Just constructed, another Welsh Mines Society de-luxe mine ladder, 4X2 carcassing timber and half inch steel bar stock rungs. Destination, Frongoch ladder shaft tomorrow.

🔗Personal-Album-128-Image-29965[linkphoto]Personal-Album-128-Image-29965[/linkphoto][/link]

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You ever tried 20mm rebar for ladders? the bar really grips well in the holes and you just need a couple or three (dependant on length of ladder), bolted spacer bars if you wish, to stop the sides drifting off.
Most times we have just tapped these things together with no spacer bars and they hold together very well indeed, especially when they get into a nice damp environment and the timber swells some.
Another advantage of rebar is it affords a really good footing and stops muddy boots and hands from sliding along the rungs, which if you'r carrying kit in or out can ease the strain considerably. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
We have picked up scrap/offcuts/leftovers from building sites and scrap merchants ........... and a few other places we wont go into .... :angel:

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Hi Roy
We maybe talking about the same thing, only I didn't know the correct name for it.
I said "bar stock", it’s actually the stuff used for reinforcing concrete and has little ribs.
This technique of ladder building was shown to me at Crofty by the way.
If the ladder appears a little loose anywhere, I use a length of allthread through steel conduit pipe as spacer bar in the way you describe.

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what timber did u use Roy? Oak or something other?

Hi Roy
We maybe talking about the same thing, only I didn't know the correct name for it.
I said "bar stock", it’s actually the stuff used for reinforcing concrete and has little ribs.

That's rebar all right - the name is just a contraction of reinforcing bar.... 🙂

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what timber did u use Roy? Oak or something other?

No its just ordinary carcassing timber, but it is pre-treated.
Its very cheap from builders merchants, the 4.8 metre length for my ladder cost me a tenner.

The lifespan of this depends on where its fitted and the conditions. At Alltycrib I have had to do some more work in the ladder shaft, replacing some rotten timber that had been in nearly 5 years. It was just in one area where the air current seems to catch it in a certain way, the other timbers in there remain perfect, like being in my own loft!
It seems to depend on how the mine 'breathes', sometimes a shaft is upcast, sometimes downcast. At Frongoch the air rises in the shaft, at Talybont in goes down. Its usually the upcasts that rot the timbers the most.

One thing that I have found out over the years is that ordinary builders ladders dont last 5 minutes, if its only broken rungs through dropping stuff down on them, false economy anyway when you can build the proper thing so cheaply.

Anyway, its time now to hit the road.

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Hi Roy thanks for the additional posting regarding the location of the pipes found over the years on the WCMRC writeups. This the only way I could easily and quickly contact you.

Noel

Nice ladder. I need to knock a couple together as soon as I get some time.....

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For what its worth, it is now in place.
I have more work to do inside the mine, replacing some rotten timbering where the adit passes through a stoped section.

I learned a bitter lesson from the loss of Polberro adit at St Agnes, if there are not people prepared to maintain these places, we loose them. Everyone who went in there saw what was happening, yet no one did anything.

However, I have to say that Wales is looking good these days, new ground has been gained in several places, and in other places where a loss was imminent, people have stepped in and done something. Same comment goes for Nenthead.

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