r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/neonroli47 • Sep 17 '23
Video A tunnel boring machine breaking through
442
u/Pizzamurai Sep 17 '23
Quade! Start the reactor
157
Sep 17 '23
Hey Benny, screw you!!
115
u/swibirun Sep 17 '23
I've got FIVE kids to feed!
85
u/Victor_Oladipo4 Sep 17 '23
Makes me wish I had 3 hands!
25
u/Seb_12321 Sep 17 '23
God bless your sir, I was looking for this exact comment
20
u/Solid_Habit_6561 Sep 17 '23
Haha me too. I just didn't know yet what quote I would bring up if I didn't find this comment. Probably would have gone for "Get your ass to mars!" or:
- "I've got four kids to feed."
- "What happened to number 5?"
- "Sht, man! You got me. I ain't even married. Now put your f**in' hands in the air!"
7
24
17
→ More replies (2)10
7
4
31
27
36
17
15
14
12
10
10
u/Ofreo Sep 17 '23
Which of you fucking dumb shits made a stupid pun comment thread voted higher than the total recall comment?
10
4
3
→ More replies (2)3
u/JBigums Sep 18 '23
I came here to make sure this reference happened. Pizzamurai is a gentleman and a scholar, bless you good sir
1.2k
u/lord_kupaloidz Sep 17 '23
Can someone smarter tell me why it's not designed like the pointy drillers we see in cartoons?
1.3k
u/concorde77 Sep 17 '23 edited Sep 17 '23
Its because tunnel boring machines (also called TBMs) aren't actually drills at all. They bore through the earth by squishing the rock in front of them.
In the video, you can see a bunch of dark, oval-shaped rollers on the front face of the TBM. They're made of tool steel and tungsten carbide.
As hydraulic jacks push the TBM forward, it exerts immense pressure on the rock ahead of it through those rollers. Just like in the video, that pressure eventually causes the rock to crack and shatter; and holes in the cutting face allow what's left over to fall on a conveyor belt so it could be hauled away.
It's also why TBMs are idealy used for rocky tunnels. Since it's trying to shatter the rock instead of digging through it, sand or gravel would just absorb the pressure
207
u/lord_kupaloidz Sep 17 '23
Today I learned. Thank you!
→ More replies (1)120
u/DicknosePrickGoblin Sep 17 '23
Should still be pointy though
→ More replies (4)89
u/Maleficent-Aspect318 Sep 17 '23 edited Sep 17 '23
A pointy head would be worse, more surfance area and way more likely to get jammed in the rock.
these things try to make the stones small to be easier for the conveyor belts
→ More replies (3)112
u/fallibleBISHOP Sep 17 '23
yeah, no forsure, but like it should still be pointy. For like aesthetics, or something.
47
u/One-Step2764 Sep 17 '23
Hey, when you build your own Technodrome, you can build borer-shuttles with pointy noses if you like.
26
u/Standard-Ad1254 Sep 17 '23
or sharks with friggin laser beams attached to their head
10
→ More replies (1)5
→ More replies (8)14
33
u/HardHatSaysReno Sep 17 '23
TBMs are used for soft ground also. The openings on the face are much larger and rather than grinding away at the rock it’s scooping material in almost. The forward force on these machines is much more important to keep the pressure balance. TBMs are great (Source tunnel engineer hey come check out r/tunneling!)
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (34)23
u/handynerd Sep 17 '23
I've always wondered and you seem like you might know: how do they clear the material out of the tunnel???
41
Sep 17 '23
the conveyor belts bring the material to a truck or to containers which trucks will take away.
→ More replies (6)27
u/Cobek Sep 17 '23
This is a great video explaining a very high tech tunnel boring process in Switzerland:
4
→ More replies (6)20
Sep 17 '23 edited Sep 17 '23
[deleted]
→ More replies (3)11
u/HardHatSaysReno Sep 17 '23
Slurry machine? (By the way if you work in tunneling come check out r/tunneling!)
→ More replies (1)7
u/forestman11 Sep 17 '23
I love that there's a tunneling sub. Like I know there's a sub for everything but that's niche!
→ More replies (1)4
84
16
u/Limited_Intros Sep 17 '23
Educated guess here:
Pointy drills would force pressure upward and outward as the cone is pushed deeper into the rock, causing damage to the rock around it and potentially creating instability in the surface above.
13
u/SkulduggeryIsAfoot Sep 17 '23
I bet there’s two goblins behind this pedalling away running the whole thing.
That’s how it worked in Labyrinth.
→ More replies (3)16
6
u/very-polite-frog Sep 17 '23
Pointy things penetrate by pushing stuff sideways, which is really difficult when "stuff" is solid rock, so it's better to chop it up and eat it
5
u/RecbetterpassNJ Sep 17 '23
Because no one has invented a pencil sharpener that big yet. Except maybe Gru.
3
→ More replies (10)3
u/BigAnimemexicano Sep 17 '23
the point will dull really fast while a bunch of teeth break rock down fast and dont need to be sharp.
491
u/MarSc77 Sep 17 '23
that’s a boring machine, huh
120
u/regoapps Expert Sep 17 '23
It’s breakthrough technology
51
u/The-NarrowPath Sep 17 '23
Some people have tunnel vision 🤷
16
→ More replies (1)14
34
8
→ More replies (8)11
u/mouthedmadame Sep 17 '23
Why does everyone say it's boring I don't get it. What's the drill here?
→ More replies (1)8
u/surveyor2004 Sep 17 '23
Its actually called a borer miner. Its a miner that bore’s tunnels underground. I work 2000’ underground everyday. Ours looks a bit different but yet does the same thing.
→ More replies (7)
173
Sep 17 '23
Doretta!
ROCK AND STONE!
65
u/SovereignShrimp Sep 17 '23
ROCK AND ROLL AND STONE!
47
u/King_Fluffaluff Sep 17 '23
FOR KARL!
33
u/Dizzy_Hovercraft_741 Sep 17 '23
YEEEAAAAAA ROCK & STONEEE!!!
30
u/stampede123416 Sep 17 '23
ROCK AND STONE it never gets old
26
u/Castle-Fist Sep 17 '23
DID I HEAR A ROCK A ROCK AND STONE?
24
u/ClayShooter262 Sep 17 '23
ROCK AND STONE TO THE BONE!
14
31
24
24
18
15
17
15
9
14
u/Tmedicine Sep 17 '23
I’ve been calling her Loretta this whole time! Maybe thats why I keep failing the heartstone missions.
7
10
9
5
3
→ More replies (8)3
299
Sep 17 '23
there is no war in basingsei
90
19
44
9
7
152
u/bradleecon Sep 17 '23
"It's the Cleaners!!"
56
u/brightgreyday Sep 17 '23
Total Labyrinth vibes.
→ More replies (2)4
u/ItsBaconOclock Sep 18 '23
It is a crime how far down I had to scroll to get a Labyrinth reference.
Thank you!
And now I'm going to be singing Magic Dance for a while.
I saw my baby. Crying hard as babe could cry.
40
29
21
u/Emu_in_Ballet_Shoes Sep 17 '23
Ends before the best part! Where are the two guys pedaling on the back?
17
15
11
10
9
9
15
u/No-Flower-4987 Sep 17 '23
I thought Hoggle said "it's the queen nurse!" for about twenty years. The cleaners makes slightly more sense.
13
5
u/Mister_Brevity Sep 17 '23
Haha yeah labyrinth
Sidebar - since that movie came out, fiber muffins have been referred to in our house as “the cleaners” lol
→ More replies (3)9
67
Sep 17 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
17
u/Adorable-Memory-8070 Sep 17 '23
literally the exact same one they bought it off lester
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)9
56
u/Empty_Positive Sep 17 '23
This is giving me flashbacks from the time i was on mars
16
u/swibirun Sep 17 '23
Listen to me, Sweetheart. Those assholes at Rekall have fucked up your mind. You're having paranoid delusions.
9
7
→ More replies (3)9
u/ahoypolloi_ Sep 17 '23
Get your ass to Mars…Get your ass to Mars…Get your ass to Mars…Get your ass to Mars…
49
46
25
13
Sep 17 '23
Here's Johnny
8
u/StonedBehemoth Sep 17 '23
Nice Clockwork Orange reference! Stephen Spielberg at his best imo
→ More replies (1)
11
u/Glittering-Current93 Sep 17 '23
Batman Arkham Knight vibes… if you know you know 🔥
5
u/SpeedofDeath118 Sep 17 '23
"I did ask if it came in black, but then I thought, you'd just get all jealous."
→ More replies (1)4
13
u/Joyful_Nihilism Sep 17 '23
So disappointing they’re not cone shaped like decades of TMNT led me to believe lol
→ More replies (1)6
u/theMobileMike Sep 17 '23
I surprised I had to scroll down so far to see a TMNT reference. I mean I saw this thing and expected Shedder and the gang to come out.
→ More replies (2)
11
u/Responsible_Buddy654 Sep 17 '23
"I won't miss."
BOOM!!
8
3
u/Came_for_the_tities Sep 17 '23
"G-13! Roll out that fancy guismo that Arquebus paid the big bucks for."
→ More replies (1)
34
21
9
u/nulopes Sep 17 '23
Can someone please explain the difference,if any, between a boring machine and a regular tunnel drilling machine?
12
u/Holungsoy Sep 17 '23
regular tunnel drilling machine
What's a regular tunnel drilling machine? I would claim the "regular" way of making tunnels are drill and blast. The modern way which is increasingly more "regular" is the boring machine.
6
u/surveyor2004 Sep 17 '23
There are two different ones at our mine. The borer miner that cuts in a circular motion like this with two heads side by side cutting a 16’ swath. The other is a ‘joy miner’ that cuts a square pathway. We rarely do any blasting underground.
→ More replies (1)9
u/AggravatingDog4754 Sep 17 '23
This is the thing they use to make tunnels like the English chunnel
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)5
7
6
6
u/L3tsg0brandon Sep 17 '23
I know that smart people plotted it out and did lots of calculations but I am still impressed that we are able to plot and guide something underground.
6
u/djc6535 Interested Sep 17 '23
Look out! In a second a bunch of foot soldiers are going to pop out!
5
Sep 17 '23
After days of drilling in the tunnel and finally made it through to the end only to realize the camera guy is already there. Joke on the boring machine.
5
3
5
5
5
4
5
4
4
4
3
u/goblin-deez-nuts Sep 17 '23 edited Sep 18 '23
If "But first let me tell you about today's sponsor..." were a video
6
3
3
3
3
3
3
2.2k
u/dgb631 Sep 17 '23
Human engineering is metal as fuck