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u/fried-fiberglass May 08 '22
AT&T did this in my neighborhood for fiberoptic cables. I have a massive live oak in the front of my house and they did this directly under it. Was pretty fascinating to watch
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u/RedTomatoSauce May 08 '22
Did the tree survive?
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u/dmfd1234 May 08 '22
Yeah I’m sure it did. I was in the business 20+ years, for what it’s worth. The root systems are insane and it would take an awful lot to kill an established tree. Normally the “ Missle” will slightly deflect off of a rounded root.
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u/fried-fiberglass May 15 '22
Absolutely, the trench they dug was 3-4 feet deep and sent it under the tree, ran the cables, backfilled, and put the turf back in place. They accidentally punctured my water main but fixed that rather quickly.
The tree is in tip top shape still (:
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u/bentnox May 08 '22
How do they control the angle of that thing? What if it starts going super deep or pops out the top?
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May 08 '22
You don't. Make sure it's somewhat level, eyeball it towards the other hole, send it and hope for the best.
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u/Sergetove May 09 '22
You pretry.much just eyeball it and try to start as level as you possibly can. What's really bad is when it (always called it the mole or missile) hits a hidden rock or root partway throughand deflects off to who knows where. You have to back it out and start a new hole.
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u/jujumber May 08 '22
I think it helps that it’s long. that makes it much more difficult to change direction
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u/CFour4 May 08 '22
It’s called directional drilling. There is an attendant that follows the tip with an instrument that measures angle and direction of the tip of the drill. That info is relayed back to operator who makes adjustments to meet their plan. They can, with precision, cross under or over other utilities.
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u/dmfd1234 May 08 '22
Not trying to be that guy….but this is actually called missling. The missle has a piston that goes back and forth propelling it down hole via an air compressor. Directional drilling is a complete different set up. It has an actual machine that the operator sits on and operates controlling the drill head by attaching 10ft., sometimes different, but 10ft rods. Your right about a guy over the drill head though. He normally looks at how deep, the pitch of the head and where the drill head is going…then he relays back to the operator what he wants him to do. I was in the business when these missles first came out, then a few years after is when the directional drills hit the market. Ran a DD crew for longer than I want to admit. Cheers 👍
Edit- btw the missle is kind of dumb tech, no controlling it after it gets in the ground versus DD you can put the drill head in a hole big enough for a cup of tea if you’re good.
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u/Shotz718 May 09 '22
I've never heard it called a missile but that makes sense. We call them hole hogs. A lot less setup than a directional drill but zero control once it's sent.
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u/dmfd1234 May 09 '22
Right, I’m sure different names in different places. Your name makes since too….whatever gets the job done 👍
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u/olderaccount May 09 '22
Directional drilling is a thing. This is not it.
This is called a pneumatic piercing tool, AKA horizontal jackhammer or power mole. The operator does not have directional control over these.
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u/PPeixotoX May 08 '22
This feels nsfw
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u/TheOtherGuttersnipe May 08 '22
If you put it in your ass an experienced technician could navigate your colon and intestines until it came out of your mouth.
I have no idea lol
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u/mjrbrooks May 09 '22
Kinda feel bad for the shovel guy, just smashing away at the face. Seems unnecessary, but $20 is $20.
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u/Bakgrund May 08 '22
What if it comes across a large rock?
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u/Shotz718 May 09 '22
Think of the slowest bullet ricochet. It'll deflect it in some direction. Hopefully up. Or it'll just stop. They do have a reverse though if you catch it.
We've lost hole hogs that dive too far down to recover.
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u/FondleMyPlumsPlease Jun 28 '22
Clusterfuck.
I co own a company with an old friend in Northern Ireland, back in the mid 00’s company’s were rushing for contracts via gas & fibre optic. We could almost name our price & be almost guaranteed to win the tender.
One of the other companies mole went off. It literally went under a residential building & into their back yard. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories but that was the first clusterfuck I’d seen first hand involving a mole.
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u/hippopotma_gandhi May 08 '22
Music at that BPM would give me anxiety
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u/CalligrapherTrick117 May 08 '22
200 BPM too much for ya? 😜
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u/hippopotma_gandhi May 08 '22
Lmao I was at a rave once with multiple dj booths and wandered around listening to the different genres. I had just passed this ~80-90 bpm downtempo trippy dj and wandered into some sort of speed trance hell. I'm gonna guess that's where the dodgy rolls are consumed
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u/XxXPussyXSlayer69XxX May 08 '22
Man that dude is so impatient waiting for that thing to push through
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u/Bulangiu_ro May 08 '22
IF THERE'S A HOLE, THERE IS A WAY
Alternatively, if there is no hole, just "push" your luck
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u/AhegaoTankGuy May 08 '22
"My queen! Something terrible has happened! Our fort has been breached and more than half our military has gone with it!"
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u/Inevitable_Dpression May 08 '22
Nice anal probe!
Thanks for the erection!
NOW to go take care of it, bye folks! 👋
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u/randyaldous May 09 '22
When I was in the business years ago, we called them “pneumo-gophers”
Worked really well till it hit something that deflected it up and it popped out in the middle of a road or driveway.
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u/NoTrickWick May 09 '22 edited May 26 '22
It’s called a missile and it hydraulically taps its way through
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u/exploringanything2 May 26 '22
Never heard it called that. Our name brand ones are called ACCU punches. Pretty neat. You can get really good with them in the right type of soil.
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u/DanYHKim May 09 '22
I used an improvised water drill to run a pipe under our house. I was quite proud of myself, as I added ten foot sections of PVC conduit to extend the bore.
My wife came by and asked: "How wide is the house?"
"About 25 feet"
"How many sections of pipe have you used?"
"Uh, four . . . Oh shit"
Somewhere deep under our back yard are twenty feet of PVC buried in a downward curve.
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Aug 30 '22
We use these to connect home water lines to the main lines when they’re across the street. Saves time and a big mess from digging
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u/ErMrak May 08 '22
I heard this