From 2006, on the Sea to Sky highway job, West Vancouver Segment 1 the link to the pics is here http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2011/10/drill-bits-and-dynamite-part-four.html
Nice stories you have, how come the 1250 was used so little? Was it to big?
Yup, it was too big for the job. The 385 did a fine job with less fuss. The 330's and 345's did most of the stripping/sorting/crushing work...plus blast support. I must say though...that despite it's size, the 1250 was a surprisingly quick machine... Even though we were knocking off blasts between 5000 to 20,000 cubic meters each ( in West Vancouver! ) there was never really enough real estate for the 1250 to stretch it's legs....we pretty much nailed the schedule and budget with the smaller tools and really good operators/drillers/blasters
That's a lot of money to dish out to move a machine that hardly gets used. lol I'm working on a job where we are using a Kobelco 350 to strip overburden from on top of a limestone seam. We've been at it two months now and you can certainly see the beating it's taking working in glacial till and hardpan. It's little wonder that the company next door is using a Hitachi EX750 ME to do the same thing. Are you working on any big blasting jobs currently?
Thanks for the comment 245dlc....have you guys tried a ripper on a big Cat to tear things up, before the hoe comes in ?. As far as new projects, the answer is no. I stopped the blasting game a little while ago, I now make dozens of dollars per year as a photographer of other people working.
Lol, We do have an ancient D8K with an even more ancient ripper on the back but they don't seem interested in using it to do any ripping, plus the overburden is deeper than the Cat can rip. I've done lots of ripping in the past mostly frost but a number of years ago I worked for a company in Calgary doing sewer and water work and I ran a 365BL with a ripper, pulling up sandstone and shale, some places they blasted if they weren't to close to homes and other companies were using big concrete breakers kinda like in your pictures to bust up the rock. I sometimes do youtube videos of the jobs I'm on but this particular place doesn't allow it or any recording of the blasts there but I've got a video of a small blast from a nearby quarry I took a few years ago if your interested. It was the first one I ever saw. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgGa12YMcCw&feature=plcp
Thanks for the video... if I could say one thing, it would be...when you are watching/or are near a blasting operation...always always always stand behind something really solid... bad blasts happen...and when the do, you can get horizontal hundred pound/razor sharp projectiles flying at missile speeds...they will pretty much ruin your day.
Yeah I zoomed in from probably over close to a mile away, my new camera is much better for taking long range videos or pictures and has a stabilizer function too.
This happened just a while ago to a guy I know...in the biz for years...son of a blaster. Things went bad during a routine quarry shot...I'm gonna stick with "get behind something solid".... http://www2.canada.com/cowichanvalleycitizen/story.html?id=37f20635-de91-4276-9da3-9c55d1219522 http://youtu.be/u3nOLUmO59s