general set-up of air spade?

[treeman82]

Hey fellas. I am starting to deal with a new customer who is also a welder. He has a few trees that are hurting at his brand new house from truly COMPACTED soil. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to make an air-spade without spending the $1400? I would assume that I will need a trigger, a coupler for the air hose, a nozzle, and a barrel. Am I missing anything there? You guys know the dimensions that the pipes should be and what not? Thanx.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Uhh...you need a compressor.

I spoke to a salesman for air spade and he said the tip was important to the system, they had two sizes, I think. Maybe you could just get the tips.

The trigger could just be an open/close valve, like they have on portable compressors, which also have quick connect couplers at the hose ends where you would start designing, to get your parts list.

I don't think the rest of the design is important, you just need a ridgid pipe from your hands to the ground. I also don't think there is really a barrel, because the tip is smaller than the pipe.

I suppose you have to think about safety to. Don't build it so it explodes and sends shards of pvc through you. I remember the air spade being made of steel, but have heard the cheap knock off home made ones are pvc.

 

[Dave]

Ideally, you would want a deadman valve so it will shut off if released. You could adapt either a sandblaster valve or the throttle off a contractor's pogo stick style tamper. I certainly would not recommend pvc when all the components are just as readily available in steel, which will withstand abrasion and mishandling much better.

 

[murphy4trees]

Putting a 45* bend in, a foot or so from the tip, will make it easier to handle.
Daniel

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've seen them entirly of iron pipe fittings.

You need to have some insulation in the hand hold areas too, the friction of air flow makes them real hot. just some of that black pipe insulation works.

Regular ball vaulve works for the control.

Play with reducers on the tip to get the flow pressure you need.

I've heard that the homemade ones do not work well on real hard dry clay, softer soils they are close to the original.

One company that made theirs spent around $25 on materials, the uses an old funnel at the tip for a debris deflector.

150 cfm compressor and the connectors.

 

[Nickrosis]

Matt, did you make it? Anyone else here that has successfully made an air spade?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Wachtel

 

[treeman82]

Actually, Nick I did not make it. I took a bunch of information to a welder near me and had him look it over. Went back a couple days later and he said he couldn't do it, and that if he could, it would not work ANYWHERE near as good as the air spade.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Like i been telling you. Some pipe with a ball valve and a reducer on the tip. Just put some pipe insulation on where you grip, cuz it gets HOT!

For 20 bucks you get 75% of the efficiency of an airspade.

 

[Nickrosis]

Could you just yank the tree out of the ground and do a bareroot inspection?