What a beautiful *mystery machine! I think atheists have found a valid replacement for god in this marvel.

Adding video to channels (Mystery) - requested by griefer_queafer.

As a person who spent a couple years -breaking my back- the old way, this is awesome. Fails where cheap labour is available, but still awesome. If they could automate the patterns, that would be unreal...

this isn't so much a brick laying machine, more of a platform where people can easier lay bricks.
there's still a lot of manual labor involved. it's not like you just dump bunch of bricks and out comes a walkway.

still cool

Needs Tetris music.

I've seen a few brick layers work while doing asphalt work off to the side. I was under the impression that a good brick design needs a layer of sand underneath and sand spread in between and over top of it to fill in voids. Where the sand in between is from the top and bottom layers of sand being shifted around as they place the bricks. Which doesn't appear to be happening here. So are there steps left out, or is this a "cheap" brick job versus someone who takes time to work the sand by hand to make them stable and last longer? And the machine loading and dropping like that is going to chip and break bricks more often as well...and cutting to fit patterns, etc is still manual.

Need more footage to see if this is an actual advancement or one of those machines that is trying to justify it's existence.


I know with asphalt the machine actually lays a better job than people can do by hand in the same time frame, but there's a lot of prep work to be ready for the machine and an hour or two of post work monitoring and rolling/compacting it when needed. Less time investment on the post work on highway jobs because they use low temperature material and it cools off much faster, and they tend to lay a lot of layers which cools off quicker because they aren't as thick.

As a Knicks fan in the 90s, I expected this video to be a John Starks retrospective.

>> ^handmethekeysyou:

As a Knicks fan in the 90s, I expected this video to be a John Starks retrospective.


LOL!

or a 2:19 loop of one particular dunk =)>> ^handmethekeysyou:

As a Knicks fan in the 90s, I expected this video to be a John Starks retrospective.

>> ^Porksandwich:

I've seen a few brick layers work while doing asphalt work off to the side. I was under the impression that a good brick design needs a layer of sand underneath and sand spread in between and over top of it to fill in voids. Where the sand in between is from the top and bottom layers of sand being shifted around as they place the bricks. Which doesn't appear to be happening here. So are there steps left out, or is this a "cheap" brick job versus someone who takes time to work the sand by hand to make them stable and last longer? And the machine loading and dropping like that is going to chip and break bricks more often as well...and cutting to fit patterns, etc is still manual.
Need more footage to see if this is an actual advancement or one of those machines that is trying to justify it's existence.

I know with asphalt the machine actually lays a better job than people can do by hand in the same time frame, but there's a lot of prep work to be ready for the machine and an hour or two of post work monitoring and rolling/compacting it when needed. Less time investment on the post work on highway jobs because they use low temperature material and it cools off much faster, and they tend to lay a lot of layers which cools off quicker because they aren't as thick.


I've laid a bit of brick in my time and I'm not sure one way or another if it's really an advancement. But I think the most important thing would be the surface you laid on. If it was sand/mortar/dirt that was also laid and leveled by machine then you'd get the job done in much less time. Having a level surface or adjusting the bricks one at time is probably the hardest part. You could then do the top layer of sand the old fashioned way. Pouring it on and sweeping off the excess doesn't take much time at all. As for the cuts. This is probably a pre-set pattern where the bricks are made to fit at the factory and sent out in the appropriate amounts.

It certainly is cool.

I would think there's a thin layer of asphalt under the bricks. What else would hold them together as they come out of the machine? I'd say that bricks pressed into asphalt would hold up quite well.

LINE PIECE !!! LINE PIECE!!! LINE PIECE!!!!

AUAGHHHHHH

I'd say no to the asphalt because those guys are wearing jackets and if there was any kind of asphalt (a heated material) it'd be steaming. Plus there's no room for a hopper and conveyor system for it, and easiest way to get it into the machine would be dump truck..which again there is no space for it.

I think what is holding the bricks as they come out of the machine is the thickness and weight of the bricks, the angle they are being dropped at and the slow speed. There's one shot where the camera is under the machine, you can see some wires hanging down...the machine is mostly hollow....I think the height is just so they can have a buffer of bricks so they can keep moving and still have time to structure it.

Wonder how much of a bitch it is to pick up and move to another section.


>> ^MarineGunrock:

I would think there's a thin layer of asphalt under the bricks. What else would hold them together as they come out of the machine? I'd say that bricks pressed into asphalt would hold up quite well.

I like to lay bricks on the sidewalk too...

@Porksandwich @MarineGunrock

http://inhabitat.com/2010/11/15/amazing-brick-machine-rolls-out-roads-like-carpet/

Says the bricks are held together by gravity...as in the pattern along with the weight of the bricks above keeps them together. I'd like to see how you get that started. I assume they finish the end bits by hand.

It also looked like they were driving the thing over slag sand, which is ideal for any kind of paving job. It didn't look like the machine was dispensing and compacting the sand, but I'm sure it could. I can only hope they've got several inches of crushed stone under there as well.

The biggest advancement of this thing is the ergonomics...and given that the video is from the Netherlands, it's not surprising. I've studied some ergonomics and Northern Europe seems rather obsessed with the topic. Not hard to see why once you've done the hands and knees version of the paving job you see here or sat at a computer desk all day. Once you realize your labor is much more effective when they aren't physically broken for life at age 30, you can see the benefits of actually providing a comfortable work environment.

@mgittle

Yeah you're not kidding about any physical job where you gotta get up and down all day with any kind of strain. Brother had a broken disc in his back from asphalt in his early 20s, at least one of my shoulders probably needs surgery let alone other joint problems. I don't see how my dad has done this kind of work for almost 30 years, and that was when the machines they used were more hassle than they were help except for really straight and even runs.

Kind of like garbage pick up guys, they can only do it in their 20s and early 30s, they won't hire guys past that age because they either break down from the lifting and twisting or quit. And while they make decent money it ain't worth being unable to stand up straight without pain on cold/rainy days when you're 30.

@Porksandwich

Is your dad a short guy? All the guys I see doing flooring and roofing and shit when they're older are pretty small people. I work with my friend and his dad doing remodeling and misc smaller-scale building. His dad's pretty short...like 5'7" and he's still working at 67. Yeah he hasn't come through unscathed, but he's pretty limber for a guy who's been doing what he's been doing for 30 years.

My friend is like 6'2" and I'm 6'4"...we're both 30 and we've already got the kinds of problems he has. I think the bending and reaching and stuff is just harder on bigger people. Yeah we can do lots of stuff smaller guys can't, but we pay for it in the long run. I lift weights regularly and play sports as well and it doesn't really help. Luckily I don't plan to continue with this line of work. We just paved my buddy's driveway...wish we'd had one of these machines. Carrying 3-4 tons of bricks using brick tongs over a couple of days is a raw deal...haha.

Anybody who's doing labor for a living ought to plan on how they're gonna get out of the daily grind of it by 30 IMO. Hire your own crew...teach...inspect...change careers...whatever.

@mgittle

Im 5'11" my dad is probably 6'1" or 6'2". Brother with the broken disk is 6'4"ish.

They told my brother that taller people tend to have a lot of disk problems especially in their lower back that shorter people don't have. Even so much so that their disks tend to be weaker as they get older. But they said seeing that kind of injury in someone under 30 was extremely rare and wondered if he had some kind of degenerative disease and found nothing to suggest it.

The union crews for physical labor will cover you better than working on your own. There's usually enough laborers that you don't have to go for extended periods of shoveling or anything like that. And anyone not in the unions are usually young or have substance abuse problems if they are still laborers and not doing something higher up the food chain by the age of 30-35.

Anymore we stick to the least amount of handwork possible, even if it takes us a little longer with a machine. But there are some things that machines can't do even a little bit of on every job so we try to spread it out between us and over a few days if possible.

If you want to see what a life of manual labor can do to you. Find an old guy who does tires, replacing, removing...anything like that. I haven't seen one that can stand up straight no matter what their height, they all have that hunched over like they are looking for something on the ground look to them.

But the simple fact is, a lot of the work is needed.....and if you want someone who won't screw it up you need the older guys who've seen the various problems that might come up. Lot of crews that have 1-2 40ish guys running a crew....they get young guys who get hurt bad or killed on the job because they skip stuff that seem like wasted time. Properly securing things (dropping equipment in the middle of the freeway, this stems from substance abuse as much as negligence, lots of people run around with unsecured loads against all laws and never get caught), not stacking stuff next to the edge of a deep ditch (caves in the ditch wall and can crush someone in the ditch below it or at least crack them in the head, was an inspector who got the top of his head sheered off when some bricks went down into a ditch he was trying to climb out of and caused to collapse), staying clear of machines or making sure the guy on the machine knows you're there (guy got backed over by a dump truck, broken legs from people twisting bobcats and catching people in the legs next to it, etc).

Im too afraid to work on highway crews, those guys work in a dangerous as hell place and usually only have a few barrels protecting them from someone running them over. Was a girl who was running a roller, a semi went by and hit her in the head with it's side mirror. She was in the hospital for months before she died. And then you got all the machines and people working in the little confined spaces in the middle of both sides of traffic, so you can't hear very well...

Probably the best place I've ever worked doing asphalt was on a military base. Don't have to worry about people vandalizing or stealing your stuff and they stay away from you while you work. And they can follow simple ideas like barriers are meant to keep you out and arrows mean follow them around the big hole in the ground. And you got prevailing rates, but it was just a lot less stressful to not have to worry about getting ran down because someone wanted to rubberneck.