Business Booming For Blasting Expert

Business Booming For Blasting Expert SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 1-1-8 If you've got any digging, dredging or demolishing to do, better check signals with Durlin Cox, owner-manager of a popular new Precision Blasting Service operating out of Baraboo, Wis. "Blasting out drainage and irrigation ditches with dynamite is our speciality," the former Marine Corp demolition expert told FARM SHOW. "We can blast them out a lot faster and cheaper than a dragline can dig them." Here, according to Cox, are other "precision" jobs he and his associates are trained and equipped to handle for interested farmers all across the U.S.: Precision blasting: One of more common precision jobs they're called upon to handle is demolishing old silos standing within inches of a barn ù without damaging the barn. They also blast down old barns to get them on the ground so large beams can be salvaged without danger of the structure collapsing on workers. One of their most unusual jobs was to blast solid concrete out of a disabled ready-mix truck ù without damaging the drum. Ditching, dredging: "We can blast about 200 ft. of drainage ditch 6 to 8 ft. deep per hour," says Cox. "Blasting out farm ponds and dugouts with dynamite also is generally cheaper than digging, and dirt from the hole is scattered rather than left in piles." Blasting a 40 by 60 ft. pond about 10 ft. deep generally costs $300 to $350. Blasting stumps, rocks: Holes are drilled from 4 to 8 ft. deep into huge rocks and boulders, the holes loaded with dynamite and the rock then covered with a thick layer of dirt to prevent flying fragments. The largest piece of shattered rock weighs less than 30 to 50 lbs. and can be easily carried away. Upwards of 100 stumps can be blasted out in one day, including those within a few feet of a house or other structure. Shooting wells: Where sediment buildup plugs old wells drilled into solid rock, a small amount of dynamite is lowered to the bottom and detonated to produce a chamber about 6 ft. in dia, After "chambering", which generally gives the well more capacity than it had originally, charges of dynamite are set off at intervals from top to bottom to shake surrounding rock and open plugged seams between them. For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Durlin Cox, President, Precision Blasting Service, Rt. 4, Box 244A, Baraboo, Wis. 53913 (ph. 608 356-3647).

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