Feather and Plug - source

[MF]

Not a marital aid, and not explicitly home repair, I'm looking for a quarry workers tool. I need to break up a large irregular chunk of concrete (maybe 4x5x2 ft) and I saw a technique on TOH some years ago for splitting granite - called (I think) plug and feather.

It involves a line of holes drilled, and a series of devices hammered into each, simultaneously. the devices, a pair of L shaped 'feathers' surrounding a tapered steel 'plug'

Anyone ever heard of a source for these devices?

The concrete is probably very hard, having cured at the water's edge, semi-submerged.

Any source - or better idea - would be MOST appreciated.

Many TIA.

MF

[RicodJour]

Renting

makes the most sense if time is of any value to you. If you like exercise and consider it a challenge (the tree stump in Shane), you could drill a bunch of holes along a line and use _very_ dry wood wedges pounded into the holes, then pour water into the holes and on the wedges. The wood will expand and exert tremendous force. The block will split along your line. If it doesn't, you didn't drill enough holes. This is how the Egyptians quarried the stone for the pyramids.

R R

[RicodJour]

Sure it will work on concrete. The drilled holes in granite, or any other quarried stone for that matter, are drilled straight down - they ignore the grain when drilling.

R

[Bennett Price]

I;m not sure about this but I think this technique was used to get fairly regular sized (rectangular) chunks of granite while what you want to do is just break it up. I'd rent a jack hammer for a few hours.

MF wrote:

[barry]

Trow & Holden of Barre VT makes all sort of stone-cutting tools, including "feathers & wedges." And ... they publish lots of useful info.

See:

No connection with Co.

HTH, J

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 07 Sep 2005 10:26:35p, Bennett Price wrote in alt.home.repair:

Not >> Not a marital aid, and not explicitly home repair, I'm looking for a

[DanG]

You may want to look into expansive grout. There are many formulations. This is used for demolition at hospitals and other places where the dust and noise of conventional methods is not acceptable. Here are a few:

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