T-Junction Dig
Report 6
Dismantling the Silo, Part One

5/19/01

Workers

Jeff Andrews, Rick Hines, Terry DeFraties, Gerry Gattenby, Dan Isbell, Jeff
Page

Gerry has arranged the donation of a 16-foot diameter, 40-foot tall metal
silo by Peterson Manufacturing.  The silo is constructed of 1/8" by 5' by 8'
sections that are bolted together.  We may use the pieces to build a 16-foot
tall, 16-foot diameter building over the new entrance.  Other 8-foot tall by
16-foot diameter sections could be used for a sauna, bunkhouse, or storage.  
The board has approved $900 for a crane to help dismantle the silo.  The silo
is located at 13615 Wyandotte just south east of 135th and State Line in
Kansas City, MO.

Gerry and I met at 9:00 a.m. at Peterson's Mission Plastic building on
Wyandotte.  We tapped into a breaker panel and ran a line to provide 120 &
240 VAC power outside near the silo.  The power will run an air compressor
and other tools.  The rest of the crew started showing up at 10:00.

The main goal for the day was to remove a 1500 lb funnel from the inside of
the silo.  We disconnect a large valve and other hardware at the bottom of
the funnel and then removed bolts from the ten vertical seams in the pie
shaped plates the made up the funnel.   We then started removing the 300+ ½"
bolts that connected the top lip of the funnel to the sides of the silo.  As
the lip bolts were removed we pried the pie shaped pieces lose and lowered
them to the floor.  Believe me, it was not as easy as it may sound.  Some of
the nuts had to be removed with a cutting torch, some of the bolts did not
want to come out of their hole, and the pie shaped pieces tended to wedge in
place as we tried to lower them.

The next task was to remove a 4" diameter pipe that ran from the ground, up
the side of the silo, and then looped over the top and connected at the top
center of the silo.  We used a cutting torch to release the brackets on the
side of the tank, disconnected a few couplings and the used ropes to lower
the pipe to the ground.   

Finally, we experimented with the removal of a few of the bolts holding the 5
8-foot tall silo section together.  We will need another workday to remove
most of the 300 bolts per ring so that we can efficiently remove the
remaining bolts when the crane is there to lower the silo sections to the
ground.  We will also remove the lower half of the ladder.  

On a Saturday near the end of July we will have a crane help lower the silo
sections to the ground.  After rigging the crane we will remove the remaining
bolts between the ground section and the top four sections.  The crane will
pick up the top four sections and lower them to the ground.  We will then
unbolt the lower section and the crane will pick up the top three sections.  
After four lifts we will have the five sections on the ground.  

After getting the section on the ground we will unbolt them and over a period
of several months, haul them to the dig.  

Hope you can help with the next work session, which will be scheduled soon.

Rick