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How Jackhammers Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start
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Speaker 1: building your website today at square space dot com. Enter
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Speaker 1: our offer code stuff at check out to get ten
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Speaker 1: percent off square Space. Build it beautiful. Welcome to Stuff
0:14
Speaker 1: you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
0:23
Speaker 1: you're welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
0:26
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there, which means time for
0:31
Speaker 1: Stuff you should know. The Jackhammer edition coming at you.
0:35
Speaker 1: That's right, the most annoying, one of the most annoying sounds.
0:40
Speaker 1: I know you hate the leaf flower. Yeah, it's established.
0:44
Speaker 1: I think the leaf jack camera right there? If sure, Yeah,
0:48
Speaker 1: but we don't live in New York. If we lived
0:50
Speaker 1: in New York, jackhammera B number one. I feel like
0:52
Speaker 1: I've never stayed in a hotel in New York where
0:54
Speaker 1: there wasn't a jack below me, not even a chance.
0:58
Speaker 1: Every single time leaf blower. It's a lot more frequent
1:03
Speaker 1: down here in Atlanta than Jack Cameron. A lot of
1:06
Speaker 1: leaf blowers in New York City, not a lot of leaves. Well,
1:10
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily true. Been some where you are. Uh
1:13
Speaker 1: so we don't usually um shout out to thank you
1:16
Speaker 1: at the beginning of an episode. But we got a
1:19
Speaker 1: couple of gifts that are so special we want to
1:22
Speaker 1: do that. So Peter O'Donnell in the gang at built
1:27
Speaker 1: Sharp knives. B I LT Sharp out of Philly. H
1:32
Speaker 1: sent us sent me a chef's knife, sent you a
1:35
Speaker 1: filet knife. Beautiful and it's one of the most gorgeous
1:40
Speaker 1: pieces of like handmade craftsmanship I've ever seen. It's amazing.
1:46
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to catch a fish. Oh dude, I
1:49
Speaker 1: can't wait for that for you cut that thing open
1:53
Speaker 1: after it's dead. Uh really, you can't lock the head
1:57
Speaker 1: off while it's still alive, and you're supposed to. You're
2:01
Speaker 1: supposed to hit it with a hammer. I think some
2:03
Speaker 1: people do. Um, I do not. These things are gorgeous.
2:07
Speaker 1: I mean the blade itself, I mean they hand make these,
2:09
Speaker 1: the handle, the weight, it's just it's a piece of art.
2:12
Speaker 1: And not only that, it is the sharpest thing I've
2:15
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. It's like dangerous. Um, well,
2:19
Speaker 1: I don't want to you know, it's dangerous. They're knives.
2:22
Speaker 1: They're supposed to be sharp, but wield it with respect.
2:27
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well they're respectable knives. Um. You can actually
2:32
Speaker 1: go into Tumbler. You can just search hashtag knives. You
2:35
Speaker 1: should know one word and it uh it chronicles and
2:40
Speaker 1: pictures and short captions or brief captions the process of
2:44
Speaker 1: them making our knives. It's awesome. Yeah, it's just really neat.
2:47
Speaker 1: And I just love like handcrafting and forging steel, like
2:50
Speaker 1: those are lost arts in a lot of ways, and um,
2:53
Speaker 1: they're doing it right man, They're really beautiful. So anyway,
2:57
Speaker 1: thank you, Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah, thanks people. Was
3:00
Speaker 1: really cool. So jack hammers, yeah, jack hammers. If they
3:03
Speaker 1: were sharpest built sharp knives, they'd be onto something. But
3:07
Speaker 1: I don't know if it would work quite the same
3:09
Speaker 1: not so. Um, yes, it's true, we are actually talking
3:13
Speaker 1: about jack hammers. And yes, it's true that jack hammers
3:18
Speaker 1: are about what you think they are. But they're also
3:21
Speaker 1: kind of interesting when you start to look into them,
3:23
Speaker 1: right yeah, well yes, so think about I didn't realize this.
3:26
Speaker 1: This article points it out. Jack hammer is a hammer
3:29
Speaker 1: and a chisel, but it's a hardcore hammer and chisel. Yeah,
3:34
Speaker 1: and it takes out of the equation largely the human
3:37
Speaker 1: who's back and shoulder muscles have to be involved in
3:41
Speaker 1: every single strike of that hammer. And chisel. You're talking
3:44
Speaker 1: John Henry and the sledge hammer. Yes, exactly, because prior
3:48
Speaker 1: to the advent of the jackhammer, about that fifties, by
3:53
Speaker 1: the turn of the last century, we had jack hammers
3:57
Speaker 1: kind of down pat um. It was sledge hammers and
4:02
Speaker 1: pick axes to remove rock. It was a real deal.
4:06
Speaker 1: That was like it killed people, like it literally could
4:10
Speaker 1: kill you with that kind of work. Yeah, I mean,
4:13
Speaker 1: mining is still a very dangerous job, but pre Industrial
4:17
Speaker 1: Revolution mining was no fun um, dangerous, deadly, and even
4:24
Speaker 1: if you didn't die, it's just brutal, brutal back baking work,
4:28
Speaker 1: baking work, slinging a sledgehammer. Yeah, you ever slung a
4:30
Speaker 1: sledge It's the worst. It's it's hard work. You ever
4:34
Speaker 1: used the jackhammer? No, I haven't. It's awful. Well, that's
4:38
Speaker 1: the thing. It's it's better than the sledgehammer. Yeah, well
4:41
Speaker 1: in some ways, but it's brutally difficult. It is. It's
4:45
Speaker 1: probably one of the most brutal tools you can use
4:47
Speaker 1: on any kind of site and for any kind of project.
4:51
Speaker 1: There aren't that many tools that they're they're gonna take
4:53
Speaker 1: as much out of you as the jackhammer. It's tough
4:56
Speaker 1: on your body. Yeah, because they weigh about a hundred pounds,
4:58
Speaker 1: like a new normal heavy duty jackhammer weighs about a
5:02
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. You have to hold it in place upright,
5:05
Speaker 1: because you don't want to jumping around, although it's probably
5:07
Speaker 1: not going to anyway. It's it's designed not to jump around,
5:11
Speaker 1: but you still have to. Um. You want to kind
5:13
Speaker 1: of keep it in a fairly confined area, which means
5:16
Speaker 1: you're using your muscle to steady it while it's going
5:19
Speaker 1: up and down at a very very fast rate. Some
5:22
Speaker 1: of those things, um impact with the ground one thousand
5:27
Speaker 1: times a minute. Yeah, it's tough. It's it's the only
5:30
Speaker 1: tool that and the hardwood floor UM skimmer, you know,
5:37
Speaker 1: like the orbital floor cleaner. You can use that on it,
5:41
Speaker 1: like put a standing pad on a hardwood floor, and
5:43
Speaker 1: that thing and the sledge hammer. The only time I've
5:46
Speaker 1: ever used tools that I felt like we're controlling me
5:49
Speaker 1: and not me, not controlling the tool until you get it.
5:52
Speaker 1: Once you get it, it's a little better. But at first,
5:55
Speaker 1: when you first start to use it. You can rent
5:57
Speaker 1: a jackhammer, you know, so you know, yeah, I mean,
6:00
Speaker 1: if you want to bust up your driveway, you can
6:01
Speaker 1: go do it yourself. If you're a fool, make sure
6:04
Speaker 1: that you don't need the driveway anymore before you do that.
6:08
Speaker 1: But um, once you get the hang of it, you
6:09
Speaker 1: kind of can wield it a little bit. But it's tough.
6:11
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like I have no power or
6:15
Speaker 1: control over this thing, right, I can imagine you know. So, Um,
6:20
Speaker 1: it is a very difficult tool. But again, the alternative
6:24
Speaker 1: is early death. And the other alternative, which is to
6:28
Speaker 1: call someone to do it for you, is the best
6:31
Speaker 1: option of the three. But so, say that you are um,
6:36
Speaker 1: King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia and the years about eighteen
6:40
Speaker 1: thirty something eighteen forty, and you want a train tunnel
6:44
Speaker 1: built through a mountain, and the tunnel is gonna need
6:49
Speaker 1: to be twelve kilometers long. You do call somebody else,
6:53
Speaker 1: but that somebody else you call goes. I don't know
6:56
Speaker 1: what to tell you, buddy. We could try pick axes
6:59
Speaker 1: or whatever, but you're not still gonna be alive by
7:01
Speaker 1: the time we finished. What can we do? And actually,
7:04
Speaker 1: this call for a twelve kilometer long tunnel through a
7:07
Speaker 1: mountain in Sardinia prompted the early um, the early forays
7:13
Speaker 1: into developing pneumatic tools like a jackhammer. Yeah, in eighty
7:17
Speaker 1: eight it got named Jonathan Couch built a what he
7:21
Speaker 1: called a percussion drill, and this had a bit that
7:24
Speaker 1: was it went through the piston of a steam engine,
7:27
Speaker 1: so it was piston driven. Then, uh, contemporary Joseph Foul
7:32
Speaker 1: actually attached it to the piston and then he started
7:35
Speaker 1: in one using air which is pneumatic to power it.
7:40
Speaker 1: But these were still attached to a piston. And it
7:43
Speaker 1: wasn't until Charles Brady King when he actually has given
7:49
Speaker 1: credit for inventing the traditional looking handheld, modern pneumatic powered jackhammer. Right,
7:57
Speaker 1: and he gets a lot of credit for stuff that
7:59
Speaker 1: was already built. Like a lot of people say he
8:02
Speaker 1: was actually the inventor of the automobile. No he wasn't. Well,
8:06
Speaker 1: he was the inventor of the gasoline powered automobile, No
8:08
Speaker 1: he wasn't. He was the first guy in Detroit to
8:10
Speaker 1: build and drive one around, and he did end up
8:14
Speaker 1: inspiring and mentoring Ransom Olds and Henry Ford and some
8:17
Speaker 1: other early car manufacturers and is almost single handily responsible
8:21
Speaker 1: for making Detroit motor city. This guy, but he also
8:25
Speaker 1: Stanley right, Uh, and what's from with it's freely. I
8:29
Speaker 1: like that guy's stuff. What do you mean didn't he
8:31
Speaker 1: get kicked out of Kiss? Oh? I think he was
8:34
Speaker 1: sort of not invited back. Yeah. I think it's a
8:38
Speaker 1: money move. They don't have to pay the nameless other
8:41
Speaker 1: guitar player nearly as well. He was a founder of
8:44
Speaker 1: the band, Right, How do you get kicked out like
8:46
Speaker 1: that for money? I think Paul Stanley and Jean Simmons
8:49
Speaker 1: probably own Kiss Incorporated. I know anyway, Um, Charles Brady King, Uh,
8:59
Speaker 1: he wait Detroit on the map as far as auto
9:01
Speaker 1: manufacturer goes. And he did do a lot of refining
9:05
Speaker 1: of pneumatic tools, including the jackhammer, and he does hold
9:08
Speaker 1: the pattern, he did hold the patent for it. Yeah,
9:10
Speaker 1: and he had been at a lot of stuff. He
9:11
Speaker 1: was a sharp guy. And the pneumatic the fact that
9:15
Speaker 1: it's pneumatic, which means air powered, compressed air powered. Um
9:19
Speaker 1: is the reason why most jackhammers today are still compressed
9:25
Speaker 1: air powered. It's because of the mining application of it.
9:30
Speaker 1: Like when you mind, you're releasing a lot of potentially
9:34
Speaker 1: explosive gases, and uh, you can't have something like a
9:39
Speaker 1: steam engine that's combustion powered down there yeah, or you
9:43
Speaker 1: can't have an engine in there releasing exhaust. Um, and
9:48
Speaker 1: you can't have a jackhammer that will spark a rock. Um. Well,
9:53
Speaker 1: that might happen no matter what. Right, well, no, that's
9:56
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You can't have that among volatile gases.
9:59
Speaker 1: Right You've air driven is the perfect key, because it
10:03
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if that hoses a thousand feet long, You're
10:06
Speaker 1: not gonna lose power because it's gonna be Yeah, it's
10:09
Speaker 1: gonna be compressed air up against compressed air, and up
10:12
Speaker 1: on the surface. You've got a diesel engine that's powering
10:15
Speaker 1: a piston, just like in your car, and the piston
10:17
Speaker 1: moves up and down the cylinder. As it moves down,
10:20
Speaker 1: it compresses the air in the cylinder and pushes it
10:23
Speaker 1: down into a storage tank where it sits his compressed
10:26
Speaker 1: air and that's released out the other end through the
10:28
Speaker 1: hose and it ends up into the jackhamer. And yeah,
10:30
Speaker 1: no matter how far away it is, it's still going
10:32
Speaker 1: to be just as powerful. And that compressed air is inflammable.
10:37
Speaker 1: So you can be a happy minor all the live
10:39
Speaker 1: long day. Well, buddy, you're getting excited. So that means
10:42
Speaker 1: we need to take a break and uh, put this
10:44
Speaker 1: pill under your tongue and we'll come back right after this.
11:07
Speaker 1: How you feeling now, Relax good? I love the title
11:12
Speaker 1: of this next section, Air powered destruction. Um. You can
11:17
Speaker 1: get an electric jack hammer. If you've ever gone to
11:20
Speaker 1: a hardware store, they have these kind of smaller handheld
11:25
Speaker 1: jack hammers that, um, you can take up like your
11:28
Speaker 1: bathroom floor tile pretty well with it plugging into the wall.
11:32
Speaker 1: Has a little chisel bit on the end of it. Um,
11:35
Speaker 1: But that's small. Beans. You can't do a driveway or
11:39
Speaker 1: concrete or asphalt with with something like that tunnel through
11:43
Speaker 1: a mountain in Sardinia. No, you need the big T
11:46
Speaker 1: shaped jack camera. And here's one of the things that
11:49
Speaker 1: didn't really occur to me. One of the reasons it
11:51
Speaker 1: works so well is because it's so heavy. Right. It's
11:55
Speaker 1: not like they say, well, let's make this thing way
11:57
Speaker 1: fifteen pounds or twenty pounds and make it easier to run,
12:00
Speaker 1: which they probably could. Yeah, you maybe could do that,
12:02
Speaker 1: but it would jump all over the place. Yeah, you
12:04
Speaker 1: want that thing super super heavy because that's part of
12:07
Speaker 1: the power and forced behind it. That's right. So these
12:09
Speaker 1: things are pneumatic, right, and just like on the compressed
12:12
Speaker 1: air compressor up on the surface. When you're down in
12:16
Speaker 1: the mine, they actually have a jackhammer, has a piston
12:21
Speaker 1: in a piston in a cylinder in it, right, and
12:24
Speaker 1: it's it's actually a really kind of simple When you
12:27
Speaker 1: cut the thing open and draw a cross section of it,
12:31
Speaker 1: which we did on our hands for crib sheets. Um,
12:35
Speaker 1: you you you can see that. Really the whole mechanism
12:39
Speaker 1: comes down to a trigger valve, right, that's right. So
12:43
Speaker 1: what you have here is you got the pressure chamber.
12:45
Speaker 1: The compressed air enters that chamber activates the trigger valve,
12:49
Speaker 1: and it just because of the compressed air opens and
12:52
Speaker 1: shuts really fast, right, and so the trigger valve moves
12:55
Speaker 1: the air either above the piston or when it closes,
12:59
Speaker 1: the air goes down below the piston, which means chisel
13:03
Speaker 1: goes up, chizzle goes down, right, because the piston is
13:05
Speaker 1: striking the top of that chisel bit, driving it downward
13:10
Speaker 1: when the compressed air comes in and pushes the piston down.
13:13
Speaker 1: And then when the valve closes and the air goes
13:16
Speaker 1: underneath the piston, there's also a spring in there that
13:20
Speaker 1: brings the drill bit back up because it wouldn't work
13:22
Speaker 1: very well if you knock it down. They had to
13:25
Speaker 1: go down and reset it, and apparently the earliest um,
13:29
Speaker 1: the earliest jackhammered had that very designature that was it
13:34
Speaker 1: like it goes bam and then you definitely like reset
13:37
Speaker 1: it bam and then reset it and they're like, this
13:39
Speaker 1: isn't gonna work. Yeah, that's sort of like the pneumatic
13:43
Speaker 1: cattle punch that they that what's his face used in
13:47
Speaker 1: No Country for old Man. It's exactly like that. Not
13:51
Speaker 1: very good if you're trying to bust up concrete, but
13:54
Speaker 1: good if you want to put on a cow's It
13:57
Speaker 1: doesn't stunn them. It does the eternal stunt. I think
14:00
Speaker 1: it's stuns a cow and then they kill them. Oh
14:04
Speaker 1: I thought it they put it into the brain to
14:06
Speaker 1: kill the cow. I don't think he actually, I think
14:09
Speaker 1: it can and probably does sometimes, but I think the
14:11
Speaker 1: main purpose of it is to stun the cow, so
14:14
Speaker 1: it's not like it's just dazed and out of it
14:16
Speaker 1: when it when they kill it. Oh yeah yeah. Uh.
14:21
Speaker 1: Hydraulic jack hammers, it's the same, uh jackhammera would kill
14:24
Speaker 1: a cow. Hydraulics use fluid, same principle, but it doesn't
14:30
Speaker 1: use air. And if you've ever seen the they have
14:33
Speaker 1: jackhammers you can that are really large that you can't
14:36
Speaker 1: handle as a person. That it's like attached to a
14:38
Speaker 1: bacco or something that's for big, big jobs. And those
14:41
Speaker 1: are usually um hydraulic and pneumatic, but probably not every time.
14:46
Speaker 1: I'm sure someone in the construction industry will correct me
14:49
Speaker 1: on that. Well, I went and looked. And if you
14:51
Speaker 1: go on Alibaba that you know that's I has everything
14:55
Speaker 1: and they have hydraulic jackhammers for sale. What's Ali Baba?
14:59
Speaker 1: That sky Mall it's like China's Amazon, but they sell
15:04
Speaker 1: everything on it. It's nothing like Skymall. Do you think
15:08
Speaker 1: everything's like Skymallas because you want Skymall to come back?
15:11
Speaker 1: That sure do? Um, But they it did seem like
15:14
Speaker 1: all of the back ho attached um jack hammers were
15:18
Speaker 1: hydraulic that I saw. All right, Well, um, here's what
15:23
Speaker 1: happens at a thousand hits per minute. That chisel bit
15:29
Speaker 1: and if you're breaking up rock, there are different kinds
15:31
Speaker 1: of bits. A pointy bit if you're breaking up like
15:33
Speaker 1: a driveway or something is really good, or you can
15:37
Speaker 1: use a flat bit for other applications. So, yeah, if
15:40
Speaker 1: you're breaking up a driveway and all you want is
15:42
Speaker 1: for the driveway to go bye by, Yeah, the pointy
15:44
Speaker 1: bits the one you want because it's not a controlled cut.
15:48
Speaker 1: The the like a flathead screw drivers style bit is
15:53
Speaker 1: the kind that where you can really kind of control
15:55
Speaker 1: where the cracking goes, right, or if you wanna uh,
15:58
Speaker 1: like I said, if you're taking up your floor tile
16:00
Speaker 1: and you have the handheld version, that's what you want
16:02
Speaker 1: to discoot it underneath the tile and chip it up.
16:05
Speaker 1: And there's actually there's like, um, some insane mathematicians have
16:11
Speaker 1: actually like tried to figure out how you can predict
16:14
Speaker 1: how cracks propagate. Yeah, there's like a um for the
16:18
Speaker 1: most efficient jackhammering pretty much like what bit will work best,
16:22
Speaker 1: and like where to place it and how to how
16:23
Speaker 1: to use it. But um, one of the things that
16:27
Speaker 1: I didn't understand before is that when you are jackhammering,
16:32
Speaker 1: you you are creating different types of uh uh flaws
16:39
Speaker 1: basically in this solid stay concrete structure, right, And when
16:43
Speaker 1: you're doing that, the first flaw you're doing, the first
16:45
Speaker 1: flaw you're creating is this um kind of surface powder
16:50
Speaker 1: that the the initial chips you're making are actually powder
16:53
Speaker 1: rizing and and congealing around the drill bit, right, and
16:57
Speaker 1: that powder actually transmit it's the impact of the jackhammer
17:02
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the concrete pad in that immediate area,
17:06
Speaker 1: and that actually starts to create cracks. So you think, well,
17:10
Speaker 1: it's just the drill bit creating crack it gets in
17:12
Speaker 1: there enough. Actually no, it's it's generating like these different
17:17
Speaker 1: materials from the very concrete itself, and it's using those
17:20
Speaker 1: materials to distribute the force and create cracks that ultimately
17:25
Speaker 1: start to spread and propagate. And as they spread and propagate,
17:28
Speaker 1: they get bigger and bigger, and then a chip comes off,
17:31
Speaker 1: and when the chip comes off, the amount of force
17:33
Speaker 1: that's generated and there goes down again and you have
17:36
Speaker 1: to build it back up by more jackhammering. But eventually
17:39
Speaker 1: these larger cracks that you're making come together and then
17:42
Speaker 1: big chunks break off. And then when a big chunk
17:45
Speaker 1: breaks off, you want somebody to come in and clear
17:48
Speaker 1: the chunks away while you move the jackhammer, because you're
17:51
Speaker 1: just gonna be breaking up those chunks. And that's not
17:53
Speaker 1: the point of jackhammer anymore. Now. The point is you're
17:55
Speaker 1: trying to remove whatever material in his bigger pieces can
18:00
Speaker 1: be removed, you know, like by like a bacco with
18:04
Speaker 1: a bucket or something. Um. Obviously it can't be too
18:07
Speaker 1: big because you might have to break up in the
18:08
Speaker 1: smaller bits. But you don't want a three million little
18:12
Speaker 1: tiny rocks at the end of it, right, you're not
18:13
Speaker 1: breaking it into gravel. No. The machines that do that, um,
18:19
Speaker 1: some of these things actually uh, when when you create
18:22
Speaker 1: a crater, that's good, but you don't want your crater
18:24
Speaker 1: full of junk. So some of them actually have air
18:28
Speaker 1: or water that blasts the stuff clear as you're going,
18:32
Speaker 1: which is pretty neat too. Yeah, which is a it's
18:34
Speaker 1: a big that's an issue because the stuff that that
18:38
Speaker 1: dust that accumulates, that forms what's called the crushed zone,
18:42
Speaker 1: that powder that distributes the force um is actually can
18:48
Speaker 1: be a health hazard. And there's actually a lot of
18:50
Speaker 1: health hazards with jackhammers. Uh. And we'll talk about them
18:54
Speaker 1: right after this, all right, Josh, health hazards of jackhammering. Um,
19:19
Speaker 1: that dust is no joke. Well, before we go to
19:22
Speaker 1: health hazards, let me say this. What you and actually
19:25
Speaker 1: can be a health hazard. It can be dangerous when
19:27
Speaker 1: you get your bit stuck. Um. And the general rule
19:30
Speaker 1: of thumb is you don't want to put the bit
19:34
Speaker 1: farther down. You don't want to keep going down farther
19:36
Speaker 1: than the length of the bit, because if you get
19:38
Speaker 1: your bit stuck, then it's really tough to get back out. Yeah.
19:42
Speaker 1: And while it may give you a little break, your
19:44
Speaker 1: boss isn't gonna be happy, or if you're renting that
19:47
Speaker 1: thing by the hour at your house, you're not gonna
19:49
Speaker 1: be happy. Yeah, because you just used all of the
19:51
Speaker 1: force of that compressed air to jam that that chisel
19:55
Speaker 1: bit several inches into concrete. Yes, it's you need like
20:01
Speaker 1: King Arthur to get that out. Yea, So moving around
20:03
Speaker 1: um inches at a time, so it doesn't go straight
20:06
Speaker 1: down into one spot. And you want a sharp bit
20:08
Speaker 1: as well. Obviously a dull bit is gonna get stuck
20:11
Speaker 1: easier and it's not going to break up the material
20:13
Speaker 1: as well, exactly. Um. And like you said at the
20:18
Speaker 1: beginning that jackhammers one of the noisiest tools around. It's
20:22
Speaker 1: the worst. It might be the noisiest tool. Jack hammers
20:25
Speaker 1: um create a noise at about a hundred and thirty
20:30
Speaker 1: decibels from what this article says. Yeah, that is the
20:34
Speaker 1: that is the sound of a jet engine taking off.
20:38
Speaker 1: That's how that's how loud those things are and driving here,
20:41
Speaker 1: no joke. I passed the dude using a jack camera
20:46
Speaker 1: and he wasn't wearing ear protection. You know. I was
20:48
Speaker 1: just about to say, is I bet you've never seen
20:50
Speaker 1: a jackhammer operator not use ear protection? I never have
20:55
Speaker 1: until today. That's nuts. Isn't that a weird coincidence? Though?
20:58
Speaker 1: It is totally weird and like just dumb. He's like screwed.
21:01
Speaker 1: I got health insurance. Uh, construction headphones are a must. Um.
21:07
Speaker 1: And because we're talking about how how much it wears
21:09
Speaker 1: you out. If you're on a road crew, Um, you're
21:12
Speaker 1: probably gonna be rotating out jackhammer duty. It's not like Chuck,
21:17
Speaker 1: You're on the jackhammer for ten hours today for the
21:20
Speaker 1: rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, And it's a it's
21:22
Speaker 1: a real thing. Like people who use jackhammers as their profession,
21:28
Speaker 1: they do face a lot of problems. That dust is
21:31
Speaker 1: you know already mentioned that, but concrete has a silica
21:35
Speaker 1: and that's been proven to cause lung cancer, and so
21:38
Speaker 1: a lot of these jackhammers will have a like a
21:41
Speaker 1: water sprayer at the end of them that just constantly
21:44
Speaker 1: is introducing water that keeps the dust on the ground
21:46
Speaker 1: and like a puddle. All right, And what's the different
21:50
Speaker 1: or the deal with this. I know you didn't get
21:52
Speaker 1: a chance to look at it, but you sent a
21:54
Speaker 1: pretty interesting thing on the negative effects of vibration on
21:58
Speaker 1: the human body. Yeah, it's weird. What's the deal there?
22:01
Speaker 1: So vibrations are very odd. They used to belong in
22:04
Speaker 1: the realm of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. They
22:09
Speaker 1: did a lot of research in the effects of vibration
22:12
Speaker 1: on the body and it does everything from cause insomnia
22:16
Speaker 1: to digestive issues to motion sickness. And this is bad vibration.
22:20
Speaker 1: I mean there's also like good vibrations. There's also good, good,
22:23
Speaker 1: good vibrations. There's there's vibrations that that that that vibrated
22:29
Speaker 1: a certain frequency certain hurts and I don't remember what
22:32
Speaker 1: it is, but it's like a low it's like a
22:34
Speaker 1: low frequency vibration. And there's there's something called whole whole
22:39
Speaker 1: body vibration which UM. Apparently GM is dealing with the
22:44
Speaker 1: problem right now. They have like their their largest UM.
22:49
Speaker 1: I guess maybe they're tahoe or something, but they're large SUVs.
22:53
Speaker 1: They had to really strengthen the cage so that if
22:57
Speaker 1: it rolled over, it wouldn't crush the the bottom of
23:00
Speaker 1: the truck wouldn't crush the roof. But the thing is
23:03
Speaker 1: so rigid that when it goes at like highway speeds,
23:07
Speaker 1: it vibrates that this this frequency that's perfect and it's
23:10
Speaker 1: giving the driver's motion sickness. So yeah, there's all this
23:13
Speaker 1: weird stuff that happens from vibrations and exposure to vibrations,
23:18
Speaker 1: and so that's whole body. There's also hand arm vibration
23:22
Speaker 1: and um there's something called rayn nodes phenomenon and it's
23:26
Speaker 1: basically like your hands being exposed to vibrations for that
23:32
Speaker 1: many hours out of a day. And this can happen
23:34
Speaker 1: too if you're if you're working with like a gas
23:36
Speaker 1: powered weed whacker all the time, or but especially if
23:39
Speaker 1: jackhammer operators going to run into this, this circulation gets
23:43
Speaker 1: basically cut off from all the the exposure vibration in
23:47
Speaker 1: your fingers and it can get so bad, especially when
23:49
Speaker 1: it's cold out, that they just turn white. It's called blanching.
23:52
Speaker 1: They loosensation. If you're lucky, if you're not lucky, there's
23:55
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of pain in them. You can't grip things.
23:58
Speaker 1: And if you're a jackhammer operator, that's a big problem
24:01
Speaker 1: because you need to be able to grip the jackhammer. Yeah.
24:04
Speaker 1: And um, I mean weird psychological issues brought on from
24:07
Speaker 1: like fatigue and that constant noise, headaches in the insomnia
24:12
Speaker 1: that can all lead to you know, you're kind of
24:14
Speaker 1: losing it a little bit. Uh. Yeah, you never really
24:17
Speaker 1: thought about that, all of it put together. It's called
24:19
Speaker 1: vibration sickness. And we're only now just starting to like
24:22
Speaker 1: really understand it. Uh. Shrapnel is also a danger, of course. Um.
24:28
Speaker 1: And and these are you know, if you're on a
24:30
Speaker 1: construction site, you know all this stuff. But since you
24:33
Speaker 1: can go out and rent a full fledged jackhammer because
24:37
Speaker 1: you want to take out your driveway this weekend, I
24:39
Speaker 1: think a lot of people go into it lightly. Like
24:41
Speaker 1: I've seen those things on the road. I can do that,
24:44
Speaker 1: be careful, like don't do it and flip flops or
24:48
Speaker 1: tennis shoes. You know, get get your big heavy hobnail boot.
24:53
Speaker 1: It's the great Larry Munson said, put those on. Get
24:57
Speaker 1: your ear protection where I protection, wear long pants and
25:01
Speaker 1: you know, don't be a dummy. It all seems like
25:04
Speaker 1: basic safety issues. But yeah, I bet you there's been
25:07
Speaker 1: a dude with short pants and a flip flops they
25:12
Speaker 1: tried to jackhammer something. Jack hammeron right there is it'll happen. Oh.
25:17
Speaker 1: They also important thing too. If you're doing this at home, um,
25:21
Speaker 1: and you don't like your sidewalk um that leads to
25:24
Speaker 1: your house, get the electrical and gas companies out there.
25:29
Speaker 1: And I don't even think they charged for it, or
25:30
Speaker 1: they might, but they'll they'll come out there with a
25:32
Speaker 1: little spray can and they will show you and draw
25:35
Speaker 1: paint on the ground where your gas lines and your
25:37
Speaker 1: power lines are. Because you do not want to jack
25:39
Speaker 1: cameront either of those not fun. Be careful, don't be
25:44
Speaker 1: a dummy. Well that's ours a huh. Jack hammers the
25:49
Speaker 1: most interesting tool on the on the planet. Oh. I
25:51
Speaker 1: actually got one more thing, believe it or not. What uh?
25:55
Speaker 1: In two thousand because these things are so loud, you know, Uh,
25:59
Speaker 1: the Department of Energies Brookhaven National Laboratory released a helium
26:04
Speaker 1: jack camera called the Raptor, and it had some of
26:08
Speaker 1: these things come with rubber boots to try and soften
26:11
Speaker 1: the noise, but I don't think they do a great job.
26:14
Speaker 1: Um this thing actually less than the noise to eighty
26:16
Speaker 1: seven decibels. That's like nothing, nothing, that's like how loud
26:20
Speaker 1: I'm talking right now. But apparently it never like caught on.
26:24
Speaker 1: Then in two thousand eleven, another equipment maker had an
26:27
Speaker 1: electric model that said it's faster than Newmatic and it's
26:31
Speaker 1: only a hundred decibles and they have sold a few.
26:34
Speaker 1: But apparently, like breaking into the construction industry with a
26:37
Speaker 1: new type of tool is super hard to do. I
26:41
Speaker 1: think in New York especially, they were very resistant. The
26:44
Speaker 1: unions were like, really won't work, We're not using those.
26:47
Speaker 1: That seems like where they should do it, because um
26:50
Speaker 1: I looked it up. Apparently six of noise complaints and
26:55
Speaker 1: from in New York City we're Jackhammers. That's almost thirty
27:01
Speaker 1: four thousand complaints in a year, Jack Camering, New York
27:06
Speaker 1: and supposally you're not supposed to do it after six
27:10
Speaker 1: or before seven am, but there they allow it in
27:13
Speaker 1: certain cases. And I feel like that is like, is
27:16
Speaker 1: all the case is chuck in a hotel nearby? Then
27:18
Speaker 1: do it started five that's all I got. Uh. If
27:23
Speaker 1: you want to know more about Jack Cameras, you can
27:25
Speaker 1: type that one word into the search bar at how
27:28
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And since I said Jack Camera,
27:31
Speaker 1: it's time for listener Now, I'm gonna call this cool
27:36
Speaker 1: program for kids in Austin, Texas. Oh yeah, I hope
27:39
Speaker 1: you guys are doing well. I've been listening to the
27:40
Speaker 1: show for for some time. Like to thank you for
27:43
Speaker 1: giving me the edge on many debates and discussions. I
27:48
Speaker 1: live in Austin, Texas and I'm writing today let you
27:50
Speaker 1: know about a program I recently started working for, but
27:52
Speaker 1: I think you'll appreciate. It's called a Totally Cool, Totally
27:56
Speaker 1: Art t C t A. It is a free after
27:58
Speaker 1: school program does to reach out to us youth and
28:03
Speaker 1: give them some exposure to the arts. The class I
28:06
Speaker 1: teach is called the Art of Machines, and we build
28:09
Speaker 1: various contraptions. We have sent you an example project, which
28:13
Speaker 1: we call bugs that the students building our class. Did
28:16
Speaker 1: we get this in yet? I don't think all right,
28:19
Speaker 1: I don't think i've seen this Brian so he sent it?
28:22
Speaker 1: Awhile ago, Oh he did? If you did, I don't
28:26
Speaker 1: know if we got it. No, we haven't got in yet.
28:29
Speaker 1: All right, So if it's recent Brian, then it's on
28:32
Speaker 1: the way. If not, then send it again. That was
28:35
Speaker 1: one of a kind. Uh see what you think about
28:37
Speaker 1: is the prototype? I hope not. He said, my dogs
28:40
Speaker 1: go crazy for these things. Uh. This is the actual
28:44
Speaker 1: anniversary of the program. We're trying to let people know
28:46
Speaker 1: about it so it can be around for another twenty years.
28:49
Speaker 1: We also have other classes painting, film, fiber arts, and photography. Anyway,
28:54
Speaker 1: I was just hoping maybe you'd give a quick shout
28:56
Speaker 1: out for totally cool totally art in Austin. It's so
29:00
Speaker 1: totally cool and you can just look that up on
29:02
Speaker 1: Google or go to uh h T T P S
29:05
Speaker 1: colon slash slash Austin Texas dot g O B slash
29:10
Speaker 1: t C t A. That's nice lass to secure site.
29:13
Speaker 1: Yeah that's from Brian fry Tag and good work, buddy.
29:16
Speaker 1: And we're gonna be in Austin for south By Southwest
29:19
Speaker 1: this year. Yeah. Do you know if they're if we're
29:21
Speaker 1: gonna be selling tickets or if there's like a registry
29:23
Speaker 1: or what. I don't know. We'll find out and let
29:25
Speaker 1: everyone know. But I believe it's going to our deal
29:27
Speaker 1: live podcasts going down Sunday night, and um, but we're
29:31
Speaker 1: gonna be around cool town cool look out for us
29:36
Speaker 1: Sunday night. Okay, indeed, uh. If you want to get
29:41
Speaker 1: in touch of this, you can tweek to us at
29:43
Speaker 1: s Y s K podcast. You can join us on
29:45
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can
29:47
Speaker 1: send us an email to stuff Podcast at how stuff
29:49
Speaker 1: Works dot com and has always joined us with our
29:52
Speaker 1: home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot Com.
29:59
Speaker 1: From more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
30:02
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. MHM