancy might remember them.

 

[Dick2]

We tried the fire method once; got the rock hot and threw cold water on it. All that happened was a few pieces flaked off of the rock. That granite is really hard!

 

[Dick2]

Those two are too big for landscapers. It would take a large crane to lift them into a truck or large flatbed trailer with enough capacity. The boulders are roughly 5'deep X 8' wide X 10-12' long.

We've offered them to the city and county but neither has equipment large enough to handle them. The county came years ago with a loader and took all the smaller rocks from one pile, but there is still have another pile to get rid of plus the two big boulders.

 

[mozark]

Old, in the mid 70's I used a lot of what may have been what you're talking about. Was it a white powder in what looked like an alka seltzer bottle that you cut the top of a tube of red liquid and turned it upside down in the bottle and when it was pink all the way to the bottom it was ready to go.

 

[rustyfarmall]

I have zero experience. Never used the stuff, but maybe some Tannerite could be adapted?

 

[TimV]

The wedge and feather method will do it. Many Youtube videos on it, but here's one with links to one source of the wedges. It's possible a stonemason in your area already has the tools and would do it reasonably as well.
stone splitting

 

[1948CaseVAI]

X 2 for the Dexpan

 

[old]

The stuff I had came in a yellow tube and you poured the liquid in that tube and put the cap on the side of the tube in a slot that was made just for the cap. Cost around $3 a stick if you included one cap per stick

 

[old]

Last I heard the stuff is still being made and sold you just have to fill out a ton of paper work to get ti and take some sort of schooling and get some sort of license or some such thing

 

[RN]

Sister worked in quarry, sometimes had a big rock too big to handle. 40% nitro dinomite, some mud and detonator. Place high shock stick on top of big rock, pack mud on top and light long fuse or connect the blasting cap wires, go BOOM and big rock is couple to 4 littler rocks(and some gravel) that can be moved. Important to put the mud on top to direct shock down and in. Toward the end of working at quarry,she said was quicker to blast the big rock than do the paperwork regarding boom stick inventory, site used effect report, building permit yes/no?? line and explanations. Plastique and shaped charges, AmFO used for drainage ditch projects, some C4 and prima cord/detonator cord uses- like quick cut down trees- and some old black powder small jobs, she was the one that didn't get nervous about using explosives. Was considering taking the required courses and getting certified so it was legal to do what she was doing- got married instead, had some kids- Baby Boom! (Had to get the joke in, Teasing Alert!.) RN

 

[Dick2]

I guess that the real problem is that we are both old; neither of us can run anymore nor swing a big hammer! I would say that we would be pretty good watching from afar.

 

[Ellis Kinney]

Do you live where it freezes hard in the winter? Old timey way to do this is drill holes around the top side of the boulder, about 3/4 inch in dia. and about 8 to 10 inches deep. Using a hammer drill is very easy. Fill full of water and wait for the big freeze. Ellis

 

[Den N Ms]

Dexpan works even while you sleep.
Breaking Large Rocks

 

[JMOR]

 

[ericlb]

i spit boulders for many years, but i cheated, i used a 30 ton excavator with a hydraulic hammer, the purpose for me was to split the boulders small enough to either be used as large size rip rap rock or to fit into the primary jaws of the rock crusher , in your case your best option would be to contact a excavation company [ somebody who does dirt work], they make hydraulic hammers for all sized equipment, backhoes and small excavators too, let one of them split the rocks into manageable pieces

 

[DWF]

A friend has used Dexpan. It's amazing what it will do! It doesn't work too well when the rock is below about 45 or 50 degrees. It has to be warmer for the chemical reaction to work.
DWF