Originally posted by Greg
JPS, tell me more about your air knife and spade, are they the same tool with different sized heads?
The knife rep told me that they are esencialy the same tool, they buy the tip from the spade people.
Course the spade people say theres is better.
I've used both and a home made tool, the comercial products seem to work the same, the home made at around mayb 75%.
All the high performance is in the tips engineering.
-Do you wear a respirator and googles?
Goggles, muffs, dustmaks and one of those hunting masks that will come tight around the goggles. The dirt gets everywhere
-Do you build somthing to contain the soil on a collar exam so it does not blow all over the place?
Sometimes you can get it to go on a tarp. My feelings ar that the first order roots and flair should be above soil; these are what will eventualy form the palisade. I've seen sheets of plywood and tarps streched on conduit frames to control soil movement.
No mater what you do, the estimate of 30% loss due to drift seems to be a consensus. +/- dending on partical size.
-How big of a compressor is required --how small of a compressor can you get away with?
My knife is rated for a 185cfm, I think I used a 125cfm with a Spade.
-Do you use the spade in conjunction with a shop vac? Spade breaks it up, vac sucks it up and contains it for easy replacement?
In real deep excavation a heavy duty shop vac would be usefull, most time the tools will blow the stuf out, once turf roots are out of the way.
I use the tool to cut squares of sod and pull them out by hand.
Replacement is with a shovel and garden rake, then use the too to push around any matted piles.
I'm thinking in terms of correcting SGR's. I read your article posted a few weeks ago. Good stuff.
Thanks.
Colar work is the easiest thing to do, unless it is over a half foot down. Then the question becomes what will be done, plant health or landscape aesthetics.
BTW, Ive looked into bigger vacs, like RockVac, but at 12k per unit I could not justify the cost.