PILING PROJECT: Tour of Piling Driver shop

Jan 2, 2016 Danielsons and Beardsleys toured the Southern Exposure Marine manufacturing shop in Naples Fl. The following pictures and video will give you an idea of what we saw and what we learned.

Southern Exposure Marine is a small business that installs pilings, builds docks and walkways etc in the marine environment. Scott, the owner, modified a small pontoon boat to be able to lift and position pilings in order to drive them into place. He also built a pneumatic hammer that can drive pilings of various sizes and types. This hammer has been sold and shipped worldwide.

It is currently the only one that is known to be available, in a size that could be used for our needs. The only other ones found online were so big they need large machinery to operate. The pontoon boat below has a small crane built on it with a derrick and 2 winches to do the lifting and positioning.

Approaching the workboat.

This pic shows the derrick and the boom, and the relative size of his workboat.

The 1100 pound hammer is in the background. The stacks in the foreground are the weights that go into the top of the hammer. The smaller 700 pound hammer is 300 pound without the weights. It comes with 5 of these; 85 pound each. The hammer can be operated with any number of them.

This picture shows the dead-leg welded to the back corner, another is welded to the opposing corner. A post is put through each and pushed into the sediment below, which stabilized the boat. This is especially important in new constructions. We have docks and pilings already in place which we can tie off to, but the dead-legs will be added stability.

Here we can see the base of the derrick, a section of I-beam swivels inside a section of pipe, supported by legs that attach to a frame on deck that is bolted to I-beams under the deck.

I have videos that are in the wrong format for uploading to this site. If you would like to see the company's formal demo on their site, you can click on www.southernexposuremarine.com . Once on their site, click on the video on their main page. He is setting pilings into sediment and whatever shell/coral mix there is in the gulf shores of Florida.

The compressor needed to operate the pneumatic hammer is typical at 90 psi, 9-14 cfm. This one is 16 cfm at 90 psi. But the owner stated that this was used for the bigger hammer also. If only operating the 700 pound hammer, we could use 9-14 cfm.

Video 1- "We stand the pile up with the crane, then we jet a hole. As we jet, we lower into the hole, that keeps it from falling back in. If it falls in, we have to dig it back out. (solid pilings into shell etc mix) How much does it weigh? 700 pounds total.

Video 2

I get lots of people wanting fence post hammers etc, but I don't want to get into 10 different sizes of hammers. This one, you lay it on its side and slide 3" thick steel weights out of it till you get to the weight you want. Mine up there (on the boat) has only 3 of them. This one (for demo) has 5 of them. Weights slide down inside where you can't see them? Yes
How do you get them out? You lay it on its side and slide them out. Kind of like a barbell? Yes. The safest way to get them in- lay it on its side and slide them in.

How much does it weigh? Without the weights, the hammer weighs 300 lbs empty. So we're managing 300 lbs, and the add the weights. NO. We do it on the side. When you get the pile in place and then put the hammer on top, what are you going to do? You have the hammer up there, that high, and then you're going to carry the 85 lb weights up a ladder and try to slide them in?

The weights are 80-85 lbs each.

Video 3. Too big of a file, so I will post to Youtube.

This is the indoor compressor (to be used on the demo), 100 psi, more than enough to run this. We can turn it down to about 40 psi, and it will still move it.

What is the standard recommended. . . ? 4.5 - 6.5 HP, wheelbarrow style that puts out about 13.5 cfm @ 90 psi is the rating you're looking for. It's a decent amount. Our 1300 lb hammer requires 18.5 cfm @ 100 psi, so we have a bigger compressor for that. But it's still not a lot bigger. The minimum rating? 13.5 @ 90 psi.

Hammer Demo

What is the white stuff?? It is compressed air and moisture coming out of the sides. Need to drain the tanks daily minimum. Run about 50 or 30 feet of hose from the compressor to the hammer, and about 10 feet from the hammer, we place a control valve, so if you need to shut it off in a hurry, you can do do right there.

There is no oiler or water separator. That would slow down the bursts of pressure needed to run the hammer. There are no grease fittings. What we usually do is turn the compressor on, hit the valve slowly and then place wood blocks to hold open, and then grease these pipes and the centering pipe.

We're using April/May/June, and then let sit a year in Dunkirk. What should we do to store it? Use Corrosion X, a heavy lubricant spray on the outer contacts. Also a good squirt of air tool oil 2 times a day into the hose. Not ounces, just a good squirt. Always store laying down, keeps it drained. Don't operate before draining, messy.

Scotts hammer, hand primed and painted. Salt environment, rusting. Now he sends all hammers out to be powder coated. And DYC isn't in a salt environment.