My awesome ground stakes

[Doctari]

Doc, those look like they could be converted to include a retrieval line.

Oh, I see that now. A bit of Dynema & a drill & ta-da re-usable!

And, I just looked at one of the links above, there is a video for making a similar thing out of electrical conduit. Sadly, here in Ohio, it is getting increasingly harder to find due to a electrical code change.

[Pitch]

I'm going to cut and weld up some like this (drawn in Google Sketchup)




I think welding the nuts on is important (as opposed to drilling holes) as this does three things:

1) Reduces wear - the cable swivels in the hole instead of bending at a stiff joint
2) Provides a fulcrum / lever action to help rotate the apparatus in the hole which reduces the time /distance it takes to lock in the soil. I think this will cure the problem I am having getting them to set reliably.
3) w/ regards to the retrieval line, prevents it from getting pinched by the driver... although this can be solved in another way (a grove in the driver) and may actually be changed to this method to reduce construction time (cost) and removal angle (improve functionality).

Will let you know how they work when I get it done.

(geterdone!)

XexorZ

[Pitch]

Here is a video of revision 10. Built as described in the drawing above + the addition of an internal welded washer used as a "stop" (you could use a metal plug and drill / pin it with roll pins as well but welding is stronger).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URlnQWULzG8

[Terry_Dodson]

could you drop a Hex Bolt into the driving end to give you something hard to beat on? Would that help and not add too much weight?

[MacEntyre]

could you drop a Hex Bolt into the driving end to give you something hard to beat on?

Wouldn't the hex bolt tear up the Al tubing, just like the hammer?

[Pitch]

Wouldn't the hex bolt tear up the Al tubing, just like the hammer?

Hex bolt would help a lot. The reason is that it would force the impact to be evenly spread (unlike the hammer which hits at angles unless you swing perfectly - I don't)

Even better still would be an encapsulating steel cap. It would both fill and surround the aluminum tube at its end as to prevent the impact marring. This is partially what happens inside the anchor and is likely why the other end of the driver does not get damaged.

Titanium would also go a long way

UPDATE / EDIT:

I added machined hex bolts to the ends of the pipe (turned them on the lathe to make them fit properly and look pretty.) It went a LONG way to help things out - but it isn't enough. I'm going to have to leave the realm of archatectural aluminum and enter the realm of the expensive stuff or titanium. End caps will be needed though. Perhaps some metal epoxy to further even out the impact and solidify the interface.

Weight as of right now:

Steel Anchor w/ steel cables: 2.8 Oz Each - need at least 2 to hang w/o any trees.
Aluminum Driver rod (extra long) w/ steel ends 6.2 Oz. If you use a bridge this could be used as a spreader bar.
Hammer - ~3/4 pound carpenters hammer... use what works for you.

I still need to come up with a small, light-weight bi-pod system (if such a thing doesn't already exist).

[TeeDee]

Xexorz - great work. Can you get the weight of the driver down?

I ordered some of the Pogostick washers and J-hooks. I'll be interested to see how they work with my 1/4" TI driver. So far the washers and cotter pins work really well with the driver. The impact end of the driver is getting polished by the hammer, but that's the only effect I can see as yet.

I'm kind of leery that the J-hooks will work with the 1/4" driver. The hooks look like they might just be too big to be captured by the notched end of the driver and the hook is sticking way out one side, which seems like it would tend to tilt while being driven and pull the dead man out of the driver. It looks like the whole system is designed to fit a 1/2" driver.

I dug a 25" length of AL 1/2" rod out of the garage today. It is 8.10 oz. I'm thinking it will be interesting to cut the slots for the washer and J-hook in one end and see how that works. A 16" length of the AL driver would be slightly over 5 oz. That weight compares to the 2 oz of the 16" TI driver. I'll have to see what the Pogostick dead men weigh, but it will be hard to beat the 0.35 oz of the washer + cotter pins. That and the simplicity.

[TeeDee]

Regarding the impact damage on the end of the driver.

Take a look at the Pogostick drivers - I'm pretty sure they are 1/2" steel. Even at that they have a huge nut welded to the end to take the impact of any driving tool. So it appears that they have had a problem and that even steel is going to take a beating there.

One problem is also the size of the driver and the dead man. At 1/2" for the driver and then the size of the J-hook, that is a lot of cross sectional area being driven into the ground.

I'm thinking that is one reason the 1/4" TI driver is working so well with the cotter pins. A lot less cross sectional area being driven.

[Pitch]

Re: Driver weight
To be determined. I can easily lighten it by making it shorter - mine is huge ATM so I can cut off damaged bits and still use it. It is still not strong enough - going to order some more material tomorrow or early next week and do some serious machining to make proper capturing end caps with (perhaps) a brass or copper spacer to make up the gap perfectly.

Re: Damage
Perhaps a brass-faced hammer is the ticket. Let the hammer take the damage.

Re: Cross section
Smaller cross section would be great. In my neck of the woods the ground has a lot of rocks. I have actually been testing in very rocky ground intentionally - small rocks need to be pushed out of the way.

We're getting there!

I'm curious to hear how the pogos work out for you - keep us posted!

-George

[oldgringo]

I built a greenhouse from a kit a few years back. It involved driving 10 pieces of thinwall tubing into the ground, and zero damage was acceptable. The kit came with a "driver" which was a solid piece of steel the same diameter as the tubes. Half of the driver had been turned down to the ID of the tubes, so that it dropped in and seated in the tubes.

I drove the tubes with a sledge hammer to a depth of ~24". Not a trace of damage. It was pretty impressive.