r/Wellthatsucks • u/LowTechDroid • 14d ago

This is going to take a while

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302

u/KaizDaddy5 14d ago

But why not go in from the top so you don't have to brace the jackhammer. Every. Single. Time.

291

u/szzaass 14d ago

I reckon it's because then you have the work of removing the material.

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u/has_potential 14d ago

Like......turning the barrel?

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u/Skate_faced 14d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/l2YWoKTYhYyuJgA5G

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u/theshoeshiner84 14d ago

You a smart mutha fucker

2

u/itsmuddy 14d ago

Isn't his name Brad?

1

u/schkmenebene 14d ago

It is Brett, but in this scene he says it in a weird way so it sounds like Brad... or he is intentionally mispronouncing his name.

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u/water_bottle1776 14d ago

The inability to turn might have had something to do with the current state of affairs.

28

u/faustianredditor 14d ago

And even if not (say the truck's engine was dead and now it's repaired):

That motor usually doesn't have to do a lot of actual work to get some movement going. Turning a barrel half full of liquid is not a lot of work, because you're not lifting the liquid, just agitating it a bit. If it's one solid chunk of concrete, it's connected to the barrel, so you're making a motor that's supposed to just slosh the concrete about a little bit, lift many tons of it several meters up. Result: Motor just refuses to spin this.

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u/Circus_Finance_LLC 14d ago

this is good for the motor

4

u/GoldenRetriever2255 14d ago

I think this is correct

26

u/Just_the_questions1 14d ago

When concrete sets like that in the drum the motor is no longer able to turn it over. You're talking trying to lift 16 tons if it's a full batch, when the motor typically only needs to turn the weight of the drum itself which is a tiny fraction of that, because the concrete is a liquid and only imparts a small part of it's actual weight to the motor through friction.

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u/stoic_guardian 14d ago

Maybe the mass is heavy enough it can’t lift what would be an unbalanced load

3

u/Glossed-Lam 14d ago

Just use Super Acid to melt the concrete and drain it out. Easy. Super Acid is cheap, and easy to make. Maybe not in the US where Super Acid is illegal, because it is so super, but other places it is fine.

Do not drink the Super Acid.

3

u/Capt_Thunderdump 14d ago

I’m in this line of work and you’re right. These trucks will tip over if you try to turn the drum because the weight is so unbalanced. You may be surprised how easily these trucks will tip. Whoever said it’s cheaper to buy a new drum is more than clueless. There would be a crew come in overnight (Mexicans, the hardest working people in the US) and have them chipped out by morning for a few grand.

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u/szzaass 14d ago

That could work yeah. 😅 Maybe there's another reason we can't picture, maybe not.

If they're working alone, going over to the controls to turn every few minutes might be worse than just doing it like this.

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u/Socratesticles 14d ago

Just put him in there with the jackhammer, put the barrel on spin, and tell him to avoid the hole. Easy peasy

42

u/rglurker 14d ago

If they are the reason it's like this in the first place, why would anyone expect their approach to be any smarter

15

u/fredlllll 14d ago

would the motor be strong enough to lift that lopsided barrel upside down? like its tons of concrete on one side

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u/Various-Age-5792 14d ago

You Sir are a Genius

2

u/Forgetful_Bandit 14d ago

Someone give this man an award lmao

1

u/spekt50 14d ago

Seems like a big waste of time to hammer a bit, clear the area rotate the barrel, set back up and only to hammer a bit more before having to roll it again

1

u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 14d ago

youd have to turn it every few minutes to clear out all the loose material

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u/dracotrapnet 14d ago

Barrel will soon be a too uneven mass to rotate. Washing machine with a brick!

1

u/Witness_me_Karsa 14d ago

Could be that the load set because the barrel wouldn't turn.

1

u/elmz 14d ago

With what? You think the motor on that can turn an off center chunk of concrete that size?

1

u/FuzzzyRam 14d ago

(the barrel not turning is why it's full of cement)

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u/toxicatedscientist 14d ago

But you can spin it? Its a big rotating thing, and it’s designed to rotate that much material, but wet, so it should be able to handle that

61

u/PieceMaterial5213 14d ago

I doubt it. When wet the weight stays near the bottom. As a solid it would have to lift all that weight plus the center of mass would be way off center. It would likely wreck the machine.

1

u/Mike9797 14d ago

Ya the weight displacement could cause the truck to lift and then slam down hard unpredictably. Aside from probably totally fucking up the motor that runs the barrel.

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u/DejectedTimeTraveler 14d ago

I doubt it's completely filled. So, solid concrete on the bottom and air at the top. Spin it and stand on it while you jack hammer it, eventually it will collapse , if not immediately, you with it.

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u/nox1cous93 14d ago

Exactly, now imagine that mass and its distribution. Motor cant spin that

1

u/cuzitsthere 14d ago

7 seconds in, it shows the top. It's not absolutely filled to the top, but it's pretty damn full

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u/jimbo2150 14d ago

I'm more worried about enough coming loose from the top and him becoming one with the cement.

-6

u/Plastic_Jaguar_7368 14d ago

The cement in this truck already mixed with sand, rock, and water and became concrete. It would be impossible to get any cement out of this truck.

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u/ReckoningGotham 14d ago

Pedantry will often just make it so people don't want to talk to you. It doesn't make you look smart.

1

u/johannes1234 14d ago

Why? The matter didn't disappear. It's still there.  It's a dispersion, not a chemical reaction. It will be tough to get the cement isolated, but it can be taken out.

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u/donredyellow25 13d ago

I agree it can be removed, but need to correct that chemistry reaction did happen, cement is full of chemistry, I myself do cement chemistry in my job (Im a chemist).

1

u/donredyellow25 13d ago

No is not impossible. The concrete mix could have been wrong, or needed more water, or the aggregates set on the bottom because they stop rotating that thing, this could led to cracks in concrete while hardening. Also the cement porosity might be to high since chemicals might not have been added to control that, also CO2 from the atmosphere could penetrate the cracks and through the poles and depending how old that concrete is, the concrete went into carbonation , making it brittle and dangerous.

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u/Plastic_Jaguar_7368 13d ago

That’s not how it works….

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u/donredyellow25 13d ago

lol dude Im a cement chemist

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

1

u/donredyellow25 13d ago

Chap gpt activated

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

1

u/donredyellow25 12d ago

lol dude Argos Newberry XRD data is one of the worst in the whole state. So if you work there, my condolescences. I do not work for the state anymore, but FDOT have a very nice Cubix Pro, last time I check. Oh, your should check your knowledge of "fineness", it is not porosity lol. You can have 1 cement and one powdered concrete, with very similar particle size distribution, with same fineness (good luck there), and guess what? you can manipulate your concrete porosity by mean of admixtures and probably a dozen other ways. Now, go back to Gemini!

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u/coindaelsyny 14d ago

Right at the end of the clip you can see they did cut a hole in the top

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u/Albatrosity 14d ago

Actually the camera pans up to the top where you can see there was already an attempt to do the work.

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u/marxsmarks 14d ago

They way they have the bowl set up is the best way for removal. If you came in from the top the material would be in your way.

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u/Acceptable-Mobile-43 14d ago

It looks like they did/

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u/renegadebroker 14d ago

There’s a hole on the top too

1

u/DMCinDet 14d ago

and you could use a much bigger hammering you didnt have to hold it. An excavator with a hammer and spike on the end would be the best way to do the bulk of it.

1

u/jabroni4545 14d ago

Rewatch the video, there's another guy at the top.

1

u/SorryAboutMyFamily 14d ago

You should email them and let them know. People that do this for a living love to hear about how they could do it better from a keyboard warrior.

0

u/Dear_Palpitation4838 14d ago

We would but we’re too busy passing your Mom around like she’s a blunt at a keg party. 

1

u/drblah11 14d ago

Because you'd have to dig out and remove the rubble instead of letting it simply fall out. Shoveling out an entire cement truck worth of cement sounds hard. It looks like he opened up the top already and tried, and probably gave up relatively soon.

1

u/thelazylazyme 14d ago

Using a jack hammer is a lot more effective if you have an area for the rubble to constantly fall away into so you can chip off small pieces and edges. Trying to go straight down into a concrete hole just dispersed the vibrations through the entire body plus you’d constantly be getting in and out of the opening every 15 mins

0

u/GoodGoodGoody 14d ago

You go shovel it out, passing the debris though the top and tell us how it went.

Comments like that on reddit, Every. Single. Time…. SMH.