I bought a pile driving barge.

[SaltH2OHokie]

Not to distract anyone from the bouncing booby cartoon...BUT...any suggestions on dealing with the rust blisters from the waterline on up that does not entail opening the proverbial can-o-worms?

Below the waterline isn't rusted as bad and I think I feel pretty good hitting that with either an abrasive blaster or maybe just a wire wheel...but above is oxidized far worse and might need a different course of action (or maybe it needs to be ignored and painted over).

[seabob4]

Hell Ryan, I'd just take a wheel to the blisters, to the whole barge if you'd like, throw some rust converter on there, then prime and paint.  Don't know the plate thickness the hull was made from, but given the effort the 1 ton had to pull her, I'd say pretty damn thick.  So you should be good from a structural aspect regarding "oxidation"...read that rust!!

And I can't believe Aaron hasn't gotten in trouble yet!!

[SaltH2OHokie]

Hell Ryan, I'd just take a wheel to the blisters, to the whole barge if you'd like, throw some rust converter on there, then prime and paint.  Don't know the plate thickness the hull was made from, but given the effort the 1 ton had to pull her, I'd say pretty damn thick.  So you should be good from a structural aspect regarding "oxidation"...read that rust!!

And I can't believe Aaron hasn't gotten in trouble yet!!

Plate's pretty thick. At the bottom we drilled and got over an inch of clean metal (looked like plate on angle iron on plate). Up high we got about 3/8" or more in a "bad" spot.

[SaltH2OHokie]

Turns out that without a travel lift, its pretty freaking hard to remove a plate steel barge from a trailer and set it down on railroad ties in your driveway.  We started at 9:30am, and while we weren't setting the world on fire, our plans were working like we'd hoped.  We stopped at 2pm for lunch with the barge still partially on the trailer, partially off.  I was starving and at that point really had a taste for a beer...we get into town, and I realize I've forgotten my wallet.  First thing she asks after I scan the tap handles and make my choice: "Can I see some ID?"  :cry:   Day went south from there.  Ate, drank my sweet tea, rode back to the house.  

We'd been using 4 high lift jacks, 2 12-ton jack stands, 2 6-ton jack stands, rail road ties, cut off pieces of railroad ties and ratchet straps to our truck bumpers...and we were having decent luck until lunch.  After lunch we managed to drop it off of the jacks 3 times, once from about waist high straight down onto my concrete driveway (glad I opted for the 4,500psi mix and added wire).  Finally got it down safe and stable onto railroad ties right around dark and decided to stand the mast and boom.

Stood the mast/boom without much fanfare, but realized we had it 180deg out.  Turning it, for reasons still not 100% clear, was a giant headache.  At that point a cold beer didn't stand a chance, and we stopped and drank a beer by the fire barrel.  Finally got it turned around, guyed temporarily and smiled.  Looks like something other than a rusty hunk of trash...now it looks like something Huck Finn would be pround of.

I took pictures along the way, but I left my camera in my bibs and I'm too tired to go get em.  When my wife got home at 9:15pm, she asked how long we'd been working, and I told her since 9:30am.  Then she asked what we ate for dinner...that's when we both realized that we'd skipped that detail.  I was all of the sudden starving.  At that point I shut all three garage doors, told my buddy I'd holler at him tomorrow and ran up here where I'm enjoying something out of the microwave with a side of something else out of the microwave as I type.

All-in-all a productive day, but I bet my back hurts tomorrow as a result.  Railroad ties are freaking heavy!

We're modifying a different trailer which will set lower, so that'll help in getting it back on the trailer and we're proabably going to build a pair of gantry frames and use chainfall's to eliminate the stability issues we were fighting today.

[seabob4]

May I suggest a small boom or jib crane truck, Ryan?  You must have access to one of those...

And just how young do you look to not be served beer in an establishment?  Oh yeah, right, Virginia...

[SaltH2OHokie]

Same logo that's on my business card is on the boom of 3 Cat excavators, 5 Cat all-terrain forklifts and 1 100-ton Linkbelt crane.

Turns out I'm too far down the totem pole to just summon one of those to my house.    But believe me, I just kept picturing how simple it'd have been for me to just put a spreader bar and two slings on the hook of our crane and just ease her right off the trailer...but alas, couldn't be that simple.

Plus, now we know that our way sucked.