My wife and I have an excavator on our property that we use for making trails, trenching, digging up stumps, etc. All of it is exhilarating. But, nothing beats simply digging. Something about breaking through the top layer and getting a big scoop of earth that just feels real good.
So you want to build a tunnel
101–110 of 119 posts
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#102There's a lady on Instagram that goes by the handle 'engineerkala', who's been building a tunnel/mine below her home and learning the process along the way. I'm pretty sure one day the account will go dark when she's entombed herself a hundred metres below her living room, but until that comes it's a fascinating and extremely entertaining page to watch.
I don’t know how Colin Furze hasn’t come up in this thread yet. He has built a sprawling series of tunnels and rooms under his home and not in some cursory, lip service way like Kala.
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#103house gotta have sipapu
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
As they say, the rules are written in blood. I don't think we should be disqualifying projects because they are not Mponeng-scale or complexity. I am not a civil engineer, but I did spend a bunch of time looking into building an underground range. Way more relaxed life safety reqs, smaller bore, etc. However, when you start reading, it is clear that much of the work is empirical, heavily localized and based on a grea…
>As they say, the rules are written in blood Basically nobody ever died from leaky pipes or substandard weatherproofing. The code is as much about a) homogenizing the industry so big business can statistically reason about it at scale b) turning the subjective into the quantitive so that things can be done, checked, sight off on, etc, etc, without anyone using "judgement" as it is about protecting life and limb. Just…
> I'm not saying there isn't value in there, but this habit people have of acting like it's all relevant to safety and screeching about "written in blood" is exactly what creates room for unrelated stuff to exist in the code.
meh, I understand the point, but it is about your risk tolerance being different than whoever writes the code. I have a long list of complaints about the NEC, (including AFCI requirements), but IMO, these kinds of requirements do save some amount of lives -- the issues comes down to how much do you value your own life, and/or the lives of others. The tradeoff, as always, is cost -- inspections, permits, impact studies etc push up the cost of new and remodel jobs substantially.
Where I really take issue with different code is when we hammer down on a specific issue of small significance while neglecting a more significant problem. For example, I have never in my life seen an inspector check the torque of a main lugs, polaris connectors, etc. Might just be my inspectors, but I have seen way more failures due to loose or over tightened connections than anything else.
I am all for gradually raising the bar for safety, but it has to rise faster than the increased cost, along with a level raising of the bar across all facets.
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was more sprawling than deep. It was a series of trenches connecting "rooms". I know they also had "water features" at some points, but the water would soak into the ground pretty quickly then be a mess for a few days, so they didn't do that. No collapses happened and everyone is still alive. :-)
Happy that all's well that ends well, but for any parents considering this, trench collapses have killed hundreds of workers in just the past decade. Anything deeper than a couple feet might be a hazard that needs to be mitigated.
Why not lean into it instead of becoming a wet blanket? Just look at the trench every few hours or so, and if it gets too deep, tell them about and help them with setting up some shoring.
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Chinese 2 ton mini excavator is like $8k, and electronic solenoid valves could be added for like $2k. I've got to re-convince myself I don't need to take on this project like every other month.
That is the easy part. However you just made a robot that will happily kill anyone who happens to wonder into the dig zone - we know from experience that people like to watch excavators work and they have no clue where the safe zone is. As such I have to discourage you from trying it - not that you couldn't make it dig the holes you want in a short time, but because you need someone trained watching for people walkin…
This all makes for fine hand wringing but is pretty much irrelevant at hobbyist project scales. The workplace standards that everyone tries to apply in bad faith to personal use are mostly designed to solve problems that aren't there. You're not gonna have distracted drywallers or rebar guys trying to take a shortcut and schlep materials through the excavator's range of motion in a personal use setting. You're not gonna have a boss yelling at someone who doesn't know better hop in an unstable trench or unstable latter and git'r'done when you're your own boss.
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#107How far down does a person own, on their property? I mean, keeping things (relatively) simple-- and residential-- and assuming you respect the water table, utilities, etc?
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Chinese 2 ton mini excavator is like $8k, and electronic solenoid valves could be added for like $2k. I've got to re-convince myself I don't need to take on this project like every other month.
That is the easy part. However you just made a robot that will happily kill anyone who happens to wonder into the dig zone - we know from experience that people like to watch excavators work and they have no clue where the safe zone is. As such I have to discourage you from trying it - not that you couldn't make it dig the holes you want in a short time, but because you need someone trained watching for people walkin…
Not all projects have to be taken on with the goal of commercialization. The beachhead functionality would be manual remote control - operate two machines from one seat. Then maybe some cameras to be able to work in the dark/cold/hot/etc from the comfort of inside. Even that is getting into the safety issue (any control system can go sideways), but seems straightforward to solve (some kind of redundant remote-control e-stop).
Any type of automation would be a huge pile of unknown unknowns, safety being one of them, how to even define goals for it to solve being another. Which is what keeps this idea in the realm of a dog chasing a car - if you gave me an excavator I could remote-control from my computer today, I'd not have the first clue what to actually do with it (beyond manually-controlled digging from my chair).
I do get that in the era of "AI" and vibe-coding why I may have set off your engineering sensibilities wtfometer though.
(Automating a lawnmower though...)
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is the easy part. However you just made a robot that will happily kill anyone who happens to wonder into the dig zone - we know from experience that people like to watch excavators work and they have no clue where the safe zone is. As such I have to discourage you from trying it - not that you couldn't make it dig the holes you want in a short time, but because you need someone trained watching for people walkin…
This all makes for fine hand wringing but is pretty much irrelevant at hobbyist project scales. The workplace standards that everyone tries to apply in bad faith to personal use are mostly designed to solve problems that aren't there. You're not gonna have distracted drywallers or rebar guys trying to take a shortcut and schlep materials through the excavator's range of motion in a personal use setting. You're not go…
> You're not gonna have a boss yelling at someone who doesn't know better hop in an unstable trench or unstable latter and git'r'done when you're your own boss
eh, kind of. The motivation to take unsafe shortcuts manifests differently, but it is still there. It requires some vigilance to exercise self-responsibility and sometimes make yourself stop and take a step back and figure out a better way to proceed, while accepting that something is going to take longer than you'd planned.
Re: So you want to build a tunnel
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Happy that all's well that ends well, but for any parents considering this, trench collapses have killed hundreds of workers in just the past decade. Anything deeper than a couple feet might be a hazard that needs to be mitigated.
Why not lean into it instead of becoming a wet blanket? Just look at the trench every few hours or so, and if it gets too deep, tell them about and help them with setting up some shoring.
That's what it means to mitigate the hazard, right?