New project, will take a long time
- Thread starter Yanbbrox
- Start date
Don't get too excited Liz, The plan is to set a goal and if I get halve way it's a resultRed Devil;2064192; said:we are ready...........................
Plus I'll lose halve a day messing about trying to get the wood for the dam but as Master Tequila would put it:
Yanbbrox;2064241; said:Don't get too excited Liz, The plan is to set a goal and if I get halve way it's a result
believe me having done quite a few projects my self and husband included ..i know all the pitfalls of the twists and turns and nothing ever went smooth for us..
i am just cheering you on....
excellent, more reading coming I hope!
Keep on cheering LizRed Devil;2064569; said:believe me having done quite a few projects my self and husband included ..i know all the pitfalls of the twists and turns and nothing ever went smooth for us..
Sorry Mike not much to report but if you want to read something I'll waffle for a bit:mike dunagan;2064981; said:
Pipe connector three, after going back to the koi place again the new idea with keeping costs down is to go for a push fit one. Went to a builders yard to pick them up and they do different ones than everyone else, also tried to pick up three tank connectors for the bottom drains of the vortexes, they had 2 not 3. Went to another place and they had the rubber clamp ring seals cheap, I need 6 they had 4 so I got them anyway.
Trial fitted the vortexes to hole 2 and started fitted the pipework in between, no auger in sight of course, had some other pipe so tried to drill it in the side wall, failed and failed again and as the heavens opened everything was stuck and in a complete mess, that was 4 hours ago and it's still raining now.
I've got tomorrow to try and get the drain and pipe work concreted in so at least I've got something to show for the efforts.
Missed a great photo moment when I had the fishing brolly over the join between hole one and two whilst trying to fit the pipe work
Got up and it was raining, it was raining when I went to bed as well
Sat out the morning and about 2 I thought I'd give it another go and try and get the pipe out of the hole, my Dad came round to help.
I pumped out the pond again then it started raining again, before we'd started we'd stopped:
We got the pipe out with various techniques that took an age to complete but it was out never the less.
Plan A, keep knocking the pipe back in with a sledge an extra couple of inches at a time, remove the pipe, remove the clay in the end and repeat until through.
This went ok until around halve way through when it became a real pain getting the pipe out.
Then it rained.
Pumped out the hole again.
Plan B, Use a heavy duty bank stick, sledge that through and work from there, well it went in alright, passed the depth when it should have appeared in hole 2 but no sign
Dug out another foot in hole 2 and several inches under the gap in the middle, still no sign Removed the stick to find it had about an 70-80 degree bend in it, must have hit something, measured up again to find it still should have been through so tried it again, same result
Then it rained, my last decent bank stick, good job I'm not planning fishing the rivers for a bit.
Annoyingly it stopped raining(I'd had enough)
Pumped out the hole again.
Plan C,
All this time the pipe had been resting on a old piece of deck board that had been leveled off before any of this started(there was a plan to start with it was called A). So plan C was to knock the deck board through and work from there, I didn't say it was a great plan but we are down to plan C. Basically the same as plan A but with wood. So sledge hammer in hand, up to our knees in clay, it began, same result as plan B, there was too much wood in the hole not to be out in hole 2 this is a straight piece of wood
Undeterred, wet etc. and throughly hacked off be decided it would be best to keep going anyway, more sledging away, so finally it came through, stuck off course. Wet clay built up pressure mixed with water and wet clay is a bad combo, so we knocked it back, no joy, so we knocked it through smashed it up in hole 2, added more wood in hole 1 and knocked through etc. etc. Finally it came out, hole 1 and 2 joined together. No problem, just knock the pipe through the hole it got stuck again.
Then it rained, no stopping this time, more sledging no difference, dug right into hole 2 to try and find the pipe, no joy, then it thundered but we continued, then about 40 mins later Plan D was born.
Plan D, pump out hole one directly into hole two, water should run between the 2 holes and loosen the pipe. More water, more wet clay, soggy, sticky(if it all works in the end who knows
) no water running through So, and if your trying to spot a pattern here it is:
Plan E, stop and do nothing. This may see like a strange plan but it's genius, when clay gets wet it expands when it drys it contracts, all we need is a good spell of weather and the pipe should just pop out plus I'm back at work tomorrow so there is plenty of time for this to happen, at least until Sunday
Plan F, only joking I thought I'd better explain the pipe that I hitting with a sledge hammer, when the houses were built about ten years ago a lot of stuff was left behind by the builders as three different firms built the 3 stages of the estate, loads of junk including a couple of pipes, brick work etc. got dumped behind the fences, the pipe was found when the gate was put in, the cat E pressure pipe is fine and well.
Comment away and I know an auger would have been better but all in all I think it would have been just as hard as trying to force through.
It's still raining so I can't get a few after shots up so I'll try if it's dry and I have time to get them done and up in the morning before work
Sat out the morning and about 2 I thought I'd give it another go and try and get the pipe out of the hole, my Dad came round to help.
I pumped out the pond again then it started raining again, before we'd started we'd stopped:
We got the pipe out with various techniques that took an age to complete but it was out never the less.
Plan A, keep knocking the pipe back in with a sledge an extra couple of inches at a time, remove the pipe, remove the clay in the end and repeat until through.
This went ok until around halve way through when it became a real pain getting the pipe out.
Then it rained.
Pumped out the hole again.
Plan B, Use a heavy duty bank stick, sledge that through and work from there, well it went in alright, passed the depth when it should have appeared in hole 2 but no sign
Dug out another foot in hole 2 and several inches under the gap in the middle, still no sign Removed the stick to find it had about an 70-80 degree bend in it, must have hit something, measured up again to find it still should have been through so tried it again, same resultThen it rained, my last decent bank stick, good job I'm not planning fishing the rivers for a bit.
Annoyingly it stopped raining(I'd had enough
)Pumped out the hole again.
Plan C,
All this time the pipe had been resting on a old piece of deck board that had been leveled off before any of this started(there was a plan to start with it was called A
). So plan C was to knock the deck board through and work from there, I didn't say it was a great plan but we are down to plan C. Basically the same as plan A but with wood. So sledge hammer in hand, up to our knees in clay, it began, same result as plan B, there was too much wood in the hole not to be out in hole 2 this is a straight piece of wood Undeterred, wet etc. and throughly hacked off be decided it would be best to keep going anyway, more sledging away, so finally it came through, stuck off course. Wet clay built up pressure mixed with water and wet clay is a bad combo, so we knocked it back, no joy, so we knocked it through smashed it up in hole 2, added more wood in hole 1 and knocked through etc. etc. Finally it came out, hole 1 and 2 joined together. No problem, just knock the pipe through the hole it got stuck again.Then it rained, no stopping this time, more sledging no difference, dug right into hole 2 to try and find the pipe, no joy, then it thundered but we continued, then about 40 mins later Plan D was born.
Plan D, pump out hole one directly into hole two, water should run between the 2 holes and loosen the pipe. More water, more wet clay, soggy, sticky(if it all works in the end who knows
) no water running through So, and if your trying to spot a pattern here it is:Plan E, stop and do nothing. This may see like a strange plan but it's genius, when clay gets wet it expands when it drys it contracts, all we need is a good spell of weather and the pipe should just pop out plus I'm back at work tomorrow so there is plenty of time for this to happen, at least until Sunday
Plan F, only joking
I thought I'd better explain the pipe that I hitting with a sledge hammer, when the houses were built about ten years ago a lot of stuff was left behind by the builders as three different firms built the 3 stages of the estate, loads of junk including a couple of pipes, brick work etc. got dumped behind the fences, the pipe was found when the gate was put in, the cat E pressure pipe is fine and well.Comment away and I know an auger would have been better but all in all I think it would have been just as hard as trying to force through.
It's still raining so I can't get a few after shots up so I'll try if it's dry and I have time to get them done and up in the morning before work
good to hear you got it through if I recall is there one more to go? are you going to use an auger for it or the same method as above? I have augered in clay before and found it went quite well as long as you fuleed the auger out every little bit to clear th hole. I'm watching your progress intently
greengiant;2070754; said:
Thanks man, there is a second hole to get through, the one and halve inch for the air, the difference is that that one can be bent as it's slightly more flexible so the plan(pick a letter
) it to extend the 4 inch hole(that will be finished) for the air as well, one and a halve inch pressure pipe is dirt cheap, I think the 6 metre length I got was about £15-17 and I only need 4 metres of it which gives me another two to break