plate, being careful to avoid disturbing or deforming the soil that will bound the hole. The sides of the hole should slope slightly inward and the bottom should be reasonably ¯at or concave. The hole should be kept as free as possible of pockets, overhangs, and sharp obtrusions since these affect the accuracy of the test. Soils that are essentially granular require extreme care and may require digging a conical-shaped test hole. Place all excavated soil, and any soil loosened during digging, in a moisture tight container that is marked to identify the test number. Take care to avoid losing any materials. Protect this material from any loss of moisture until the mass has been determined and a specimen has been obtained for a water content determination.
7.1.7 Clean the ¯ange of the base plate hole, invert the sand-cone apparatus and seat the sand-cone funnel into the ¯anged hole at the same position as marked during calibration (see Annex A1). Eliminate or minimize vibrations in the test area due to personnel or equipment. Open the valve and allow the sand to ®ll the hole, funnel, and base plate. Take care to avoid jarring or vibrating the apparatus while the sand is running. When the sand stops ¯owing, close the valve.
7.1.8 Determine the mass of the apparatus with the remain-ing sand, record, and calculate the mass of sand used.
7.1.9 Determine and record the mass of the moist material that was removed from the test hole. When oversized material corrections are required, determine the mass of the oversized material on the appropriate sieve and record, taking care to avoid moisture losses. When required, make appropriate cor-rections for the oversized material using Practice D 4718.
7.1.10 Mix the material thoroughly, and either obtain a representative specimen for water content determination, or use the entire sample.
7.1.11 Determine the water content in accordance with Test Method D 2216, D 4643, D 4944, or D 4959. Correlations to Test Method D 2216 will be performed when required by other test methods.
7.2 Water content specimens must be large enough and selected in such a way that they represent all the material obtained from the test hole. The minimum mass of the water content specimens is that required to provide water content values accurate to 1.0 %.