Boulder Removal using Fire Starting/Spalling 

Hi Charles, I've done quite a bit of rock work, all kinds of methods, to speed up and get the most out of this process, use a leaf blower to make the fire very intense and then tip a wheel barrow full of ice water over it.

Charles, thank you very much for you support , we all need your blessings , your senators and people have given us full support n God bless America 🙏🙏🙏

I think building a fire around it was excellent idea! I bet a leaf blow would have intensified the heat a great deal and make it go faster. looked like a much more enjoyable job too.

I'm removing quite a bit of rock but did t want to use explosives or a hoe ram as the ledge goes under my garage. I used a rotary drill with a 1.5 " bit and then use a product called Dexpan. It works quite well. I've remove well over 50 ton of rocks with this stuff. Best way to get it is from Home Depot as you get free shipping.

Wow! What an accomplishment! Everyone involved strengthens your friendships together. Different methods worked better than others but all made a difference.

I go along with the fire method! I have had the same experience some 12 years ago in Hong Kong! It took me about two weeks to crack the big rock, similar size to this big rock! I found if at the end of the day of the fire, take a session of beating the rock with a big hammer, and most importantly sprinkle water on the rock! The beating will open up cracks inside the rock and water will shatter the cracks further! After cooling off the night time and start fire the next day, the heat and cool sessions weakened the rock! I have been told that, this firing method had been used by our forefathers to claim lands in the old times!

Demolition grout is another interesting method, it works probably the same way like Dexpan mentioned elsewhere: I think it works by getting crystal water out of some carbonate, and then adding water, which makes it expand.

You should've got the rock really hot then cooled it down really fast with some hose water or a bucket of ice water

Recently watched an interesting documentary regarding hannibal and his crossing the Italian decent of the also, it proved that he used fire, Vinegar boiling on the rocks which altered the surface character of the rocks to create a way to descend, obviously this was over weeks. But interesting to see ancient methods still work. With a heck of a lot less fossil fuels being used up. Thumbs up chap!

you can blow up any kind of huge boulders by lighting a bonfire on top for 4 to 5 hours then just pour buckets of cold water on top....then BOOM but remember to stand well back as its like dynamite .... ancient technique

"When in doubt C4"-Jamie Hyeman

You murdered that rock!

Your best bet would be an electric cement pneumatic breaking hammer. You can rent one at local hardware stores for like 50 bucks. There's an old way called flashing where you heat the rock and throw ice cold water on it. The thermal expansion/contraction cracks the rock. This takes a long time too.

Congrats. Well done.

Not to nit pick, you should've just rented a hydraulic or pneumatic jackhammer. But I guess wanting to see if an ancient technique. What I can say what people do wrong the most, reguardless to the rock type, is the fire needs to be extremely hot for a long time. That way, when you go to rapidly cool the rock down, there is maximum thermal penetration in the rock structure and the rapid cooling will cause the hot air pockets in the rock to burst apart. As for the time length, I forget.

Wawww se jeant thanke you very match forever goode job 👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏💪💪💪💪🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿

As others mention. Using blowers and fans to increase the heat. I would've rent an electric chisel hammer/jack hammer as well.

you could invite some young people and have a rock concert

tenacity is persistance with with reward!

I wonder if you splashed it with cold water like a sauna, certain types of rock will literally blow up when dealing with drastic temperature changes.

Have you tried getting it hot then dumping cold water on it?

i wounder what would happen if you put hot fire ( with presurised air supply) into a core drill hole

Why not jack hammer on day 3 and onward? What if you put dry ice or such on it when hot? Man, you don’t give up on anything i bet. Nice job. Front end loader and pound it like concrete on day 5-6? Thanks for video. Didn’t know about heat and spawling.

man vs. rock....man wins!

Should have made a Table out of it, bring some Chairs + Coffee and call it " Hard Rock Cafe " 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

Thank you for your clarification , I’m sorry 😋

That’s when you just go rent a mini excavator with the jackhammer attachment buddy and bring the bucket with you so you can dig around it, cool idea cool concept but taking forever

There are chemical expanding mortars and you can also use feathers & wedges....

I know this was 7 years ago but having a leaf blower idling or a shop vac blowing would really drive up the temp

very cool. fun to watch. and some very enthusiastic fans you got there! lol

That worked really well I wanna try it out for sure.

boy was that a heck of a lot of work! Maybe an excavator next time? I guess that's just not a reasonable way to spend money though. You did alright in the end.

Why not use dexpan

I saw someone comment that they would build a fire all around the rock let it burn for 4 hours then throw ice cold water on it and it would crumble.

Plugs and feathers would have saved you a lot of trouble.

try wood splitting wedge when you start getting a crack

I know what it's like when you get a bee in yr bonnet over something like this, and just have to get it out. But I can't help feeling that a little more oomph behind the hammer and chisel, would got things moving faster - easy for me to say!

Could have saved a loooot of time by using wedges

i had that problem before and i had a damage bottel of gas so made a bit of a frame and let the bottel of gas pour over the rock and let the gas empty out and one belt of a sledge and that was it it took only a hour in total

WHY DIDNT YOU MAKE A DEEPER WHOLE BESIDE IT AN TUG IT OVER AN COVER IT?.

you also need a campfire song book

LoL day 3 !!! 1 hour flat and joke covered up

look up Sylentmite Trials 2009 on youtube. Also look up expansive mortar.

that looks like comanche dam rock outside of lodi california

1" hole and 2kg of anfo = .13 of a second later..job done.

Heat as hot as you can then throw a tub of water on it! Wear eye protection...it'll pop crack and explode

Next time cover with a piece of old metal and use a leaf blower to force more heat into the rock.

Üzerine de soğuk su dökünce çıtır çıtır parçalanır.Daha büyüğünü öyle parçalanmıştır.

Hundreds of years ago quarrymen would split boulders by making holes in the rock along a line then in winter the holes would fill with water and freeze causing the rock to expand and split..you wouldn't want to be in a hurry using that method

Wedges and feathers faster likely but this is romantic

Gas generator or "boulder blaster" with one or two cartridges.

You got it, congrats. Spallation is not well known of but works. Your boulder is buried which makes it harder to bust. Now that you are done, you may not want to know you could have gotten rid of it in 30 mins, but you could have. Here is a video of it being done in 15 minutes on a buried granite boulder half as big at Lake Tahoe. I friend of mine shot the video this week. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WgmmWHlLymg.html It is just drilling 3/8" holes and inserting micro explosives that do not require a license. It snapped into 5 pieces and excavator scaped those away but hand power could have done same thing with prybars. In case you find another one this may be of inetrest to you.

That was a lot of effort and time invested. You could have called someone with a 'wheeled tool' to pick it up and take it to a natural habitat or to a loving family.

A dinosaur must have pushed that over a cliff about a million years ago so it fell into your future yard.

I'm not gonna give you another burger until you pay your tab

Well done, but charcoal + blower and water will act more efficiently.

If you have just one boulder to work on it may not be worth it as costs about $750, but a SierraBlaster would blow the top off that in less than ten minutes. That is what I use for placer mining and getting boulders out of the way for 4WD trails. It does not require an explosives license it is exempt. This video includes it being used for same thing, blowing the top off boulders for a construction crew in Tahoe and other places. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-63UD9u6shDk.html

You might want to consider Magnesium which is also highly flammable, burning at a temperature of approximately 2500 K (2200 °C, 4000 °F). The autoignition temperature of magnesium is approximately 744 K (473 °C, 883 °F). You can find magnesium at sporting goods stores in small quantities sold as a fire starter. You can get a larger quantity at the junk yard many cars have gear boxes made of magnesium and is a fairly common item at most salvage yards. Be very careful with it 4000 degrees is nothing to make a mistake with so do plenty of research before you consider it’s use. Auto ignition is achieved easily with the propane torch that was used in the video. Again do some research first and know what you are messing with.

Its 4 am and I'm stoned.....what's this neighborhood's excuse for watching a rock burn

Make it like a bonfire

Dexpan

2021 Still working on it Lol

Heat the rock then spray water on the hot rock and it should crack!

Rent a good concrete saw from the local Hardware.

WOW that looks like Blue Granite what a waste .

Drill one hole, insert TNT and boom!! Lots of pebbles.

Watched a guy burn a stump out with aid of a barrel before this video. Cheap entertainment I guess. Educational as well.

n construction there are products that break up the concrete ... just see here on youtube and save a grueling manual work

F'kin' big rok!!!

Shoulda used Dexpan.

next time check for ezebreak microblaster

Pour cold water after a day burning , save a lot of time , should learn from the Chinese ancient miners

Pour water onto when hot....

Throw a 54 gal bucket on it after its well heated !

Add water on fire rocks cold water it will broken

We need more than fire n water to help us out now from Hk 😂😂😂

What a waste. How about splitting it for firewood.

ding dong

Caveman

Sell the cracks in your neighborhood! 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

Charles , yes I was born n live in hk which is now under siege by the police😂

Rent a bobcat with a hammer on it

断龙脉啦✌(̿▀̿ ̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿)✌