Episode36 - Back to digging the bunker shaft!

[@crazygeorgelincoln]

Looking flash! You face when the elevator was going up, pleased as punch. Now to see if I missed a video about microswitches .

[@jagboy69]

Oh good, you are planning on going sideways! Clay is funny, solid clay will not allow water to travel through it. It just holds onto it's water. I'm in clay myself, but once I started to encounter some rock and gravel in it, here came the water! Sump it off and it comes running right back. Mine is very seasonal, I'm in a dry season right now and the sump is never running. So that means it's time to lower the sump and keep digging. Good times!

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

@@jagboy69 we don't get a dry season. I think I could dig down 20 metres and still be solid clay. The water gets in around the top of the bunker shaft and seeps down.

[@BackyardBunkerBuilder]

If you can Lex unspool the cable off of the winch and wind it back up onto it neatly from side to side. It will greatly increase the service life on your winch cable. If it is wrapped up crushing itself the way it is it will damage the cable. Neatly wound from side to side is the go. Top effort friend so glad to see it up and running.

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

I actually unspooled the entire cable and respooled it neatly before installing the winch but I think I must have allowed the tension to release at some stage in the setup of the elevator so yeah need to redo that. I'm pretty happy with it overall though. Hope all is well with you friend - keep checking your channel hoping for a video mate 🙂

[@stephenevans6070]

Blimey you've gone through a lot of salad cream😀

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

LOL I used to be on the maintenance team at work and one of my jobs was to empty the bins. I found these in the cafe kitchen bins. They make excellent buckets - really hard wearing.

[@nou-oo2ij]

The way you were describing the auger plans, I thought you were going to auger out a deep pilot hole, braced against the wall, then shave big chunks of earth into the auger hole with a digging bar. Can't argue with results though!

[@triedzidono]

Just a mad idea - from someone with no background in this sort of thing.. I remember cutting clay with cheese wire back in school. So, would a L shape plank, with spikes down the long in-side, layed down & under cut with a wire pull out perforated rooftile sized slabs. Looks like really nice clay, it may just contain enough natural grog not to crack. I don't know all that much about clay, it could be one of many minerals & some don't fire well, bentonite for example is best used for cat litter. fascinating project.

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

@triedzidono I tried firing some plain clay and it blew to bits. I might try again after drying it, crushing and sifting it and reconstituting it with nothing else added.

[@jagboy69]

@@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild Ya need a pug mill. Clay must be completely dry before you fire it or it will explode as you found out. lol

[@BackyardBunkerBuilder]

I formed up four bricks and only two stayed together. I still need to fire them they are waiting in my patio for that day. I have also heard of drying it out and adding the dried out powderised clay to the weter clay to reduce the shrinkage. We can learn from each other on this one. Having a furnace will be a great advantage for you.

[@thornwarbler]

I reckon a cheap sds drill with a chiseling function and a homemade clay spade would be the way to go for digging in there. You could dig out blocks much the same as how they cut peat fuel in Scotland and Ireland. Keep at it mate steady wins the race,

[@jagboy69]

I have an big Bosch sds max hammer drill (not cheap) with a clay spade on it. I can tell you it does go through it pretty good, but the spade thickness becomes an issue with the density. Lex buzzes the top layer off here easily because his auger is thin metal. In my dig, the spade worked great until I started hitting rock and gravel. Now I'm stuck swinging a mattock! If there was an easier way, I would have found it by now. If I could get a mini excavator down in my hole, I'd buy one in a heartbeat!

[@UnhingedHarry]

Good to see the charger on the battery. Those old skool batteries don't like being discharged too deeply.

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

That battery is pretty stuffed already to be honest. When my van battery died I got a new one and this is the old one - still got a bit of life in it.

[@AlexeiTetenov]

6:51 Can you use a dust collection machine to suck up the clay chips to the surface to a larger collection bucket, so that you don't have to carry it up in buckets?

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

Interesting idea . . . I wonder what such a machine would cost? And how noisy it would be. I don't want to annoy my neighbors

[@That1ufo]

Is a spade not less stressful on the arms and back and also faster?

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

The jury is still out - I feel like the auger will be quicker once I get better at using it (and bulk up my arms and shoulders LOL). The spade was actually really hard work as well.

[@demonzito]

What will you do when the hole is really deep and you can't exit the hole via the ladder? Will you just take less buckets up the elevator and ride on it too?

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

I will just keep adding ladders. They will be bolted to the side of the shaft.

[@davidfrith8289]

bunker branded tea set?

[@LexsBudgetBunkerBuild]

That might be a bit ambitious for my skill level. Maybe bunker branded bricks?