Cable under path

you can tunnel.

There are sort of mole machines..

In fact 18" is not a huge thing to do by handd with a trowel from each side.

Yes - and those moles can go for 10's yards easily. So on that option, look out for gas/water/electric vans and ask them - they *might* have a mole (some do use them) and they *might* be persuaded to do a homer.

But as it is only 3'6", you could trench upto it, with a 5' long trench in the direction you wish to mole, then bang a bit of capped metal tube under the path at the required depth, chop the cap off and use as a duct.

Sort of a poor man's mole.

I reckon a scaffold pole would be doable with a sledgehammer. But a bit of iron water pipe depending on cable size would be easier and still strong enough to take the beating.

But it is an idea... I did a fairly neat 2' long hole under my house foundations for a new water pipe with a 4' breaker bar to dig my way along.

Getting 2 holes to meet in the middle would make it more interesting but not impossible.

ps I meant to add that my dad once made two 2'8" doors for a 5'6" alcove and couldn't work out why there was a gap.

nothing wrong with doors

It was because he made the frame too thin

simples

ps

if he had made 2 2'9" doors they would still not have worked properly if he had wanted them to close against one another due to the need for a rebate one each

been there

Regards

no. make that 21" :-)

I'd use my pneumatic mole - it's 45mm in diameter and once you'd opened a trench either side would take 5 minutes at the most to cover

AWEM

Maybe I can hire one?

Certainly could, but you need a road compressor to drive it. I think it's rather ot for the job . Dig a trench either side of the path in line with where you want the cable to cross, excavate as far as you can with a trowel then bash a length of scaffold pole through the remainder. I've heard of people getting good results with a pipe connected to mains water to flush a hole through soil but I would imagine it's a very messy process.

AWEM

Friends did something similar recently (moors west of Edinburgh). Needed to get a duct from one side of a single track road to the other and used a mini jcb and scaffolding pipe.

Rob

I have made a hole under a concrete path by using a threaded bar. My drill bits were too short and a longer drill bit was going to be over £60 and OTT for a one off job for a friend.

I did a pilot hole using my SDS bits and then hammered the bar in through the rest of the way. As it was only 3 core 4mm SWA I got away by using a M16 threaded bar that was knocking about in my mates garage. Of course it will only work for small cables.