Stump removal the way Grandpa used to do

[ucorky]

I am at war with tree stumps on my property. Hurricane damage and lightning damage have left me with large oak and maple trees I had to destroy. No this didn't happen overnight, but I have a ton of firewood over the past couple of seasons (thank you lord) but these stumps are all over the place. I own my property and its a fairly good chunk of land.

Having been in the south, I know there are remedies to blast these stumps the heck out of the ground and/or at least bust them up where I can pull them out easily. The area is very sandy.

So, reading all of the sections here, I am looking for a good remedy. Beginners corner I guess is where I need to go.
Any suggestions are appreciated. I have sort of mastered the whole flash powder thing. Some substantial sized versions of that seem to be more noise than moving any wood. Maybe I'm placing it wrong, maybe I need to keep reading and try something with a tad more kick.

[Ekilo]

I know you are looking for fast methods of stump removal but I have an enjoyable one for you.

I like to use them for my summer backyard fires. I simply place or build my fire ring around one, add my fire wood and light my fire. Eventually you end up with a hole where the stump used to be.

You could also rent a stump grinder. When you grind a stump, you end up with mulch. Sell or use the mulch.

I know you were looking for fun methods of stump destruction but I have no first hand knowledge of how to do it. I hope someone else can provide you with the "fun" info.

[ucorky]

I have read the scoldings for newbie posts and was about to delete my post when I saw your reply. I am researching AP and will try small attempts at first per the recommendations and I'll do one stump in sections and work my way up. I know of the stump grinders, but like you say, whats the fun in that? I wanna move material like grandpa used to do. :o

[texaspete]

Don't try using any large amounts of flash (anything over 10g or so), as it is very unstable.

If you are seeking to blow up the stumps, a one or two kilo's of ANFO (google it or search this forum) will certainly work. You could probably set off ANFO with a Tannerite exploding target. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about a fuse or detonator.

And, of course, high explosives are dangerous, extremely loud, and the methods mentioned by Ekilo just as, if not more effective.

[Red Beret]

Forget the flashpowder. If you want to use explosives, then ANFO would be the easiest to make, as well as being highly effective.

If you do not know what ANFO is or how to set it off, you'd better do some reading up before attempting anything. If you require powder factors (charge computation) post here and I can help, being in sandy soil, provided the stumps aren't too well rooted, charges may well be fairly conservative.
On the flip side, the sandy loose soil may absorb alot of the explosives energy requiring more explosives.

Or you could buy/make a large amount of blackpowder, which would do it. Not very convenient though.:rolleyes:

[Chris The Great]

AP won't have the blasting power to get the stump out of there. ANFO is the cheapest an easiest, although fun wise I think a block of blasting gelatine (90% nitroglycerin, 10% nitrocellulose) with an added 33% of Al powder will be king. I'm not sure how big your stumps are but I would bet burying a pound of that under a stump will blast a 2 foot diameter stump to splinters. A little more complicated though...

[knowledgehungry]

ANFO is the explosive of choice, if you can do it right. Due to its low brisance it will not shatter the stump like many, but rather lift it, if the explosive is placed correctly.

I believe there was a thread on this a while back I would suggest you UTFSE.

[Skean Dhu]

Why not make the stump into a giant Dynamite stick? Perforate it with an auger, soak a couple batches worth(don't be stupid and make it all at once) of NG, EDGN, MEKP or other suitable liquid explosive into the stump and set it off like that. I'm sure there is a reason why thats a less than ideal method but I don't have the experience to tell me why.

I'd just go the ANFO route since it is garuanteed to work if the stump is prepared correctly. Its also in all likelyhood the cheapest route. 40-50 bucks for a sack of AN, another $4 for two gallons of diesel/kerosene(parafin for you euros). Of course you then have to get ahold of something equivolent of a commercial blasting cap, but thats not gonna cost you all that much.

[nbk2000]

The real question is:

How close are your neighbors, and are they the type to call the cops on you?

After that comes:

How close are these stumps to your house?

[Red Beret]

Bear in mind that the ANFO will need a booster also. ANNM will work well, and is simple to make.

[nbk2000]

ANNM will work well, and is simple to make.


Yeah, as long as you can get Nitromethane.

[Davo]

I don't know about the USA but in OZ Nitromethane is surprisingly common.... even sold at toy shops

However, getting the AN is now the hard part. It has become the bogeyman of the media and now subject to really stupid controls

[Chris The Great]

How about KNNM? I know nothing about this other than that it works though, but it might be an alternative if you can get KNO3 or NaNO3 and not AN.

AN/Al mixtures would probably be superior for this job if AN is limited and you have a good deal of Al from making flash. At 60 AN/40 Al, you'll be getting 2.5 times the energy release and hence blasting power of regular ANFO, and use only 67% as much AN for a given weight. So if AN is scarce and hard to find, use the 60/40 AN/Al and you'll get 3.8 times more *boom* for a given weight of AN, at a much higher cost of course since Al is substantially for expensive of a fuel than kerosene.

[ucorky]

I can get either. [Al presuming thats aluminum]The blasting cap has me stopped right now. In my area we have loud kabooms all the time [mainly weekends] and in some cases way off in the distance is a low rumbling boom. I don't know what the low rumbling one is but that occurs once or twice a week and it is not thunder.

Anyways, both methods ANFO and AN/Al sound feasible once I get some grasp on blasting caps. I presume simple electrical detonation isnt enough.


UPDATE:

Searched my butt off this evening at the local hardware stores. There's a Home Depot in town and all they had was A/Sulfate in mass quantity. WIl be trying some other places in the next town over.

[Jacks Complete]

That low rumbling is probably a mine or quarry. Have a look on a map of the area.

Simple electrical detonation of the caps is fine if they are electrical caps. If not, use some cannon fuse or something, but err on the side of caution, you don't want to turn yourself into red mist. (I'm answering the question you should have asked.)

You could try a high powered rifle for your detonator. Anything faster than about 2000fps should set it off fine, especially with Al in there. Note that it has to be fine Al. powder, as in air float.

[nbk2000]

I found an electric blasting cap on the road a few days ago. Must have fallen off of someones truck. I looked around but didn't find anymore, so I just set off the one I found...no point keeping it around for a bust.

[dbooksta]

I had 5 ounces of 70/30 KClO4/Al flash powder to dispose of, and a stump to remove. I tried augering into the stump but it was too hard so instead I blew a little hole underneath it and put the charge in there.

Result was it blew out all the dirt in a 2-ft sphere and fractured the stump into 8 pieces that were easy to chop out with an axe.

I have video and pics, but no good way to share them. If you're willing to wait here's a pic of the end result:
http://dbooksta.files-upload.com/files/189685/Flash5oz.4.jpg

[dirtblast]

ANFO or ANNM will be your best bet. This weekend I made a 30g ANNM charge with a 5g APAN booster. I put it in a hole I bored in a 6x6 pine column and set it off with a simple EBW detonator. It shredded the top two feet of the column. I'm sure something bigger (depending on the size of your stump) placed under the stump would not only lift the stump out of the ground, but fragment it into small, easier to handle, pieces.

[WWII]

This may give you a few good ideas for tree stump removal from a military manual.

http://web.mit.edu/semenko/Public/Military%20Manuals/Explosives%20and%20Demolitions/CH3.PDF

And read the cautionary warning from this one:

Something to take into consideration

http://www.treestumpspecialists.com/

If you still want to do it yourself the way Grandpa did, that is fine. At least you have a better idea of what you are doing and enjoy blowing the tree stumps out of place, safely of course. :D

Before you go ahead make sure you have the water hose turned on, buckets of water also after the demolition, you will need to re-fill the empty pocket with fresh dirt.

Have fun. :)

[Killy]

My solution would be, without HE, fill pipe with flash powder ( 9 inch lenght x1 inch would be good), dug a little hole under the stump, and place pipe, set it off either with long fuse or electrically with battery.
Try on one stump and see how it goes

[dbooksta]

Based on my earlier experience I would suggest FP is probably not the best way to go -- especially if you can't detonate it. Large quantities ignited seem to heave more than shatter. After all, I used 5 ounces(!) and ended up with a crater but the 12-inch stump only split, still connected to its roots, which had to be hacked away by hand.

Next time I try this I will detonate the compound with a rifle bullet instead of an electric match, and will try ammonal instead of FP.

[Charles Owlen Picket]

Some years back I read about commercial "stumping dynamite" which was 20% from one mfg. and 40% from another. The 20% had an active base. Frankly I can not see how such a small percentage of energetic could have the push necessary. But then the 40% would start to shatter. The idea of using FP has some theoretical merit as FP generates a great deal of push via gas/air blast. but the amount would be properly controlled to such a degree than an alternative would be easier on the user to configure, IMO.

NG is SO easy to mfg that the use of same would be more likely to yield the results necessary to uproot a stump. From a cursory standpoint the way that FP would be used to achieve the effect needed would be to enclose the material in some form of "directional-oriented" enclosure. That seems a tough thing (if even at all possible) to manufacture. When the blast of a large amount of FP is not focused; it's useless. We've seen BP used for something similar in coal mines but the gases were focused by the coal deposits themselves. The tree issue is another matter.

A great source for this is the old entertainment pieces in the Journal of Explosive Engineering & other industry magazines (100yrs Then & Now).