Sierra blaster

[Load77]

I posted a question previously about the micro blaster.
From what I understand the Sierra blaster is a little better.
Curious if anyone has used it in a mine to blast out a face?
I have a claim that has a drift started below where the vein is exposed. I believe it was intended to intersect the vein, and be used as a main haulage adit for ore, but was never finished. You can see it is going through the rock at about 90 degrees to the direction it seems to be fractured, and what direction the vein strikes above. From what I can tell it’s about 40’-50’ from the vein.
Building a road that I can pull in a tow behind compressor would have considerable costs.
Trying to figure out a cheaper way to blast it out. After I reach the vein, and see what values it’s carrying at that depth, it may justify more cost.
All my testing from the vein above is showing good values.

 

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[BlasterJ]

How much material are you looking to take out? The Sierra Blaster needs relief or a place for the rock to break into. You'll need to drill, chip or otherwise remove some rock to create a free face before the rock will really move with the Sierra Blaster.

 

[Assembler]

How much material are you looking to take out? The Sierra Blaster needs relief or a place for the rock to break into. You'll need to drill, chip or otherwise remove some rock to create a free face before the rock will really move with the Sierra Blaster.

Maybe by just taking out say 250 - 500Lbs. should be a very good test batch. This will answer a lot of questions as well should you invest more time and money type of questions.

 

[Assembler]

Does the Sierra Blaster start around $3,200?

 

[BlasterJ]

It's around $750 to get started.

 

[Assembler]

It's around $750 to get started.

Good to know about this. Thanks.

 

[Load77]

Seems like it would work if the first series was in two vertical lines, each maybe a foot from center, angled towards the center, knocking out a wedge. Then another series in a vertical line along the sidewall to knock out the existing wedge that’s from the wall, to the center of the first wedge that was blasted out.
I hope I explained that well enough.
I would think you would want the ten head kit for this, which will cost around $4k.
That’s not to bad if it works, but a big waste of money if it doesn’t.

 

[BlasterJ]

Seems like it would work if the first series was in two vertical lines, each maybe a foot from center, angled towards the center, knocking out a wedge. Then another series in a vertical line along the sidewall to knock out the existing wedge that’s from the wall, to the center of the first wedge that was blasted out.
I hope I explained that well enough.
I would think you would want the ten head kit for this, which will cost around $4k.
That’s not to bad if it works, but a big waste of money if it doesn’t.

A wedge cut works with some of the other small blasting products I use. It seems like it could work with the Sierra Blaster. You could also buy or rent a cordless SDS Max drill and make a cloverleaf or similar pattern of large hole (1" or bigger) to provide space for your heads to break into. For that matter, you could also try drilling a bunch of 1" holes and use expanding grout to crack you material and then jackhammer it out.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

My personal problem with the micro blasters has been vuggy rock. When I'm drilling if I hit an air pocket the microblast cannot achieve the air pressure it needs to break the rock and all I get is a muffled fart. Going to make getting a license for high explosives a priority this year.

 

[Assembler]

My personal problem with the micro blasters has been vuggy rock. When I'm drilling if I hit an air pocket the microblast cannot achieve the air pressure it needs to break the rock and all I get is a muffled fart. Going to make getting a license for high explosives a priority this year.

Just a idea that could help is forcing clay down in the hole to help plug up the vuggy sides. This is not easy to do unless the entire hole is filled with clay.

 

[BlasterJ]

My personal problem with the micro blasters has been vuggy rock. When I'm drilling if I hit an air pocket the microblast cannot achieve the air pressure it needs to break the rock and all I get is a muffled fart. Going to make getting a license for high explosives a priority this year.

There are a couple of guys in Oregon that will train or do contract small blasting.

 

[gold tramp]

Seems like it would work if the first series was in two vertical lines, each maybe a foot from center, angled towards the center, knocking out a wedge. Then another series in a vertical line along the sidewall to knock out the existing wedge that’s from the wall, to the center of the first wedge that was blasted out.
I hope I explained that well enough.
I would think you would want the ten head kit for this, which will cost around $4k.
That’s not to bad if it works, but a big waste of money if it doesn’t.

For 4 grand and a cut of the gold I would bring my tools up mine that sucker out for you....
Gt...