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Need Info/Help
He Dog
Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
I am building a low fence for box turtles. I need some kind of clip, like a J-clip or hog ring that will encompass about 3/4" to join 1/2" rebar to 1/8" fence steel. Anyone have any leads for me?
Comments
Besides bridge beams we made concrete pipes of all sizes for storm drains and manholes and concrete cribbing which were approx. 8' long x 8" thick concrete logs with ends that interlocked to use along highways with steep banks such as in the mountains to hold the earth back that might turn into a dirt or mud slide.
First thing in the morning when I came into work I'd knock the wedges out of the slots in the retainer bars that held the forms together and then call the bridge crane operator to come over and pull the side forms and then to also pull the concrete slab from the bed of the form and stack it where it could be rubbed and finished by a concrete finisher who would also patch any small honeycomb in the slab.
Then I would start scrapping some of the concrete that was stuck to the forms off with a straight hoe and clean them up. Then when that was finished I would get the 5 gallon spray can out that was filled with a mixture of oil and kerosene and spray the forms down with the oil to get them ready to be sit back in place. I would call the bridge crane operator back over and have him set the forms in place while I shoved the steel retainer bars back in place and drove the steel wedges into the slots on the retainer bar which would tighten the side forms up to the bed of the form.
Then I would hook up the rebar cages to the crane I had premade up to go into the form for the next concrete pour in the afternoon. I would sit the spacer chairs in the form that would support the rebar to keep it off the form so concrete could flow around it. I would then motion for the operator to set the rebar cage into the form. I would then cut 4 lengths of steel cable and make loops out of them and tie them with wire ties to the rebar cage where they would stick up above the top of the form where the hook on the crane cable could hook onto them as lifting lugs to pull the concrete slab from the form once it was poured and cured.
Then I would go back to making more rebar cages that would be used in tomorrow's concrete pour. I would have a jig sit up made from welded pipe to set the pre-cut rebar pieces in place where I had chalked marked the spacing on the pipe stand where they were to be wiretied to save time.
In the afternoon everyone was helping each other pour concrete in their forms before we left work for the day. The crane operator would bring the concrete bucket over and then me or one of the other guys would start dumping concrete while a couple of guys would be using viberators to get the air pockets out of the concrete pour so the concrete didn't honeycomb. When the concrete reached the top of the form we'd use a 2'x4' straight piece of wood as a straight edge to screed the concrete to be level with the top of the forms. After that was done and the concrete had set for a little while I would take a push broom and drag it across the concrete to give it a rough texture instead of smooth. After than I would stretch burlap material over the concrete and then string soaker water hoses across the top of the burlap and turn the water on for the night so it would cure the concrete without cracking overnight.
The next morning it all started all over again. There was no shade on the company yard for those 90 and 100 degree days and there was nothing to block the wind off of you in the winter when that stiff wind would blow up the Tennessee River to where we were working just a few feet off of it's banks.
In the summer time I would be working and I could feel sweat start rolling from under my hard hat and run down my back and stomach onto my legs and into my boots. My feet would be soaking wet by the afternoon and my pants would turn white from my stomach to my knees from the loss of salt from my body. None of us guys wore shirts during the summer and we were blacker than most black people. Some of us guys hung out together on weekends and we'd go to a nearby quarry hole to swim. People would look at us and laugh because we were black from the waist up and white as a sheet from the waist down where we wore pants to work in. These days you can't even go without a shirt due to insurance but back then there weren't many rules. The old aluminum hard hat was our only piece of safety equipment. They did furnish us with salt pills which were found to not be a very good idea in later years.
I said it brought back a lot of old memories but I didn't realize I had that many. Sorry to hijack your thread
No worries Forgemonkey. I built a lot of trench silos as a college kit but all the rebar grids (and I made several hundred 8x8 girds) were made with wire and pliers and top 40 radio.
I have never seen these things, how do they work?
I will look them up.
Thanks Amigos!