Got the job of cutting up what I was told were kilns at a large ground regeneration site in Walsall about 40 miles from me, which is defined as the Black Counrty  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Country  and no it's not what you think

 

5 had been dug out of the ground with more still buried, of course with the stupid Health and Safety laws here Oxy Acetylene isn't allowed on site so are having to use Propane which for cutting is next to useless

Site has remnants of a Dunlop belt works including the tip and metalwork companies and has got to be completely excavated down to clean ground which is in places 30 to 40 ft over a huge area

And all the pictures are the right way up too

 

 

 

Very interesting! Nice job though as no one around to bug you anyway. Can you sneak in the O.A. when they're not looking? I know... no on one wants to pay the heavy fine, right?!

 

Why don't they bring in a nice sized Track hoe with a thumb to crush up to smaller size?

 

Thank you for sharing @wil440

Track hoe with a shear.

8 hours ago, wil440 said:

of course with the stupid Health and Safety laws here Oxy Acetylene isn't allowed on site so are having to use Propane which for cutting is next to useless

 

I am ignorant here - why can't you use Oxy / Acetylene? 

 

You have such an amazing amount of history in your neighborhood!

 

- John

5 hours ago, JAG1 said:

Very interesting! Nice job though as no one around to bug you anyway. Can you sneak in the O.A. when they're not looking? I know... no on one wants to pay the heavy fine, right?!

 

Why don't they bring in a nice sized Track hoe with a thumb to crush up to smaller size?

 

Thank you for sharing @wil440

Don't know about USA but here propane bottles are Orange, Acetylene are purple, so a manager/supervisor/ health and safety jobsworth etc  knows if you are cutting steel on any site it needs to be an orange bottle and you would be banned from working on the site if caught with Acetylene

 

The steel is 1/2" thick on all but one, the one is 7/8ths ish thick, they are rivetted together so on a "joint "  thats at best 1" some joints are triple and quad thick, I cut one joint today that was around 3.5" with rust between each 1.2" plate, they have a big shear on site thats on a Komatsu 490 but it won't touch these kilns

 

@Tractorman Acetylene is banned by companies due to outdated information, Germany did a paper on fuel gases in 2012 I think and that found it is no difference to propane but it's still banned here on site, you can still use it, I use it in my workshop 

The UK is an old world country so yes lots of history going on here

Welder fabricator for 25 years and I feel your pain. Cutting with propane sucks bad, especially double and I cant imagine triple layers geez that makes for a long day.  

8 hours ago, jlwelding said:

Welder fabricator for 25 years and I feel your pain. Cutting with propane sucks bad, especially double and I cant imagine triple layers geez that makes for a long day.  

Yes propane doesn't cut it (squse the pun  )    

To make it worsr, really rusty on the outside and double skinned with a 4 to 6 inch gap filled with all manner of stuff as insulation which of course had mostly melted to glass hard slag

It used to be a copper/ brass smelter and one kiln inside the insulation gap was filled with brass and copper, my brother pulled out a intact brass copper pan and we also dug out 3   4"

Brass aircraft refuelling fittings or maybe firefighting fittings, going to pressure wash those off then give them a bath in my ultrasonic cleaner so we can see what they really are

 

5 kilns now cut up and off to the scrap yard, they'll be new cars or bean tins in a few weeks or so, one supervisor was telling us that the company that is regenerating the site, company we work for has had £100k up to now from the scrap and they've barely  started

Was at this site a few weeks ago working on a soil screen fitting new side skirts, found loads of receipts from the 50's from a company that manufactured bathroom stuff, like 500 soap dishes.. stainless, total was lesss than £20 for the lot but in UK old money, toothbrush holders 800 of for next to nowt, these receipts had been buried under 20ft or more of tip, dug up by an excavator then gone through a screen,.

Now comes the strange bit, I'd saved a wedge of these bits of paper, my brother and I go to a pub after work which is 40 miles away from this site close to our workshop, we were talking to one of the barmaids and dropped out we'd been working on a site in Walsall, turns out she grew up in Walsall directly over the road from this huge site AND her Dad worked for the very company, needless to say she now has the receipts

Small world, so cool.