You should have grown up on a farm and had two square miles of land that needed to have all the rocks picked up.
My brother always asks me to come back and pick up rocks in the spring. I'm always busy.
It's been 40 years since I ran a jackhammer
- Thread starter wwillson
- Start date
My brother always asks me to come back and pick up rocks in the spring. I'm always busy.
That reminds me, we took the rental trailer to the dump, thinking we’d just back down the hill, open the gate and all the busted concrete would magically slide out! Nope. Hand unloaded a few trailers worth.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
What this reminds me of - is maybe around year 9 of 99 for our freeway project (rip out big for REAL BIG) - somebody realized they could repurpose the broken up concrete
not a clue
I weren’t smart enough or big enough to run the hammer so I was tasked with loading the wheel barrow.
Put yer back into it!
Put yer back into it!
Fresh out of high school I spent almost an entire summer running a 90 pound air powered jack hammer removing concrete on bridges on I4 running thru Orlando FL. I gained a lot of muscle weight, broke a pinky finger, lost some hearing and got a tan. Never again. But I did get a few dates with Vicki Garrett when I was working traffice control. Saw her driving up every day about 4:30 for a few days in a row, turned the slow sign from slow to stop and asked her out. All in all it was a win for that summer. 
and you walked five miles to school through swamp land while carrying a full pack....
There was a DIY'er near my first house that used an electric jackhammer to bust up concrete and installed a gorgeous paver driveway all by himself.
Looks like something was parked on the concrete pad or maybe a shed was to be put there.And I hope to never run one again!
The previous owner of our property poured this concrete pad for reasons even he doesn't understand. It is in the way when we back our 5th wheel into the storage area. The trailer has to be backed in very close to the fence, which is a bit tricky. The previous owner told me that he wished he had never put the pad there, to which I replied, "I also wish you would not have put it there!".
I rented a 70 pound Makita breaker from Home Depot. It's been 40 years since I ran a jackhammer and I hope to never run on again
The concrete pad was 12' x 8' x 4". It took about an hour to break it up. It's a good reminder of what hard work is like, after an hour I was glad to be done.
View attachment 342752View attachment 342753View attachment 342754
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
That would make any ambulance chaser proud …Yep, all masterfully photoshopped.
Or as they say in Lafayette La - “billboard cowboys”
Yeah, he parked a small trailer on it for no good reason.
I found as a taller guy they are pretty brutal to operate. I did a 20 foot sidewalk about 15 years ago. Sooooo much better than a sledge though.
And walking to school was uphill both ways.
It is amazing what we could do when we were young.
- Joined
- May 5, 2018
- Messages
- 26,741
I'm having a Wayne moment myself.
Years ago I bought a 16 foot push up ladder and a 48 foot for the buildings and high work.
Getting the house ready to sell and painting the house and garages- barn...
I used to throw ladders around with ease... now the heavy duty fiberglass 48 footer is really a killer.... it's throwing me around and a real beast.... I need it for the peaks but apparently I ain't cut out for tossing that one around anymore...
My old man always told me never to get old.....
Years ago I bought a 16 foot push up ladder and a 48 foot for the buildings and high work.
Getting the house ready to sell and painting the house and garages- barn...
I used to throw ladders around with ease... now the heavy duty fiberglass 48 footer is really a killer.... it's throwing me around and a real beast.... I need it for the peaks but apparently I ain't cut out for tossing that one around anymore...
My old man always told me never to get old.....
48' ladder? I've never heard of such a beast. That must be heavy and unwieldy to handle.
48ft of ladder would freak me out! I can get to 16ft off the ground or so before I lock up. 
My father owned a small excavating company, so from age 12 to now (39ish years), I have been the hammer guy. When I was 18, I wore out the anvil in a 110lb hammer and enough bits to fill a pick-up truck. Last year I helped him with a garage floor that must have been forged Titanium, because I barely put a scratch in it over an 8 hour day. Lets just say I was more than scratched myself. I rented a mini-skid loader with hydraulic hammer. Had it done in four hours. Age has proven that I'm much weaker but just as stupid as I was.
My father owned a small excavating company, so from age 12 to now (39ish years), I have been the hammer guy. When I was 18, I wore out the anvil in a 110lb hammer and enough bits to fill a pick-up truck. Last year I helped him with a garage floor that must have been forged Titanium, because I barely put a scratch in it over an 8 hour day. Lets just say I was more than scratched myself. I rented a mini-skid loader with hydraulic hammer. Had it done in four hours. Age has proven that I'm much weaker but just as stupid as I was.
The first summer that I worked in J&L Steel Mill to earn my way through colledge, one of my first jobs was using an air powered jack-hammer in the Open-Hearth department. After a few minutes the foreman said to me, son ( he was not my father ) stop using that jack-hamer and climb out of that hole, there just is not enough muscle on you yet to be using that thing. Then he assigned me other work.
I guess he knew how much work a strong man could get done in any amount of time with a jack-hammer, and though I was using it, my rate of get-er-done was not adequate for the amount he needed done in the available time.
After 4 summers of working in that Steel Mill including a lot of heavy shoveling, the amount of muscle I had was a totally different story, compared to my first week fresh out of high-school.
When I see a hydraulic jack-hammer attachment on an end of a piece of construction equiptment like the hydraulic arm of a large back hoe, I realize what a smart use of equiptment that is. And the power of those types are much greater than any hand held one, and a heck of a lot easier to use.
Side story: years after I no longer worked for that Steel Mill, because the piped oxygen and acetyline lines present in many locations so welders did not have to lug bottles around, both used the same air quick-connects type of fittings ( the different gas pipes were painted different colors ) as the high-pressure air that was supplied through the entire Mill, one day someone connected a line for a jack-hammer to an oxygen feed pipe that is normally used by the welders. When he pulled the trigger of the jackhammer, it exploded. He lived but was hurt. After that, the mill installed different types of fittings so that could not happen again. That Steel Mill was huge. Even something as simple as chang all of some type of gas line fittings probably cost a lot.
I guess he knew how much work a strong man could get done in any amount of time with a jack-hammer, and though I was using it, my rate of get-er-done was not adequate for the amount he needed done in the available time.
After 4 summers of working in that Steel Mill including a lot of heavy shoveling, the amount of muscle I had was a totally different story, compared to my first week fresh out of high-school.
When I see a hydraulic jack-hammer attachment on an end of a piece of construction equiptment like the hydraulic arm of a large back hoe, I realize what a smart use of equiptment that is. And the power of those types are much greater than any hand held one, and a heck of a lot easier to use.
Side story: years after I no longer worked for that Steel Mill, because the piped oxygen and acetyline lines present in many locations so welders did not have to lug bottles around, both used the same air quick-connects type of fittings ( the different gas pipes were painted different colors ) as the high-pressure air that was supplied through the entire Mill, one day someone connected a line for a jack-hammer to an oxygen feed pipe that is normally used by the welders. When he pulled the trigger of the jackhammer, it exploded. He lived but was hurt. After that, the mill installed different types of fittings so that could not happen again. That Steel Mill was huge. Even something as simple as chang all of some type of gas line fittings probably cost a lot.
Last edited:
This thread makes my back hurt!
Similar threads
