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Meanwhile, back up the road at my shooting range, the soil processor is still at work. Another big (95hp) track steer is feeding it. You put raw material (excavated from the hill to build the house) in at one end, and it goes through a big turning drum. The drum exterior is a 1" open grid, so everything less than 1" in diameter goes out a conveyor on the side, and everything 1" or larger goes out another conveyor on the end. Powered by it's own diesel engine. This thing is expensive to rent, but really worth it, to have sifted soil to put on the top of the house and not have to worry about grinding rocks into/through the waterproofing.
The other thing you have to be careful of, is never to touch (with the track steer) any of the vent stacks or concrete pillars up there.
I've actually been thinking about putting a tiny one together for some projects around the house. I was thinking of using a portable concrete mixer, cutting "windows" in the drum, and welding in some perforated metal. Seeing the rotary brush on the one your using is a good idea. I should have a brush or scraper of some sort because I know stuff tends to get caught in the holes.
Unfortunately, I've seen too many situations at job sites where some operator got cocky and ran into something at full tilt in reverse. It reminds you to stay humble about such things.
Paint all the stacks with pink chalk/marking paint, disturbed paint makes it glaringly obvious if someone were to hit one. Then you have the opportunity to fix. All the future heartache I've seen stemmed not from the initial damage but from the tendency of people to hide the error and move on without inspecting/correcting.Yep, that's exactly why the rotary brush is there, to knock rocks and stuff out of the holes. I don't see why a homemade small one like you describe wouldn't work.
It made me really nervous at first, and I was up there with him all the time. Even a single bump on a vent stack could possibly (probably?) cause a leak. But the operator is an artist with the track steer, and has done an outstanding job so far, so I am sleeping better at night.
You are documenting this process very well. Thank you.
Do you have enough cash to start on the interior, or are you going to make us wait a while for that?