CRACKING.
The object medium.
Taranaki Andersite from East Taranaki.
The crackers on the mission. Michael Heerey (Otaki) and Brett Cooper (Feilding).
The rock is placed. Note: position of board across under the stone, this is to stress the rock to where we want to crack it.
Drilling starts.
the feathered wedge its the main tool to crack the rock.
The line is set.
The one above is set into a hole, that we prepared earlyer.
Lots more drilling happens.
More holes are drilled for the wedges, because we only have a limited number of wedges (9), so we wedged almost evey other hole.
Below you can see the angle of the drill by looking at the angle of the iron bars, resting in the holes.
You can also see the feathered wedges in some of the wholes.
Night falls.
The drilling is over.
The space between the holes are cut
Tool use, 7" branded Angle grinder with a 7" flush cut blade.
The Cuttings done.
Time to party.
Feather weadges are inserted.
Feather weadges inserted closeup.
The rough guide bars removed, leaveing only the weadges.
Each wedge is hit in turn, building pressure in the rock/
Until
It happens.
Note again the board we positioned under the stone to stress it, has caused an even crisp seperation.
