Introduction: No Diggity - No Dig Trencher / Tunneler
A few years ago, I came up with a way to dig out a trench for a chicken watering system, using my shop vac.
Instructables: No Dig Garden Trench
I had another project where I wanted to move my water main into my garage, and needed to tunnel under slab to re-route the copper piping.
Nothing was made to do this ... Until NOW.
:)
Step 1: Parts You Need... Not Many
- 6-8' of 2" PVC pipe
- 3 or 4 2" couplings
- Dremel tool
- Shop vac
All of the stuff I had left over from other projects, so my costs were minimal.
THE PROJECT:
I needed to tunnel 7' under a 2" thick slab, but I could not use a normal trenching tool because my access space was only a 15 x 15 'box'. So I needed to think "OUT OF THE BOX" and this idea was born.
Step 2: Baby Shark, Do Do Do Do Do ...
Using the Dremel, I cut teeth into the PVC. The first piece doesn't need to be too long, only like 5-6"—just long enough to fit into the 2" coupling.
Step 3: Attaching the Shop Vac
Since the pipe is 2" and the shop vac is also almost 2" round, I used some black tape, just to make the connection snug, but not too snug, because you will be removing the vacuum hose a lot to remove larger stones.
Step 4: I'm Digging a Hole ...
Starting small, I started poking and turning the digger and the vacuum sucked up the dirt and occasional rock.
As I filled up the shop vac with dirt, I would empty it into a bucket to be used later as a back-fill.
I added couplings and more PVC pipe to keep extending it, as the hole got deeper.
(The white box marking was the point where I met the dig on the other side, so I had a guide how deep to dig.)
Step 5: The Finished Product
Well it's a HOLE ... :)
18" deep and 7' long.
Took me about 3 hours to complete the project.