sandbagging

[rdbrumfield]

I know this is a bit off the main subject, but I thought it might be of use to those of us that use them around culverts banks and such.
We have had some flooding in our area and a call came in to take some to a lady that was afraid that her well was going to be contaminated. Trying to hold the bag open and someone else filling or trying to do it by oneself seemed a bit of a pain. What I came up with is a piece of 8 inch pvc and cut it to the measurement of what was needed to fill a bag. By slippingit in the bag as you would a pillow and filling the pipe, it was nothing to just pull the pipe out, presto the bag is filled. I was able to fill the bags as fast as onother could tie one off. I also cut a hand hold on one side of the pipe for easier extraction. Hope this helps in the future.

 

[beenthere]

Sounds like a real clever idea. Suggest sending that to someone who can apply the idea to some of the many volunteers filling sandbags.

 

[GoodGuy]

Do you someplace that sells sandbags or are they only available thru local EMO offices?? Hoping someplace like HD. Any Info?

 

[rambler]

Good idea.

When they had to sandbag the river a few years ago They set a ladder on saw horses, put those orange street cones through the ladder, and a bag below the cone. Shovel into the cones, & you got about the same result. Was quite an assembly line. Let high school out, so the kids could bag & stack.

--->Paul

 

[PineRidge]

Would have never thought of that idea myself, but it goes to show you that some of the simplest ideas are still the best.

 

[Cord]

The last time I filled sandbags was from the local municipal lot around 2 in the morning. I scrounged around and found a orange cone. We cut the end off so we had a 4-6" hole. This worked pretty well because of the cones taper. Later, I built a small table for the cone to sit on. Now the second person didn't need to hold the cone up and can concentrate on the bag. This works pretty well as a two person team.

 

[erich]

Man this post takes me back a few years. I grew up between the Rock River and the Mississippi about 25-30 miles north of where they met. Every couple of years one of the two rivers would flood. Freshman year in 71 a bunch of us were filling sandbags at night on the town square. One of the girls said she lost her contact in the sand pile. Everyone figured it was lost for sure. About that time I looked down and just at the tip of my size 12 boot was that contact. The street light must have caught it just right. She was one happy camper cause her folks would have been mighty upset. In those days, few people had contacts.

In 73 the Rock flooded bad and took out the railroad dike and several roads. I couldn't get to school for almost a week. . The water came up to the neighbor's doorstep that first night before the dike let go. My brother and I went canoing it the cornfield that year

I sure wish we had been smart enough to use some of the ideas listed here but then we were just having a good time hanging out with friends and doing somthing important.

 

[JasonL]

The fastest I've ever filled sandbags was with a tri-axle truck with a gravel shooter! They just ran it as slow as they could, and we'd stand at the back catching the sand as it flew out. It Took two guys with strong (and tired) arms to hold the bags, but we could keep about 6 guys busy tieing them off. Man a tri-axle holds a lot of sand!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Taylortractornut]

Randall I made a simple bucket for a skid loader that loaded sand bags. I had made the bucket and quick coupler and took my burn table and cut out about 10 holes in the back plate to weld in 4 inch tubes.. it had a shlefthat sat behind itto hold the loaded bags up. The guy I made it for had a set of superduty rubber bands he slid up the tubes. About 10 per tube and soaked them with a water based lubricant. It had a hydralic slide in the bottom to dum into the tubes. The process was hard to explain but when in motion was a work of art. You loaded your round of bags then slid a band down to hold them on the tube then the operator scopped a bucket of sand and raided the boom and let the gate back and the bags filled up and sat on the shelf. Youyanked them out and the back wuld close with the band and the person romoving it would hand it off to another that tied it. one bucket could load 2 rounds of 10 bags. I dont have any pictures as I was making it for a patent.I repaired a tater sacker for a friends boss in highscool. Its a conveyor with a hopper under neath with a scale rigged with a switch. When the set weight per bag was reached it shut off allowing the bag to be tied. Im talking with a person about building 2 for a county agency in a lower region to be towed behind a truck to load bags in an emergency.

 

[ksmmoto]

On the 80 acre farm I grew up at, my great uncle bagged grain with a five gallon steel bucket with the bottom cut out. He had hooks on the sides to hold the bag and a hook on the wall to hang the bucket up. Worked real well.

I have a five gallon plastic bucket I cut the bottom off for the same reasons. I use a rubber bungie to hold the bag on. Works good for any bulk loading by yourself.

The PVC pipe for sandbags is a excellent idea. You could cut the pipe for the proper volume and just fill it up, pull the pipe and tie off.

ksmmoto