Leveling pins stuck for 3 days on a job in Akron

I had a wall where the leveling pins were seized up something awful. Every time I tried to tap one out, it just bent or snapped instead of sliding clean. I figured it was a 20 minute headache, but it turned into three full days of fighting the same problem. Turns out the mortar had hard set around the pins overnight because we left them in too long on a warm day. I finally got them loose with a torch and some penetrating oil, but man that was a rough stretch. Do you guys pull pins before the mortar takes hold no matter what, or do you have a better way to avoid this mess?

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ray18911d ago

Three days on one wall is brutal. I had a similar thing happen in Columbus last summer, left pins in overnight and the next morning they were welded in there. It's like the mortar knows when you're in a hurry. I pull them now even if the wall looks half set, because the time it takes to reset a pin is nothing compared to torching and swearing for a day. Same thing happens with anchor bolts on bridge work, you leave them too long and the concrete owns them forever.