Planting poles in shale?

[Toller]

I build a bunch of bat houses to put on trees around my cottage. There are some bats, and I am hoping to encourage more to move in, to keep down the mosquitos. Then I found out bats won't live in houses attached to trees; they must be on metal poles. Fussy creatures, I wonder where they find such things in the wild.

Well, a friend moving had to get rid of his 35 year old hang glider. I cut it up into 6 10' poles. They ought to be great to hold the houses. Now the problem; my "soil" is a little top soil over shale. I will have to put a hole though 2 feet of shale if these are going to stand up. Driving rebar into it to keep 4x4s in place is hard enough, this sounds impossible without some power tool. Any ideas.

[Lawrence]

Try an auger. Available for rent everywhere, they come in different sizes. The smallest one is like the ones ice fishermen use and require one person only. Tow person models are also available. An auger attachment is also available for use on heavy equipment like a bobcat. You can choose your depth and diameter.

[Goedjn]

Rebar is really too soft to be drilling into rock with. you really want a 4' hard steel rod sized to fit inside your pipe, and a helper who's really good with a sledgehammer. (And let me tell you, from experience, that holding a drill while someone else swings a doublejack at it takes an unfair amount of faith...)

Failing that, you can do it with a one-handed sledge by yourself, but that's enough like real work that I'd start looking to rent a pnuematic rock drill, or just cast the poles into cement-filled tire bases, and plop them on the surface.

--Goedjn

[HeyBub]

Get a big bucket. Fill with concrete. Poke in pole. Let harden.