More Work

How I'm Spending My Days

This is pretty much all I do now.

Each plank takes about an hour to remove. Each section I'm working on is roughly 15 feet long and the plank is attached to 4 ribs. For each plank there are on average 4 Iron spikes and 12 wood pegs. The wood pegs are really easy to saw through once the plank is wedged up slightly to get the saw in. The time consuming part are the iron spikes. Originally I tried to pull the spikes out with a spike puller but it was not going well. If you look in my previous video you can see Emmett trying with no luck trying to get one up. Those spikes have sat in the same spot for 120 years and are happy where they are and don't want to come out. Trying to pull the plank up with the spikes in will actually damage the plank because the head of the spike will blow out the bottom of the board and can actually spit the board. So, I decided to square off the heads of the spikes with a chisel. My carbide tip chisel cuts through that old iron like butter. Once the heads are squared off the board easily slides up off the rest of the spike. So far it's the fastest method that results in the cleanest and best way to prevent damage to the planks.