Easiest Method To Pour Mud Into Sonotubes

IHI

Buddy with the "funnel" attachment for his skidder bucket is out of town and I need to pour 3.5yrd of mud into 12" and 16" sonotubes, I've been spoiled and never gave this any thought about doing it any other way so wondering how you guys are doing it??

Was thinking of constructing a trough that is a tad wider than the skidder bucket and have it angle down and come out a "chute" so to speak over each tube so I can just dump in the concrete and have the guys push it with shovels towards the hole and let it gravity feed into the tubes then lift up the contraption and move it over top of the next sonotube. more money and focking around building it than I want but cant think of an easier option right now...refuse to do this by the shovel fulls, will take too much time.

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stacker

years ago,a local contractor here,used an old heatalator firbox for a dump.he turned it upside down,welded a plate on the box to enclose the firebox,welded a couple places for forks on the forklift,and tied a rope to the damper control.then he filled the firebox,moved it to where he needed it,and pulled the rope to open the damper, releasing the concrete.it tool him about 2 hours to build it and got a world of good out of it.

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IHI

I thought about just having the truck just use the chute since this is new construct in the open on it's own lot, but the way they ran the geo thermal under ground I'm not willing to take any chances at screwing that system up even though the chances are slim.

The firebox is a good idea, just dont have any round here I can think of to use as the base, not to mention by the time I bought the steel to fab it up I could probably make 5 out of wood LOL!! These metal prices are insane!!!!

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Mike Finley

A compromise would be by the wheel barrow. There is a special wheel barrow with a narrow mouth so it will pour concrete out the front of it into a tube very easily.

reveivl

If you got two guys running goon spoons anyhow, just let them at it, you run the machine and tell them to work faster.

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IHI

I could and they would but I dont expect my help to do anything I wont do...and I refuse to do manual labor like that when there are alternatives to make life easier and the job faster . Everybody's happier and physically in good shape from not killing themselves. I'm too nice, I know

Mike, this is soft terrain and all I can see is the help dumping a wheel barrow full of mud I've seen those things though and it's the same conceopt of the bucket attachment for the skidder. Gonna come up with a solution today 1 way or another.

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Tscarborough

How deep are the tubes?

jmic

Josh,
I made a 3 sided box that slides into the bucket on my skid steer, reinforced with 2 x's, put a slide up trap door on it similar to the ones you see on tailgates of small dumps. Strap it to the bucket with chains or nylon straps. I'd say it holds 1/4 to 1/3 of a yard and works slicker than snot. Took me about 1 hr. to whip it up.

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Ken@K&R

I hand the $6 an hour guy a shovel oh thats after a hoe and poly tub of course. We have an unlimited supply of guys that will dig a ditch from TN to NY for $6 or $8 an hour.

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IHI

T: holes will be 42" deep for frost footing depth, tubes are 48" so will have approx. 6" above grade. I dont want to pour them any wetter than necessary so I think trying a regular wheel barrel will lead to too much seepage off the sides.

Joe: great idea about the 3 sided box, how much "run off/seepage" did you have with the simple design like that? I think this design will work fine plus I will be bringing in extra hands/shovels and pails for the hard to get at tubes so hopefully this will go pretty smoothly.

They were calling for storms AGAIN tomorrow but latest check is all sunny the next 2 days so hopefully everything will go smooth as silk.

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Tscarborough

Yahoos with shovels is the best solution I can see.

IHI

I always feel bad watching them work while I play in the machines, but wtf I'm paying them to make life easier I guess...I'm just too nice sometimes LOL!!

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6stringmason

Exactly! Its your business. You pay them to do the **** you dont want to do. Its called life.

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stacker

i agree,but,how many of us can sit by and not want to get up and help?

which brings me to another question.how many of us feel guilty for taking a day off during the middle of the week?i woke up this morning and said the hell with it.i worked by myself yesterday(my hand was sick,day after payday one day flu)and was tired when i got home.now i am sitting at the house feeling rotten that i should be on the job.i did drive to another town and pick up a small job this morning,but now i feel like hell.guess when the bar opens ill head down for some diet dp and shuffle board.

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Teetorbilt

I'm thinking that a smart guy could come up with something made out of an old water heater, LP tank, boiler casing, fuel oil tank that would work great for filling tubes. Here, they're mostly incorporated into the slab and not a problem to fill.

stacker, I always take days off during the week. There's less fishing pressure and most of the IDIOT boaters are working. No guilt at all.

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jmic

Josh,
The way I built it and strapped it to the bucket I had no lost of product.

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mdshunk

I had to do a mess of parking lot light bases a short while ago. They were 24" tubes, but the regular chute on the truck did a fine job. I know that my concrete supplier has a chute they can bring along that necks down smaller if you ask them to. Perhaps yours does too? Granted, you can't always back up a truck to where you're pouring tubes.

My biggest gripe about pouring tubes is that I get nailed with a "demurrage fee" (delay fee) for every batch that gets poured into tubes. That makes me a little angry. If they can't pull up and slide the whole load off in a quick go, they want you to pay extra. Do you other guys have this same experience?

6stringmason

Looks like someone will be working Saturday

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IHI

First day this week with no rain so we went over with the mini skid to dig the 4- 18" x 48" holes for the hot tub footings and 15- 15" x48" holes for the beam footings. Typical new contruct after a week of rain-nice and muddy First 3-6" was black dirt then after that was sand so digging was easy and this machine once again never skipped a beat or broke a sweat digging it...I actually grew tired of running it but the body felt great. LOTS of concrete chunks from the foundation crew and even more tree rots on the south side where that ole tree is pictured in first few shots, made it kinda hard since it'd want to turn the bit sideways/lean the bit so we had to go back and clean up by hand since trying to take a half hole bite did'nt work with the different ways I tried it...funniest part was new guy never complained a bit when I had him go back through and clean up the holes and tamp the bottoms not the fastest guy I've ever had, but has yet to complain about anything


[IMG]<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/824085/miniskidder002.jpg' width=500 height=375 >[/IMG]


Homeies mother stopped by clowing smoke up my azz about how great I've been to work with thus far and apologized the deck went from show case to run of the mill AND THEN asks if her daughter had mentioned the new staircase location?? I'm now on the 14th....yes 14th revision to this SOB I told her it's going to cost since i had already takedn the machine back other wise I coulda just laid out the 4 more footings for the bump out and now have to reform where stair slab will be poured

Then I could'nt get ahold of this cities inspector to see if he wanted to look at the naked holes or if he's let me set up the sonotubes and then check...6 voice mails and finally I told the secretary to schedule a inspection for first thing tomorrow so at least I can meet this guy and move forward..did'nt bother putting tubes in since you know if I did I'd have to pull then out by the time we set up all the sonotubes it will be too late to call for mud so I'm just hosed for a Fri pour so like the rest of the spring/summer will continue the weekend schedule to try and stay somewhat on task...this blows working every weekend

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IHI

First day this week with no rain so we went over with the mini skid to dig the 4- 18" x 48" holes for the hot tub footings and 15- 15" x48" holes for the beam footings. Typical new contruct after a week of rain-nice and muddy First 3-6" was black dirt then after that was sand so digging was easy and this machine once again never skipped a beat or broke a sweat digging it...I actually grew tired of running it but the body felt great. LOTS of concrete chunks from the foundation crew and even more tree rots on the south side where that ole tree is pictured in first few shots, made it kinda hard since it'd want to turn the bit sideways/lean the bit so we had to go back and clean up by hand since trying to take a half hole bite did'nt work with the different ways I tried it...funniest part was new guy never complained a bit when I had him go back through and clean up the holes and tamp the bottoms not the fastest guy I've ever had, but has yet to complain about anything





Homeies mother stopped by clowing smoke up my azz about how great I've been to work with thus far and apologized the deck went from show case to run of the mill AND THEN asks if her daughter had mentioned the new staircase location?? I'm now on the 14th....yes 14th revision to this SOB I told her it's going to cost since i had already takedn the machine back other wise I coulda just laid out the 4 more footings for the bump out and now have to reform where stair slab will be poured

Then I could'nt get ahold of this cities inspector to see if he wanted to look at the naked holes or if he's let me set up the sonotubes and then check...6 voice mails and finally I told the secretary to schedule a inspection for first thing tomorrow so at least I can meet this guy and move forward..did'nt bother putting tubes in since you know if I did I'd have to pull then out by the time we set up all the sonotubes it will be too late to call for mud so I'm just hosed for a Fri pour so like the rest of the spring/summer will continue the weekend schedule to try and stay somewhat on task...this blows working every weekend

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