Liberating the Kiddie Pool

The kiddie pool has taken on many roles as a tool to study ice cuts. First it was the lake, when I filled it with water and let an inch of ice freeze over it. I cut a sheet of ice out, rotated the piece, and hung it from a board propped up above the kiddie pool.

That test worked. And then it got really cold...single-digits cold. And the whole kiddie pool froze solid. This served as a near-scale model of a slab of ice I hoped to cut from a pond. I built at miniature gantry crane out of scrap wood, and bolted an atv winch to to the cross beam. I was able to successfully lift the chunk of ice in the air, and pull the kiddie pool out.

And back to the kiddie pool as the lake: with the frozen chunk lifted up, I refilled the kiddie pool with water, and let it freeze the suspended slab of ice in position. This test also worked.

I had two frozen kiddie pool casts bonded together, and wanted to get the plastic pool out. Lifting both of these hunks of ice almost killed the gantry crane, and the weight causes the winch to freewheel back down if it stops getting power (to lift up). I was able to lift everything up and quickly yank the pool out from under the ice. Here is a video of it.