spliting rock by hand tools only

hi all so I've been working on making wedges and feathers for splitting rock this is mainly for those large rocks in creek beds that you want to move to get under but weight a few tons. its handy because if you don't have a hand winch and chain to pull them out of the way you can split them instead then move the smaller bits. below is a video and photos ill make another video soon on how they split the rock and where to drill holes in the rock etc.

Great ingenuity HTY are you legal using a drill (and generator by the looks of your drill bit) in the field. As you say splitting rock that might weigh a tonne isn't going to be one you've taken home. Using reo as a feather looks good are you using the same metal as a wedge or something harder.

Thanks HTY, this could come in very handy. I have some rock to get some samples from - firstly i thought i'd have a go with a cold chisel and hammer though as it's a hot long walk in and the less weight/tools the better,,,i guess i could also say the less unsuccessful trips i need to do the better so i'll have to think about this for a first up approach!

This rock is about the width of my pick and a bit longer....dunno how deep into the river bed yet or if it is the river bed! The 7000 led me to a couple of sub grammers within and a tiny amount of crushings had a tiny amount of colour

Stru said:

Thanks HTY, this could come in very handy. I have some rock to get some samples from - firstly i thought i'd have a go with a cold chisel and hammer though as it's a hot long walk in and the less weight/tools the better,,,i guess i could also say the less unsuccessful trips i need to do the better so i'll have to think about this for a first up approach!

This rock is about the width of my pick and a bit longer....dunno how deep into the river bed yet or if it is the river bed! The 7000 led me to a couple of sub grammers within and a tiny amount of crushings had a tiny amount of colour

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/6148/1507290208_image.jpg

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you could work it like an open cut style but you have to have a kind of step to break away the face putting the weges into the bottom of a solid rock hole won't really work there has to be least one free space for it to break away like in your pic the side of the hole would be a perfect place to drill holes and pop that section out with wedges. it also sounds like you're on good ground and following a spur/leader

RM Outback said:

Great ingenuity HTY are you legal using a drill (and generator by the looks of your drill bit) in the field. As you say splitting rock that might weigh a tonne isn't going to be one you've taken home. Using reo as a feather looks good are you using the same metal as a wedge or something harder.

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it doesn't specify using a drill on your miners right to drill holes in rock however you could use the hand method called hammer and tap method but it takes a hell of a lot longer and much more work haha the wedges are going to be out of reo bar as well.

I have 2 block splitting wedges, got them at bunnings. They come in handy. Hart brand I think. Also got a winch on the 4x4. But remember the rules.... I think you cant interfere with a rock larger than 50kg.... yep
nsw that is.
if you got a narky dpi inspector, and you put rocks in the creek to divert the water flow to your river sluice, it could even be deemed as interfering with the natural flow of the creek under the waters act, crazy hey.

mudgee hunter said:

I have 2 block splitting wedges, got them at bunnings. They come in handy. Hart brand I think. Also got a winch on the 4x4. But remember the rules.... I think you cant interfere with a rock larger than 50kg.... yep
nsw that is.
if you got a narky dpi inspector, and you put rocks in the creek to divert the water flow to your river sluice, it could even be deemed as interfering with the natural flow of the creek under the waters act, crazy hey.

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yep soon you won't even be able to put a simple pan in the creek because of the greens they will think that's bad for the environment blah blah blah

such a shame when you think about all the historic towns build from the gold that was won from our rich mining history

Soon there will be so many public servants and so many people on welfare the country simply won't be able to pay for all those public wages and welfare payments as there simply are not enough people making F..ing money, that balance is getting close to tipping over.
Every bloody thing you want to do these days requires paperwork, some bloody licence sometimes a complete BS training session, then another accreditation which costs more money, then the licence is upgraded which costs more money, then they change the goal posts and you need a new accreditation and it starts all over.
I sometimes wish I was born in the 1800's but bloody hell they had it hard back then.

Hey Occasional panner,

Do what I did- retire.........

(Bugger, more forms to fill in)

Cheers

Les

Hunting the yellow said:

mudgee hunter said:

I have 2 block splitting wedges, got them at bunnings. They come in handy. Hart brand I think. Also got a winch on the 4x4. But remember the rules.... I think you cant interfere with a rock larger than 50kg.... yep
nsw that is.
if you got a narky dpi inspector, and you put rocks in the creek to divert the water flow to your river sluice, it could even be deemed as interfering with the natural flow of the creek under the waters act, crazy hey.

Click to expand...

yep soon you won't even be able to put a simple pan in the creek because of the greens they will think that's bad for the environment blah blah blah

Click to expand...

You'll often see those inner city snot nose greens going on overseas holidays frequently.
Aeroplanes are a terrible polluter, ridiculous amounts of fuel get used on each flight, and all the so called green wealthy inner city dwellers happily gallivant around the globe putting selfies on intagram with pics of their cleavage and bums, while at the same time we are working out how to prospect within the regulations.
Something is very wrong.