# How do you blast stumps?



## Silvercreek Farmer (Oct 13, 2005)

Anyone know how to blast stumps with blackpowder?


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## SteveD(TX) (May 14, 2002)

My best friend used to blast stumps using fertilizer and diesel fuel. But the fertilizer and blasting caps required got a lot harder to come by after 9/11. I would think the gunpowder thing would be quite dangerous.


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## danb98577 (Dec 16, 2005)

I mined hardrock underground in Colorado in 70's. Don't be offended but do not try this.
If you absolutely HAVE to blast anything hire it done or barter for it. Powder is not a toy, ALL of it becomes unstable over time, and inexperienced people wind up maiming themselves or worse. Yes, it can be done-but if you screw up the end result is extremely final. Forever. Dan


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

danb98577 said:


> I mined hardrock underground in Colorado in 70's. Don't be offended but do not try this.
> If you absolutely HAVE to blast anything hire it done or barter for it. Powder is not a toy, ALL of it becomes unstable over time, and inexperienced people wind up maiming themselves or worse. Yes, it can be done-but if you screw up the end result is extremely final. Forever. Dan


Yea my thoughts Exactly---------Blast it done-------by hiring a Track Hoe for a couple hours. With the right operater on it he can dig a lot of stumps in a hour or two and a whole lot safer!! If you have to give him more hours than it takes to dig your stumps----keep him busy by digging a small pond or do some more clearing. Good Luck!! Randy


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## palani (Jun 12, 2005)

Drill holes, fill with salt, wait.

http://www.tomtree.com/stump2.html


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## Obser (Feb 14, 2006)

In a word (pick one), DON'T, nada, never, NO 

Blasting materials and skills were once part of the American rural landscape. The are no longer. Even four or five generations ago and even among professional "blasters" it was often "here today, gone today" (and perhaps a big hole where they once were).


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

check out 
http://www.thetravelforum.com/t29760-15-5.html


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

when you blow a stump, remember, little splinters fly everywhere very fast.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

get some hogs.

or maybe dump enough mineral salts etc. to attract deer. they will dig the stump out to get all the minerals.


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## Quint (Nov 12, 2004)

I've still got the old wooden antique "Hercules powder" explosives boxes my grandfather and great grandfather used to get their explosives in for farm work. It was common back then for farmers to use dynamite clear stumps and things with a stick of dynamite or three. Very useful tool. Unfortunately now the .gov doesn't trust the people with a long list of useful tools. Another unfortunate side effect is that with all potentially dangerous items being removed from society we don't get the natural selection working on our side.

Oh, and for the price you are going to pay for enough black powder to blow a stump you could probably rent a track hoe or dozer or a blasting company. What's black powder run now? almost 20 bucks a pound?


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## dazza (Dec 20, 2005)

DON'T!!

My husband has a blasting ticket and its pretty tricky stuff. Using blackpowder would be very scary.

Yes diesel and fertilizer is used but anyway you have to have the right ratio mix. The bali bombs (not sure if you heard about that in the states) used it but only 1/3 went off as it was not mixed correctly.

Michaela


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## insanity (Aug 22, 2004)

Ah yes things that go boom! My second love! Not really related to tree stumps. But ya no i always wanted to build pipe bombs just to play around with when i was younger.Well along came the Internet and low and behold i could learn how to build just about anything i wanted.Well In my quest to learn how to make things that go boom i ran across this site that told how to do it all and then some.But the site owner had also included pictures or what happens when or if you get it touched off by static electricity or friction while assembling these types of things.
Very graphic pictures! 
Wish i new where the owner of that site was.Because he probably saved me a few body parts of even my life.  

Ill stick to lighting my grill with gas,that enough excitement for me!


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## Tabitha (Apr 10, 2006)

hi, I really do not know the first thing about blasting stumps with anything. I take it your objective is to get them out of the ground. use a jack, or a couple of them. (Of course there won't be any of that lovely noise or any of the exitement).


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

you guys are making me skittish of reloading my flintlock and speed loaders.


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## zealot (Feb 6, 2006)

Before you blast a stump (providing it is not rotten), you should saw it down to the ground so no wood is wasted.


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## Old John (May 27, 2004)

Hey Y'all, 

It's a lot Safer & simpler to go down to the neighborhood rental store.
Get a Stump grinder. And, Grind those suckers down to below grade.
Leave the pile of chips laying there. They will rot down.

It takes a bit more work than "Blasting".
But it's a heck of a lot safer and More legal
Have fun


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## danb98577 (Dec 16, 2005)

True story-a fellow at the mine I worked in lived on a small lake/large pond that he took care of for some folks that fished there. He got a small cabin in return for keeping an eye on the place. Seems there was a large rock that blocked part of the view from the cabin that bothered his wife.
This guy did NOT work on a mine crew. I believe he was on a concrete crew-NO blasting experience. He smuggled a full stick of TrimTex powder home, along with a blackwick fuse with cap attatched and a spitter to light it. The old "if a little is good, a lot is better" approach. He wound up pasting the rock, cabin, and the fish in the lake-fired from the mine, tossed off the lake job, wife in hospital with all kinds of wounds and he wasn't in real good shape himself. 
Don't mess with this stuff-you don't get a "do over"......


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## caballoviejo (Sep 6, 2004)

I checked into blasting stumps and a soil face a few years ago. Its not politically correct to want to blast anymore. The Feds made it cost prohibitive for small jobs even before 9/11 and especially after the OK Fed bldg. When I checked, you had to travel a hundred miles, get databased, and sit through one of those innumerable classes that they require now for everything you may wish to do. 

I got an old backhoe and dug the stumps out. So far, I can still use my backhoe. Its easier to just let softwoods rot in place.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

The trick is to not "make" a stump in the first place. My grandfather and great-grandfather cleared several hundred acres of forest land in Minnesota for their farm by pulling the trees over. When grandpa was a kid, he would climb the tree as high as he could get and then wrap a chain around the truck way up high. Great granddad would attach the other end of the chain to his oxen and have them pull the tree over. On occassion they'd have to cut some of the roots on the back side of the tree to get the tree to tip.

It's all a matter of physics. The tree itself is the lever the forces the "stump" out of the ground. Just think of the mechanical advantage of 20:1 or so leverage acted upon with the force of several thousand pounds of force (oxen).


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## thedonkeyman (Jun 18, 2005)

CAUTION, even though this is the BEST idea yet, a Tractor will spin over back wards. Use a CRAWLER, not a wheel Tractor, and use a couple of blocks (pulleys). thedonkeyman. note: if the ground is WET it helps.


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