They had to replace a buried phone cable on my property today and this video shows what they did. The only holes they dug were at each end and where they had to turn a corner. I watched them launch the tool in a small trench, sending it under some paver stones, under a shed and beside a big palm tree. He then dug a hole no bigger than the head of a shovel about 45 feet away. I thought "no, he will have to dig a big hole and hope", but I was wrong. The tool showed up right in the middle of the hole. I was impressed.



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[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 02-10-2017).]

I've watched them do it up here too. Pretty amazing stuff, considering they have to miss all the lines and wires and pipes down there while they are at it.

Closest I ever came was with an M72 at the range.....it hit about 15 yards before the tank....but instead of detonating or burrowing, it skipped and hit dead center on the upper track line. One of the best hits I ever got--by accident.

.....Knowing that, I wonder if they would let me at that boring gear for a few tries. ?

Is a soft version of horizontal drill/boring operations.
Hard pipe machines have been doing this for decades and handle small to large pipes etc.
Examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdLCD6t6C-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ64MvfJfkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl8BBoCV7gU

For smaller jobs w/o steering... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifNK-jq93K4

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 02-10-2017).]

quote Originally posted by williegoat: I watched them launch the tool in a small trench, sending it under some paver stones, under a shed and beside a big palm tree. He then dug a hole no bigger than the head of a shovel about 45 feet away. I thought "no, he will have to dig a big hole and hope", but I was wrong. The tool showed up right in the middle of the hole. I was impressed.

Very kool, ! I wonder though, ....

... what about a richocet ? Just like skipping a flat stone on water. You don't get participation awards for skipping a stone. You get bragging rights if you skipped it more times.

back on topic ...
... in my vocation, we might drill a horizontal oil well. It could be just straight vertical. A horizontal well had to stay within legal "lease lines". We would drill down about 10,000 foot and then...drill sideways. Staying within legal lease lines.

Never seen that...pretty cool. I guess I thought they just pushed a pole thru where they wanted it or something, then fed the line/conduit thru that. I wonder who you would call to do that for you. Id like a line run under my 20' wide driveway so I can put an outside plug on the other side to plug my RVs in so I dont have to have a cable laying across the driveway.

Had one of the horizontal boring rigs digging locally four years ago. They went under two rivers and a four lane highway.
Drilled about 3,750' (1.243 km), 70' (21.3 m) under the riverbeds and hit their target on the other side.
It was a 46" (116.8 cm) bore for a 30" (76.2 cm) water main. Story is here.

edit: add metric measures.

[This message has been edited by spark1 (edited 02-16-2017).]

From what I have read, it is one of these systems that will be installing the pipeline under the river in the contested Dakota Access system.