Alternative to SDS Max?

[Grunff]

I'm thinking of getting an SDS Max, but also considering this as an alternative:

?

[Jet]

> Thoughts?

Does it come with a decent extension lead? Nice placcy case, maybe?

;)

[Grunff]

I think given the price, I might wait for the PPPro version to come out

- bound to be 1/5th the price, and with a 3 year warranty you can't go wrong.

[Andy Hall]

Apart from ending up in Taipei rather then Sangatte...

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Toby]

> Thoughts?

Excellent, although the auction did seem to start a day late. Hope you've got a trailer, as the seller won't post it.

Would someone really send them a postal order? I await the news item "man arrested while dragging TBM from terminal..."

[PoP]

What's the betting that the buyer is French, and wants it across the channel?

PoP

[Grunff]

Minor detail - besides, you can always take it back to B&Q for a replacement and try again.

[John Rumm]

Well at least it ought to fit through the tunnel!

[Scott M]

Rather boringly[1] it won't. One thing I recall from some docco about the chunnel was that, as it went along, the tunnel wall was built behind it (much like Fred Dibnah's pit) and had a narrower diameter than the machine. Also, when it finished its bit they were simply going to perform a sharp right turn and leave it in a cul-de-sac of its own making to rust away, so I'm not sure how this ones turned up again at Dover (or wherever) unless they ordered one too many and decided to stick it on a plinth (might explain why it was so overbudget!)

[Lurch]

On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 14:31:29 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Scott M strung together this:

I was going to write a reply like that, but decided it was a bit too close to sounding like the anorak brigade! ;-)

[Nick Brooks]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong but I think there were at least two of these going in opposite directions so one ended up here and the other in France

Nick Brooks

[Neil Jones]

> Thoughts?

i4ian seems to want it very much - current highest bid is £10m.

[PoP]

My understanding is that they met in the middle, and as mentioned on another reply they just drove them off to the right and left them.

Probably in about a million years time when the English Channel has disappeared and this tunnel is halfway up a mountain side some archeologist will come across one of these borers (or the outline thereof - it will have rotted and the metal replaced with sendiment) and christen it Tyranosaurus Chomper or something. They will try and figure out whether it was male or female and theorise about what it ate when it was alive ;)

PoP

[Lurch]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 16:09:10 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "Neil Jones" strung together this:

And falling, £7m now. Seems no genuine bids have been made. Just looking at the history of some of the bidders reveals that they're in no way serious about it.

[Martin Angove]

I'm sure the information is "out there" somewhere, but AIUI there were a lot more than two. Remember that the service tunnel is a different size to the *two* rail tunnels, and that they were all being dug at the same time (though IIRC the rail tunnels started and finished later). If they really did start from the ends and meet in the middle, that's a minimum of two smaller machines and four larger ones.

Didn't the French build part of the tunnel "backwards"? They dug straight down near the coast and then dug across the channel to meet the British, and away from the channel towards the terminus... this is only going by memory mind you, and would require another couple of machines.

Possibly the British did something similar with one of theirs?

With six, eight or more machines, they can't *all* have been left underground, and I do vaguely recall news footage of something being lifted out of a tunnel on dry land somewhere... but then again, my memory isn't famed for accuracy :-)

Hwyl!

M.

[Ian Stirling]

This would be perfect for that "shared tools" idea that was knocking around. I mean, how often do you need a miles-long underground tunnel boring machine, but when you do, it takes ages with a pickaxe.

[Owain]

"Ian Stirling" wrote | Grunff wrote: | > I'm thinking of getting an SDS Max, but also considering this | > as an alternative: | >

| > Thoughts? | This would be perfect for that "shared tools" idea that was knocking | around. | I mean, how often do you need a miles-long underground tunnel boring | machine, but when you do, it takes ages with a pickaxe.

The transport problem could be solved too, provided one avoided rivers and sewers, by regarding the thing as self-transporting. Uk.rec.subterranea mught be approached for suitable maps so we don't accidentally crash through Something Important Under Whitehall, and after a few decades of running it between various uk-diy readers we might be in a position to suggest a profitable merger with uk.railway

Owain