LilGiantsConstrCo

[RCLogger]

Hey Joe
There is no question that the Vario is built well, not sure how many hours you have on that machine but there seems to be nothing like it..

Do you ever put the track loader to work ?

greg

[Lil Giants]

Thanx Brandon.

5yrs old Greg, must have surpassed the 1000hr mark by now. Don't use the track loader in this wet crap, big enough headache with the Izzy dozer & JD850 taking tracks off for cleaning.

[Bsqrd]

Posing as a 'Safety Inspector' I dropped in on Joe with only an hours notice to have a look at his operation. Wow, words are inadequate for what he has accomplished! I managed to supervise as he loaded a couple loads of dirt with his large excavator and hauled them away. He answered all my questions and showed me his work shop. I think I learned that I do not have the skills or tools to be a scratch builder and I think I am lucky Izzy no longer makes Dozer kits, as I did like the ones Joe had lol. Thanks for a great afternoon Joe and keep up the good work.
Barry

[Stuff]

Joe's had a few visitors this year lol!

I am also still in awe of his operation

[Lil Giants]

It was great having you visit Barry, a real pleasure meeting you. ...wasted most of the time showing you what I have, now the next time you visit we'll do some earth moving.

4 within the last 6 months Dean, including yourself... now if IHSteve makes his summer family trip this yr out west...?

[frizzen]

Would it be possible to get a few videos that show a time lapse of the enormous project you're running? It'd gives some perspective about how impressive of a dig it is over showing someone a reasonable length video that just shows how well the machines run.

Maybe start with some of the excavator driving up on top of wall, start digging, and dig a bit, jump video to it part way down the wall, then again further down, further still... until you drive off at the bottom.

Or like some of leveling out the shed floor. Few piles, more piles, bunch of piles, ton of piles, compactor, few piles, bunch, grader...

[egronvold]

Originally Posted by Lil Giants

It was great having you visit Barry, a real pleasure meeting you. ...wasted most of the time showing you what I have, now the next time you visit we'll do some earth moving.

4 within the last 6 months Dean, including yourself... now if IHSteve makes his summer family trip this yr out west...?

Still waiting for a Canadian contract. Visiting Warner Robins, GA for a week right now

[Lil Giants]

Originally Posted by frizzen

Would it be possible to get a few videos that show a time lapse of the enormous project you're running? It'd gives some perspective about how impressive of a dig it is over showing someone a reasonable length video that just shows how well the machines run.

Maybe start with some of the excavator driving up on top of wall, start digging, and dig a bit, jump video to it part way down the wall, then again further down, further still... until you drive off at the bottom.

Or like some of leveling out the shed floor. Few piles, more piles, bunch of piles, ton of piles, compactor, few piles, bunch, grader...

Idk .... sounds like a 100hr project to make a 10 minute video? It's beyond my interest & ability to undertake such an involved computer project... and not having a broadband internet connection, the video might end up being too big for me to upload in hi-def... which is all anyone seems to want to watch anymore.

Take your pick of over 200 vids in 8yrs, every one shows how durable & capable the models are at moving earth.

The last vid was 2x & the one before it was 4x sped up, both involved ripping & digging dense clay... the faster rate made them easier to watch, I thought.

Originally Posted by egronvold

Still waiting for a Canadian contract. Visiting Warner Robins, GA for a week right now

I bet it's gorgeous weather done there right now, better than home eh Emil?!

You ever find yourself driving through Billings, Montana; I'm just 4hrs straight north, not far from the USA border.

[Lil Giants]

Made some progress on the tunnel dig the last month, getting to within 24 inches to reach the floor on the south exit.





Without natural light, the flash of the camera sorta disguises the two bench cuts stopping back in the tunnel.



This probably shows it better.







Quite a bit of dirt hauled back into the basement from the south exit... lots of rc activity with screening & crushing to do at a later date.

[Lil Giants]

I walked the JD850 out of the hole last weekend to fix the rc quick coupler, installing a new esc that has a built-in adjustable current limiter, motor draws too many amps (when the locking pins reach the end of travel) and it shuts off. Got from HeyOK Performance out in BC... thank you Kalle for putting me onto this guy.



Al Jackson of HeyOK Performance website. His products were designed moreso for the rock crawler world of rc, but some of his products will cross over into our realm as well.

https://www.freewebstore.org/HeyOK-Performance

And here today again, the JD850 coming out of the hole to travel back to workshop... it's a 15minute drive





Having just gone through the experience of the brushless pump motor bearings going out on the JD450, the JD850 was making a similar noise... with the motor removed, I can see the bearings are still intact, but feel dry & rough. This motor is 5yo - no doubt greater than 1000hrs use.





I have a Fumotec WA500 wheel loader that I got spring of '14 & have yet to put together... I just got some replacement parts for it in January b/c I robbed from it last summer to fix the B50 adt... now I'll steal the brushless motor from it & have the JD850 on it's way back to work in a couple hrs... it's good to have spare parts, especially when the parts store is on the other side of the globe!

[frizzen]

I didn't mean do that much new work to make the videos, i was just thinking splice together some of the old videos. 'No' is a good answer, thank you.

[Lil Giants]

Yes I understood you meant splice old vids... it's a great idea of yours, but not for me to undertake.

Here's a vid digging inside the tunnel, frame rate 2x, 1.85gig took all night to upload.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK7AQ3B18OQ

And a quick 39 sec vid showing the view from the lean-to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPV04oBrXc

[Lil Giants]

Getting to within 6 inches of basement floor level, finding a lot of big rocks at the 5 foot below ground. This one about the size of a basketball, after I got dug around it, then tried to pry it up with dig bucket, crumbles into a half dozen pieces.







Here's a vid I made last night showing where I'm at... at the 3:13 mark you can hear my knees crack as I sit down, knees have been aching for a couple months now crawling all over that trk & pup putting those augers on... body is going to hells in a hand basket!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c92xMV4smfg

[Cooper]

That power of the jd just crumbled the rock imagine what a cat would have done haha!! So those piles are gettin screened then? That should keep ya busy for a bit. I would say it will take you years to dig a tunnel with Rc but you've done it in a few months!! Pretty big job you did and now on tail end of it. Pretty impressive Joe!! I hear ya about the knees, we arnt getting old, just starting to show signs of use!! Wearing the paint off. I showed the wife your tunnel project, our new house basement is about 50' from future garage. How nice it would be to undertake that!! You are a bad man for planting that seed!!! Now Im thinking of a nice 6' wide, thick reinforced walkway out to garage, possible future tunnel ceiling��!! Hope ya start getting some warm weather. Anything seeded yet?

[Lil Giants]

I never would've bet money that it would have been this quick & easy... maybe 10hrs a week digging & hauling since Aug 1st - minus all of Oct for harvest. Yes, dirt piles for additional rc activity when tunnel is completed, perhaps before xmas. Then it'll be back to digging out the basement floor 1,5ft deeper... then in 4-5yrs get an RTM with a bigger floor plan -> then I'll need a bigger basement too.

Cooper's tunnel: drill parallel piles spaced 5' apart with cement slab on top, sounds like a perfect plan indeed! I would even make the drive to your house & bring the JD850 & B50 to give you hand with it for a couple months one winter. take the top 24" out & then you could punch the rest out with your D11 What's the soil type in your area?

It was 15C today & maybe 20's tomorrow, but that wind the last couple weeks, that can take a hike! Rule of thumb, never start seeding before April 20th... 3 weeks away yet.

Originally Posted by Cooper

imagine what a cat would have done

Shyt the bed & shower me in oil

[Lil Giants]

Yesterday here was another whiteout with high winds, a good day to spend inside! I cut out all the bench tops within the tunnel's length & practiced cutting a flat angular grade, this slope is 20 degrees (thanx Cooper for the clinometer app, sure comes in handy ).





From where the hoe sits now, digging down 10 inches will give me 62 inches from ground level to cement header and angle up 12 degrees from there... I have a few doorways in my house at this height, I'm use to ducking anyway. Plus to go down another 12 inches would add another 5 foot or more to the ramp length... more digging yes, but there'll be a big enough hole in that room as it is.



A quick vid of the process... swinging 90 at this slope, the sump ran dry & lost some oil out the vent hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVNb8XazKU

[Bo Wallen]

I sure enjoy watching the progress Very orderly work site....good planning.
Got 6 inches of that white stuff Monday night here, so Basement time here too.
Making Beams. And Crunch Crunch watching DeepDigVideo
Keep it going strong Joe.

[Lil Giants]

Thanx Bo, it's been going better than planned ...all that rainfall summers of 10, 11, 12, 13 before pouring the cement pad in fall of 13, really nice digging throughout

[Cooper]

What ya think I got ? And extended stay holiday inn?? Lol!! . I may need all of two months plus with you working long hours in underground conditions, poor lighting, no ventilation , possible dangerous creature attacking equipment,,,, but food and living quarters will be provided . Bbj and dirt floor!!! Lol!!! Well this year is probably mostly working on new shop but I do have a smaller basement under part of house that needs backfilling and moving a good bit of dirt. ( years ago had basement dug to 7' perimeter drainage and block knee wall built. ) 2017 project, just in time for retirement of the 450, replacing with a new one. Good first job!! Always welcome down here, just about an hour closer for you from time you were at cabin fever.

[Lil Giants]

Finished up spring planting Thursday, just in time for another slow soaker of a weekend ...I slept most of the weekend, but I did do a little digging here & there, still working on the lower entrance level.







Getting to be quite the pile of earth back in the basement again :d



This morning the right track went dead, I could hear the drive motor running, but no power to the track... I did get it back to the shop under its own power though from the bottom of the tunnel. It was more than just a lil hairy getting up the narrow +20° muddy slope with only one powered track & using the arm, there was a couple of "pucker moments" with slides towards the cliff's edge I did film it but after downloading it to my puter I was surprised to see it was 32 minutes long - 6gigs in dim lighting ~delete~

A 5 minute fix, two set screws on one drive sprocket worked loose...