A recent job

AzIron · Jan 2, 2019

Bought a mini ex a few months ago I never had any idea it would get used that much it's been getting 40 plus hours a month when we decided to look at one we were hoping for 10 to 15 hours a month that thing is handy as a shirt pocket

The biggest challenge with it so far is somehow jr here decided that it was his excavator if that machine is around he is climbing all over it

Jakebreak · Feb 1, 2019

Looks good that sucks about the rim my boy jumps at every chance he gets to get on a tractor you don’t realize how handy a mini is til you get one we bought two cat 303.5 last spring and just bought a new cat 304 mini they all have the hydraulic quick coupler on them like the big ones it makes it a lot easier

AzIron · Feb 1, 2019

I never thought I had the use for a mini but it sure works good on remodel jobs we take the rops off to drive it into houses

It will never replace what the backhoe does but it is nice to be able to cover those jobs for my customers keeps other people from horning in

AzIron · Feb 1, 2019

Been doing a fair bit of hammering this month it's always a good thing to find some rock

AzIron · Feb 1, 2019

This is a duplex so there are 2 sewer taps one is in the driveway the other is 40 feet up the road behind the first dumpster and then the water service is behind the second dumpster. For some reason the track developer left about 9 loads of dirt on the lot pushed up on the edge were the sewer was so before we could dig to the tap we spent half a day moving dirt out of the way and then all the dumpsters normally I would not mess with the dumpsters but they were happy to pay for me to do it so why not jobs like these are just dollar signs because of others oversights

AzIron · Feb 1, 2019

More of the same house lot of rock and it was hard rock in my opinion white granite ranks up to the top couple hardest rock I have encountered it's not the hardest but it took 4 days to hammer from the house to the sewer tap witch was only 60 to 70 feet

Dad broke a shank I was kinda surprised it was the middle one but when you get in rock that comes out in big chunks like that it wedges a lot

Tags · Feb 1, 2019

Wow, that rock looks like it it's frustrating to hammer. It's funny that shank broke there, usually they break at the pin hole for the tooth....

AzIron · Feb 1, 2019

The frustrating thing with rock is what it will do to your schedule it can put you a week behind I have three different excavating companys calling me when they get into rock because they dont want to deal with it

It can be kinda irritating when your matches out on a hammer but you can't get a bigger machine in but you have to be careful not burn yo your point then it helps to have a bucket of water around in those situations

AzIron · Mar 10, 2019

Had some interesting weather at the end of February some of you will probably laugh but this guy is not accustomed to working in snow

The only real pain was by mid morning the 8 plus inches was melting pretty fast and it just made things a sloppy mess I tried to tell the plumber it would be better to wait but he was adamant about digging

AzIron · Mar 10, 2019

Just a retaining wall footing not really anything special except that it was in the middle of a wash not sure how the county approved that

It would have really been an easy job but the builder tried to build a pad before they built the retaining walls so to lay out the footings I had to pull the dirt out that the pad company pushed into the wash and then I had to double dip the spoils to get it up the bank and make a walk way so they can bring in rebar the block guy really caught the short end of this one they have to haul in block by hand

It's been raining a lot lately so the ground water in the wash is really high the morning after I dug the footings had 3 inches of water that rose up out of the ground

Mother Deuce · Mar 10, 2019

Yep... that material just hates water.

AzIron · Jan 14, 2020

did a lot of commercial work this year I typically enjoy commercial footings especially things like the big grade beam me and dad tag teemed the grade beam dug all that in one 10 hour day with 2 machines it's about 7 feet deep the loader couldn't keep up with the dirt

CM1995 · Jan 14, 2020

That's one heck of a footing in the last pick. What kind of structure is going on top of that?

AzIron · Jan 14, 2020

We also did a lot of custom home footings to this last year here is some highlights

I really like what these jobs do for a guys skill level you spend 2 weeks hanging into some of these slopes digging and there is not a commercial job around that you cant figure out I like the challenge it keeps you sharp unfortunately once in a while you get over confident I almost lost a machine on one of them the pictures really dont do justice on how much to the limit some of them are

The slopes aren't really the killer most of the time it's the dirt you generate that you run out of room for on these jobs and pad companies are getting lower quality so they do as little as possible or in some cases work against you what it boils down to is you have to establish a boundary because as i learned it came close to eating my lunch

AzIron · Jan 14, 2020

AzIron said:
View attachment 208612 View attachment 208613 View attachment 208616 did a lot of commercial work this year I typically enjoy commercial footings especially things like the big grade beam me and dad tag teemed the grade beam dug all that in one 10 hour day with 2 machines it's about 7 feet deep the loader couldn't keep up with the dirt

Sheer wall for a precast parking garage it is what the ramp anchors to 3 story garage what we found surprising was there was no casons all spread footings some thick ones to like 2 feet thick with concrete that grade beam was 4 foot thick with a lot nember 12 and 16 rebar watching the rod busters made me confident in my career choice there were also a few spread footings that were so close together they became one big hole I wish I had pics but it was dark when it was done it had 3 different elevations

zeek89 · Jan 18, 2020

Awesome thread. Thanks for sharing!

AzIron · Mar 13, 2020

Hammering for fence footings on some track could only get one outrigger down they wait till the house is mostly done to put the fence up but the rock was to hard for a mini that 2000lbs hammer took a minute

Also heavy hauling some new iron in the last pic jr got his new backhoe

AzIron · Mar 13, 2020

Oh boy is work hard actually some of my favorite pics

CM1995 · Mar 14, 2020

Looking good - hate we missed you and the better 1/2 in Vegas.

AzIron · Mar 14, 2020

CM1995 said:
Looking good - hate we missed you and the better 1/2 in Vegas.

Yea well such is life I had been all stressed out the week before we left cause work is staking up and we were thinking about only going for one night but on monday everyone canceled for rain and it was still raining last night so for probably the only time ever that I left town nothing was affected by me leaving

On another note it's still forecasted to rain Tuesday so it wont even dry out and start again so there goes another week

A recent job

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