For Drilling Holes In Tree Stumps

[jackweso]

The idea is to drill holes and fill with a chemical to break down the stumps.

Would a manual bit brace do the trick, or would you use a battery-powered hand drill. What size? Length of bit, etc.? Thanks

[Tom]

For the size and depth of hole you need, read the instructions that should come with your chemical. The manual method would work, but it'd be a workout. There are drill bits/extensions that'll get you as deep as you need, and I'd put them on a corded electric drill motor. If no juice is available, I'd go with the greatest voltage of cordless I could find. Have fun! Tom Someday, it'll all be over....

[John Hines]

3/4" self feed auger bit, in a hand drill. Don't need to go terribly deep, standard 6" bit will do.

[RB]

I've done this and it's a PITA. A good sized ships auger, 3/4" to 1" in diameter and at least 6 to 8" in length. I used a 1/2" drill. I doubt that the typical battery powered drill will do the job with less than 4 to 6 recharges.

Even after you drill the holes and place chemicals in the holes you're looking at several years for the stump to decompose.

A better method is to drill a few holes, load the stump with potassium or sodium nitrate and fuel oil. Get it burning below ground and it will self destruct in a few days. Of course this presumes that there is nothing else combustible nearby.

RB

[e-mail] wrote:

[indago]

040603 1304 - Tom posted:

Yes, the 3/4" spade bit with an extension would be exceptionally suited for this.

[Chris Lewis]

According to RB :

You'd be surprised. An ordinary 12V Dewalt drill can do in the neighborhood of 40 holes thru full 2" thick lumber with a 7/8" auger before recharging.

I've also used the same drill/bit to drill series of holes in fenceposts. Also no problem.

The better quality battery units are quite amazing.

[davefr]

I'd go about 6-8" deep with a 1/2" or larger bit (preferably auger) using an electric drill.

Then I fill the holes with diesel and give it about 15 minutes to saturate the stump. Repeat once more than lite it.

After a few days there won't be a stump.

Don't do it if the surrounding area is "at risk" of also catching on fire.

Another method is to cover the stump with charcoal and lite it. The charcoal will burn out the stump.

[Stormin Mormon]

Have you actually done the nitrate bit? I've wondered how well that works. I used to use potassium nitrate for making fireworks.

I've heard some where that you can load the holes with powdered milk -- that's supposed to speed up the rot. I've never tried that.

[Chet Hayes]

Or you could just do the most logical and easy thing, rent a stump grinder

[Sporkman]

Pardon me, as I'm not an explosives expert, but don't nitrates and fuel oil make a pretty potent *bang* when you light it? Or do you need something like a blasting cap to create a real explosion?

Along the same lines of thought, though, one could use thermite. A five gallon bucket with a quart or gallon bucket inside it. Load sand around the quart or gallon bucket inside the bigger bucket -- prevents radial spread of the extreme heat generated. Thermite (aluminum powder with iron oxide) in the smaller central bucket. Light it off with a LONG magnesium strip.

[davefr]

$1.00 worth of diesel or $75 rental fee + 2 round trips to the rental yard.

Sounds like a no-bra>Or you could just do the most logical and easy thing, rent a stump grinder

[Pen]

If you have the right type of tree why not consider mushroom plugs. You can harvest mushrooms for a few years then the stump turns to mush you can scoop up with a shovel and compost.

[ken]

Grew up on an apple ranch and when I was just a little tyke, Uncle Richard would just dig a hole down next to the stump, wire up a stick or two next to it, walk way far away, and blow the stump out.......the good old days!!!

[RB]

Yes. Works well. There are commercial products sold for this purpose that are nothing more than KNO3.

RB

[RB]

They will in a confined space but this is not confined so they just burn or smolder.

I thought that the only real purpose for thermite was to "weld" chamber pots under John Harvard's seated statue in the Harvard Yard. ;-)

RB

[RB]

That would work well but today it isn't politically correct.

RB

ken wrote:

[Evan Mann]

The stuff I got at home depot says to drill 1" wide, 12" deep, and then make a sideways hole at a downward angle that joins the straight down hole in the stump. I just drilled 3 or 4 straight down holes using a 1" wood spade bit, about 8" deep. My tree stump was something hard, so I used a corded milwaukee 1/2" drill. I started with my 18V Bosch, but I knew that would die quickly because of the hardness of the stump

[Ignoramus32760]

And what chemical would destroy the stump?

i

[Chet Hayes]

Yeah, $1.00 worth of diesel, a couple days spent watching and tending it while trying to burn it, getting permits for an outdoor fire or paying the resulting fines in most municipalities, worrying that the fire may spread somewhere else, then finally renting the stump grinder when it won't burn away.

[The Watcher]

Of course, some people don't care much for the idea of pumping diesel down into their soil either. ;)