Frugal and Energy Efficient Living
In reply to the discussion: A property we bought has a water well which was abandoned by filling with bricks. [View all]Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Something like a set of logger's skidding tongs but a good deal smaller and with far less pronounced spikes on the ends. The upward slope on the bottom of the spikes is important, gravity wants to hold the tongs closed when they are dangling from the chain and they have to be forced apart by the bevel on the bottom riding over the log (brick in your case of course).
Try and find a small welding shop, they could probably make you something out of scrapbinium they have laying around in an hour or so.
Another way to go would be to get some 1/4" by 1" steel at the hardware store, cut a couple of pieces with a hacksaw, drill holes and make your own set.
Your vacuum idea also has some merit but you'd be better off buying a shop vac and making an adapter to attach the hose to PVC pipe, I've made a vacuum before and it's definitely a non-trivial thing to do. Consider that the larger the diameter of your pipe the greater the lifting power for a given vacuum unit unless your pipe become larger than the brick surface at which point you'll start losing vacuum to leakage.
One problem with the vac idea is how do you pull up 40 plus feet of pipe with a brick on the end and still maintain continuous vacuum? You'd need that length or more of flexible hose attached to the end of the pipe and running to the vacuum unit.
The bricks at and near the bottom of the well may be broken up since they were almost certainly dropped in and a brick falling 40 feet onto other bricks is very likely to splinter. Getting that rubble out of the well is going to be another and somewhat different challenge.
Any decent vacuum is likely to suck a 55 gal drum flat or to an approximation of flat, they have a lot of surface area and even at relatively low pressures that's going to create a considerable amount of crushing force.
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