I want to blow up some big rocks

[Taz Baby]

Does anyone know a good way to blow up rock using legal explosive? I need to remove big rocks and someone told me about The Micro blaster. You don’t need a license to use it but it is costly. The blasting caps are cheap but the machine is what kills you. I cannot justify spending that much money on something I will use sometimes. With the same amount I can get a good solar panel, which I would use all the time. Has anyone blown up rocks? If so what did you use and do you need a license?

[Stg1swret]

Unless you've had training in using explosives, I'd leave it to the professionals.

[Stormfeather]

<=== Has plenty of experience with explosives. :P Would love to blow stuff up or help!

[ladyhk13]

My DH would love to help you!

[Taz Baby]

Does anyone know where I can look for someone to do that? Are there other ways to remove big rocks? Someone told me that you can drill holes in it, fill the hole with water and let it freeze. But that does not make any sense to me, lol. Any ideas on how to remove them?

[ak474u]

rent a backhoe with one of those concrete jack hammers and break it up, they use them to demolish bridges, so it oughta work.

[ladyhk13]

There are things called Feathers and Wedges. Is your DH going to be doing this for you?

[Sniper-T]

The only way drilling and water will work is if it gets really cold where you are. I mean REALLY cold. yes it does work, but it does take time. It will not shatter them into gravel, it will break them in half or so, depending on where you drilled your hole.

Please define "big rock" are you talking the size of an arm chair? volkswagon? short-bus?

The problem with exploding rock, is that it shatters into a million pieces, and these pieces exit from where the large rock was, really quickly.

So, unless these rocks are miles away from anything and anybody, not only do you need equipment to drill into them, and a cocktail persuade them, a primer to touch off the cocktail... you also need blast mats. You will probably also need a permit (depending where you are)

And lastly, you need to have some knowledge in explosives, and a healthy respect for things that go boom. A guy I went to school with liked blowing shit up, by grade 11 he was known as lefty, and his mom had to open the ketchup bottle for him.

I too have my blasting ticket, and have blown up some cool shit. But it isn't an exercise to jump into without training, or a mentor. If Storm is close enough to help, and his offer is still open, TAKE HIM UP ON IT!!

Or hire someone locally. Look in the yellow pages under demolition. Call some Heavy Construction companies.

Good Luck!

btw... what did these rocks ever do to you??

[Foghorn]

I too would not recommend blowing these rocks up yourself unless you have a good knowledge of explosives.

With a little more information we might be able to come up some ideas that will help. Do you know what kind of rock you've got? Give us an idea how big these rocks are.

Is getting a dozer to push them somewhere more desirable a possibility?
Good luck, Stay safe,

Doug

[Taz Baby]

Thank you for your help and your concern. Let me explain this “Blowing up rock” thing further. Maybe BLOWING up is too harsh a word, because you are thinking like using dynamite to blow up a mine. That is not what I am trying to do here. I am no expert on any of this. I am in no way going to use explosives that big. If you will look up the Micro Blaster, you will see what I am talking about using. You do not need a permit with it. I don’t want to blow the mountain up, just crack the rocks in smaller pieces so the backhoe can move them. There are several things I would like to do and it seems that every place I want to do it have rocks in the way. I want to put a cold storage building in the side of the hill. I want to dig into it so I will have three sides of ground around it. The only thing showing would be the door. There is an old one here behind the cabin but the cabin was built in 1897, therefore I have no idea how old it is and it is caving in at places. I need to build a road up to a ridge. Most of the way I can access it with the tractor to make the road, but in some areas, The ROCKS get in the way. I can’t afford to hire someone to make a road with an excavator, or what ever that thing is called, so that leaves that out. I am think (just thinking) of maybe digging a hole big enough to bury a cargo container for underground shelter or storage. I have a tractor with a backhoe on it (also a grabber thingy) but it can only do so much. Now to explain the rocks, we have shale, sandstone, bedrock and others that I have no clue on what they are. Mountains are all around us. There really is no way to tell how big these rocks are or how far into the earth, they go. We have a jackhammer but it runs on electricity, which I have none (except solar and genny). I am trying to figure out a way to make these big rocks smaller so I can remove the part of them that is in my way. Yes, it gets cold where I want to do this. Last year the coldest was 9 degrees. This winter has been a mild one; so far, the coldest has been 13. As far as safety goes, I want to survive the SHFT not die before it gets here.  Maybe this will give you more of a clue on what I want to do. Again thank you for all the concerns and help. BTW as far as getting a company to come do this that is a no-no. I can’t afford it and I don’t want (People) if you know what people I am talking about, to know I am here. Don’t they have to keep a log on where they go to use the explosives?