Posted on 02/14/2012 10:20:10 AM PST by trailhkr1
A Canadian guy named Joe has been digging out the basement of his house using nothing but radio-controlled scale model construction equipment... since 1997. Yes, you read that right he's been digging out his basement for 15 years with nothing but little R/C tractors, diggers and even a miniature rock crusher! Amazing.
At an average rate of eight or nine cubic feet of earth moved each year, the process has been absolutely glacial. But what do you expect when every morning he drives his little excavator on its transport truck down to the basement, unloads it, and then uses it to dig out the basement walls.
Then Joe uses the excavators to load R/C trucks and they work their way up a spiral ramp to the basement window where the soil gets dumped outside.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
15 years heavy machinery mining, including excavators, trucks, bulldozers, and rock crusher experience
Amazing pics and video on the link.
Wow, had he hired union workers the progress would have been slower.
Talk about having way too much time on your hands....he could have been done years ago with a pickax and a shovel.
Yep.
He should get a life-time achievement award!
Actually, it is an interesting proof of concept on how to do construction on the moon, or the like.
The snow in the Great White North sure does something whacky to the minds of Canadians. At least it gives us great Canadian comedians!
As someone posted on the link below this is why the guy does this. Check out the background of his house.
http://jalopnik.com/5884789/a-basement-excavated-a-video-gallery/gallery/8
Yep ... it's his hobby. Looks like fun, too.
Can't have that.
Oh, no!
Gotta condemn him as insane. He'd be SOOOOoooo much better off ingesting chemical tranquilizers and staring slack-jawed at the television.
Then he'd be "normal".
Actually it's not a bad idea if you could fully automate the operation and run it 24/7. It would eliminate the need for large openings in the basement walls and the need to have workers in unpleasant conditions. I have seen this done with bucket conveyors and wheelbarrows but even that has it's drawbacks.
Or spending 12 hours a day conversing with total strangers on the internet thinking your opinion means diddly squat to the world outcome.
I agree with you I think this is kinda cool.
A great big chunk of a life wasted on this. Sigh.
Yeah. Because the only two things one can do in life is to either spend 15 years digging out a basement with miniature equipment, which he seems to be only 1/2 way through, or watch the tube high off his a$$. I guess an alternative would be doing a 53 page blog on the subject.
Yes, you could create a fully automated operation using a fleet of these micro-machines and make great money with it.
This guy just made my “Minecraft” addiction seem normal.
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