Drill baby drill!(Directionally, HDD content)

[BackRoad]

I can't close my eyes and bring my pointer fingers to touch in front of me.

Very impressive if the two drillers can meet halfway underground!

Makes one wonder how the France/England Chunnal dig connected under a 21 mile wide sea...

 

[paulsharvey]

I can't close my eyes and bring my pointer fingers to touch in front of me.

Very impressive if the two drillers can meet halfway underground!

Makes one wonder how the France/England Chunnal dig connected under a 21 mile wide sea...

I don't 100% understand the wireline guidance, or the math and headings and all that. I do understand pitch, and depth, and even drill to box stuff. You start getting into this telemetry stuff, it's another world.

On the Chunnel, I assume they were doing some complicated math to make those hit.

I've been on hundreds or probably several thousand HDD (horizontal directional drill) jobs, and about a dozen jack and bore jobs, but there is also "micro tunneling" which I've never even seen, or even talked with anyone who has seen first hand. My understanding is, it's basically a small scale version, from 24" on upto 12ft+ version of the Chunnel boring machines. I guess it becomes semi practical at around 60". Biggest HDD I've ever been part of is 36" diameter, but i know guys who have been part of 42 and 54" HDDs.

 

[Fixastuff]

The the ground has been frozen or then frozen and top melted(0 traction). So I’ve been almost only drilling. Here are a few pictures.

 

[paulsharvey]

Rods and reamers staged near exit pit.

 

[Fixastuff]

Rods and reamers staged near exit pit.View attachment 3625838View attachment 3625839

Big stuff. Wonder how many gallons of water they will us on that?

 

[paulsharvey]

Big stuff. Wonder how many gallons of water they will us on that?

This one is a 30" at about 1400LF. So, a ton.

We also have a different one coming up, about 65 ft deep to clear some bridge fender piles on a creek/river crossing, and they are flying in a special, not for sale yet, locator. Pretty sure on that creek they are using a pretty normal sized machine, in the 40T class.

 

[paulsharvey]

Talking to contractors past couple days; got some N FLa prices, both for single 2", directional drilled. $7.18/LF, $100 ea per Hand hole, and $150 for service drops upto 400 ft.

Another contractor, another telecom, $8/lf directional; hand holes included in that, and $1.75/lf plowed.

Also had a weird random call, from a small town water/waste water utility, out side my area, asking about casing requirements for a 2" force main service; and a town council woman wanted it in a 4" casing. Which went from $10/lf to $18/lf...

 

[Fixastuff]

I’ve had an awesome all plow/no drill/last two months!

 

[Fixastuff]

$150 for a 400 ft drop is stupid low money. A long time ago I worked for a company that paid like that. Worked for them for a few months then I met their “top guy” who had a barely running truck and beat up plow.

I realized then that this wasn’t good pay or the way to go. Lol.

The only way to make money on that is to be someone without a machine ,just back breaker and beat yourself to death or have multiple crews that are barely surviving $wise to make me money. Neither of those options appealed to me.

 

[paulsharvey]

Fixa, does your machine show pull/thrust/rational force for to the operator? Reason I ask, I never paid it any mind (I dont run a drill, im just on a lot of drilling jobs), and its never been a topic of discussion. Past few weeks; its been a Major topic. We maxed out at 100,000# several times, and although we got across eventually, what should have been 6 or 7 days, turned into 12 days. Lot of discussion about weather to swab again, vs hook reamer and pull pipe, based on pressures. This job, a 100,000# rig was "technically" capable, but me and several others thought it should have been the 330x500

 

[paulsharvey]

Guess what im saying, its always been, yeah, a 40k should do this shot, or a yep, 20x22 will do it. Ive never been part of the math of the pull; just the math on the geometry (I say that kinda jokingly, not real math, more of we probably need a +12% to get up by the exit; not the real math used on these river shots)

I watched one a few months ago, little JT10, 240 ft of 2", very nearly seized up; took hours (and some jerking/abuse) to get it across; and found the mud mixer to drill screen was completely clogged, with trash; so it was basically a dry (other than ground water) bore, in sand. If that is displaced to operator, wouldn't you see mud pressures at crazy levels and pull rods back?

 

[Fixastuff]

Guess what im saying, its always been, yeah, a 40k should do this shot, or a yep, 20x22 will do it. Ive never been part of the math of the pull; just the math on the geometry (I say that kinda jokingly, not real math, more of we probably need a +12% to get up by the exit; not the real math used on these river shots)

I watched one a few months ago, little JT10, 240 ft of 2", very nearly seized up; took hours (and some jerking/abuse) to get it across; and found the mud mixer to drill screen was completely clogged, with trash; so it was basically a dry (other than ground water) bore, in sand. If that is displaced to operator, wouldn't you see mud pressures at crazy levels and pull rods back?

Don’t have an answer for you on machine size. But when my trash screen gets clogs it means I get no water to pump so no pressure and no water out the head. Drilling still works(until you overheat the sonde) but steering in hard ground without water is “difficult”. lol.