Jack/Drill Hammer advice

[IMAUDIGGER]

I figured I’d put this here because it is not related strictly to hard rock mining.

I’ve got a tunnel that my family and I will start digging.
The purpose #1 is water, #2 gold.

The material is a densely packed, clay/sand/cobble & boulder conglomerate.

I know this is risky work. We will be building a rock shelter at the entrance with some shoring for the first 16 feet maybe. After that maybe if the material is difficult, we may continue without shoring. Likely be shoring the entire tunnel.

We are starting 20’ from the surface and on bedrock.

We bought a 35 pound electric demo hammer to assist excavating.
Plan is to let the material fall off the face into a wagon of some sort and roll it out on some homemade wooden tracks.

Question is...does anyone have suggestions or pictures of a method of supporting the demo hammer? I was thinking a sling setup hanging from the ceiling, but I’m not liking the idea of disturbing the material any more than I have to.

Will also likely need to be sierra blasting some boulders apart to assist getting them out of the tunnel.

Anyway...please save the cautions about it being dangerous. We are pretty smart fellers...anybody tunneled in conglomerate using a demo hammer?

 

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[cyzak]

Here is one to get an idea, I am sure with some mods it would work good.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Man they poured that concrete right over the floor joists?

Has to be Mexico?!

Good for hammering vertically.

 

[Goodyguy]

35 lb. is a hand held unit. Not sure why you need any support.
Also conduit and wheel hubs from Harbor Freight make for a nice track and cart wheels.
Skate wheels at 45 degree angles work better for cornering takes 8 altogether though.

Putting a small 12v winch on the cart is also helpful.

Here is a short vid for you......


Here is another that may be helpful............

 

[Goodyguy]

It's hard to find small scale hard rock how to info, but this guy is full of it. LOL
Using the Sierra Blaster..........

 

[Reed Lukens]

Personally speaking, it's better to just drill and blast. If you have a Sierra Blaster, it will work on the cemented conglomerate just fine with a small SDS+.

 

[cyzak]

Man they poured that concrete right over the floor joists?

Has to be Mexico?!

Good for hammering vertically.

I was thinking with some modification so it goes out horizontal it would keep you away from the face so it would be a bit safer.I know personally working in cobble rock underground is extremely dangerous maybe you should invest in trackhoe.

 

[Goodyguy]

Personally speaking, it's better to just drill and blast. If you have a Sierra Blaster, it will work on the cemented conglomerate just fine with a small SDS+.

I agree, Drill, Blast, Muck, Repeat.
Boy does that sound easy. If only

GG~

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Thanks for the input people.
My dad is pretty clever when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Unless we find really good gold, we will probably only be tunneling 25 feet at the most.
Because it will be a water supply, we will spend a little more time on shoring. Possibly level the low spots in the bedrock with concrete.
If we find that the material pays decent, we may do like they did in the 1870’s and excavate side tunnels for storage of rock cobble. They would stack cobble in the offshoot to the ceiling, then drive wedges in on top of the stacked rock to support the ceiling.

Enough of all this talk about what I plan on doing...I sound like that Silver feller. ; )

Going to have to wait till things cool off. It was 105 deg. F
today and I got wiped out working in the heat trying to repair a broken waterline.