How to fasten the ladder to the side of a shaft?

[user 17593]

I'm wondering if anyone would know the best method of fastening the circular corrugated iron collar in the top of a Gemstone mine up and over shaft to the dirt wall.
Also which method is usually used to fasten the ladder to the dirt wall. My ladder is bolted to the top via the up and over equipment and at the bottom via 2 galvanised post that have been rammed into the ground and then concreted in. Up the ladder on my shaft there's flat headed washer looking things that I'm thinking have a stake welded to them and the stakes are then hammered into the wall of the shaft or maybe long thick hex headed coach screws are screwed into the dirt walls.
I plan to hang the top of the metal collar from a metal wagon wheel type of structure and then would I fasten it to the wall using the stakes hammered into the wall or the coach screws as per the ladder and if yes would a glue to use in the shaft holes.
My concern is what stop the stakes from pulling out the earth walls.
Behind my ladder I want to install a smaller tube that the electric lead go down the shaft in and centre it because currently it's positioned right where my left foot stands on the ladder making climbing the ladder unsafe.

 

[goody2shoes]

If Rodney come online he could tell you

He's username is Rodney

He is a opal miner

 

[RockRat]

This will show you a few tips. My shaft was square through solid rock,
so a bit different in set up, i used rock bolts to secure the ladder. good luck.

https://www.dnrme.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1465523/opal-gem-miner-handbook.pdf

 

[aussiefarmer]

I would think a remote electric winch with a sling or bucket to stand in would make life more enjoyable and then you ladder would become plan b for winch failure. By standing in the bucket or sling facing the ladder would give the safety for a winch failure when halfway up.

The only ladders I have seen have been fixed to the walls and hung over the steel top ring, but you pictures show loose type material in the walls.
The steel top rings I have seen were at least 5mm thick steel and had rails or flanges welded to the outside of them ,
I guess if you had some steel or tube rolled to fit around your gal collar you then could bolt them together and extend rolled tube to make a good size flange maybe.

I'm not a miner , just a farmer / problem solver , I reckon there's plenty of shaft experts on here that will help you out.

 

[Dihusky]

No expert on this, but the forces on the ladder are mainly vertical so top fix is critical, I'd be making up some 600mm long reo bars, point on one end and a ring on the other, drive them into the wall at 45 degrees to the ladder and tie off, you'll never pull them out. Bush engineering fix, but I could be wrong so "don't quote me", my mind probably works similar to aussiefarmer's, think out side the square, if it works... well and good, if it don't try something else. In the bush there's always a solution often #8 wire

 

[Hilux]

I'm not a miner , just a farmer

No such thing as 'just a farmer'. The farmers I've known could fix and build just about anything!

 

[geowork]

Similar to what you and Dihusky have said. It is important to have the ladder a sufficent distance off the wall to enable your feet to be securely placed on the rungs. As the ladder is already fabricated and in place, following is an option used on the Central Queensland Gemfields. Use 10 or 12mm threaded bar, pointed at one end, at least 300mm long. Don't make them too long or too thick, as it does take some effort driving them in, while standing on the ladder. Two bars on each selected rung, placed towards the sides of the ladder. Drill holes through the selected rungs or better, weld tabs on the underside and drill holes through those. On each bar have a nut/washer tightened on each side of the rung/tab after the bar is driven into place. This keeps the ladder both a sufficient distance off the shaft wall and fixed firm. Obvioulsy, the inside nut/washer needs to be placed and loose on the bar before starting to drive the bar in.

All of the above assumes the top of ladder fix is capable of supporting all vertical loads. After a bit of time, natural metal corrosion and soil/clay/bar reactions will form a plug that won't pull out of a solid wall. In my recent shafts I have succesfully used 300mm landscaping screws driven in with an impact driver (easy!). But this would depend on the shaft wall competency. Also, the ladder was prefabricated with "spacers" to keep the ladder off the shaft wall.

For the shaft collar, it really depends on what the surface strata is and how weathered or loose. Water flow and seepage is the important issue here. Build it up on the surface so no water flows or pools close. A bit of concrete or mortar slurry around the outside collar base is a good thing, before infilling. maybe also consider the landscaping screws.

 

[Hunting the yellow]

For the top a strong square steel post over the hole with it going through the first rung on your ladder for down deeper small square bits of timber noched into the walls both side's tight every 1 to two meters down next to your ladder with strong rope or wire to the ladder.

 

[Syndyne]

When mining, we simply weld T-Pieces or a squared U-bar behind the ladder rungs. These keep the ladders around 5-6 inches (150mm) from the wall and would depend on the ladder usage how far out they need to be to still meet safety reqs. We usually place the T-Pieces on the rung immediately above and below where the ladders join together, so on a ten foot ladder one on rung 2 and one on rung 9. We secure these a few different ways to the shaft wall depending on the circumstance like hardness, distance etc., Our go-to was always 5 or 6 inch (120mm or 150mm) stainless steel pins (these from a cotton harvester spindle and are our preferred method, but these are getting harder to come by) and simply drive them in under each T-Piece and wire them to the T-Piece rung or nearest rung depending on where you can get them into the shaft wall securely.

Other options are a long, large threaded bolt and tag that you can either affix from the ladders directly, or still wire to if needed. The last resort if the shaft is much looser material would be an expansion ring around the entire shaft that bolts through the T-Piece. These are costly to make and are a nightmare to install and fix properly behind the ladder rungs so I would hesitate to recommend that system. A cut-off star picket works also, although these need to be cut very short as you can only move so far with a small sledgehammer in a confined space, they do work well in a the open area under the roof, particularly if the wall is a fair distance from the ladders.

Years ago on our hoist ladders I welded small steel O-Rings to the required rungs down the shaft and used small turnbuckles to fix the ladders to the stainless pins with another steel ring placed on the pins before I drove them into the wall. I can highly recommend using turnbuckles as they are a dream to tighten quickly as needed and don't have any give unlike wire.

Hope that helps, though I've just noticed it maybe a bit late? Hopefully you got it sorted regardless!
Cheers,
Shauno.