Man digs out basement with R/C construction equipment models

A fellow named Joe, from Saskatchewan, Canada, has been digging out his basement since 2005 with a fleet of remote-control scale models of tractors and trucks. He even has a conveyor belt to move the dirt. What fun!

From Carscoop:

"I feel quite fortunate to have stumbled onto this basement excavation idea, it's been a great past time to date dreaming up new ideas to tackle different projects along the way," Joe wrote on the Scale4x4rc forums where he also posted pictures and videos of his feat.

"It's been a great hobby thus far, dreaming up - building all sorts of different miniature equipment from kits or from scratch for this "mining" project. If it wasn't for this mining project I probably would have lost of interest in this hobby by now b/c once the models are built - the novelty of how they work & perform would wear off with no task to be accomplished them," he notes in another post.

"Canadian Digs Out Basement Using Only Radio Controlled Scale Tractors and Trucks…Since 2005!"

• [Mister44]

  *slap!*

  “No, really! When I asked you to come to my basement so we can lay some pipe, I wasn’t using an euphemism.”

• [Rotwang]

  So awesome.  I wonder what kind of battery life he gets.

• [bcsizemo]

  I’ve been digging out my crawl space, but have been doing it by hand. 

  I’ll give him props for the idea, but I’m thinking this is more of a hobby than anything.

  My real question is..what does he do with all the dirt?  I’m kind of running out of room for it.

• [allybeag]

  I’m sure I could have done it in a lot less than 7 years using a shovel…

• [Rotwang]

  Now he needs a model train to haul the ore to his model refinery.

• [Carl Beckelheimer]

  Should have put the controls online. Like an IRL minecraft.

• [willyboy]

  Wait until OSHA gets a hold of this.

• [coffee100]

  Well, at least we haven’t had the obligatory comment about having “too much time” on his hands or needing to “get a life” yet.   I’m encouraged.

  Just once I’d like to see a story about some guy who has a hobby considered by the mainstream to qualify him as a complete loser.  After the media ghouls have surrounded him, prepared to jeer and hold his loser-ness high for all the world to see, his absolutely perfect, sizzling hot girlfriend arrives wearing a Victoria’s Secret “fuck me” outfit that makes the male reporters on the scene double over as if lightly kicked in the stomach. 

  She places his coffee on the table, stirs the cream suggestively, kisses him on the cheek and repairs to the kitchen to make him a sammich.

  Victoria’s Secret might even sponsor that news report. 

  • [Egypt Urnash]

    I have a better story for you. Hot girlfriend shows up dressed like she normally does, takes a turn running the diggers with enough skill that she’s obviously spent time spent hanging out in the basement with her boy running the tiny heavy machinery (or whatever), then saunters back to her own equally-nerdy and “loserly” project. Dude can make his own sandwich.
    -a hot lady who hangs around her house drawing comics and furry porn for fun.

  • [Guest]

     I’d better get newsworthy.

• [ferd]

  And so it was that the Morlocks began building their subterranean world.  Little did the surface dwellers know what was in store for them.

• [Egypt Urnash]

  This is how Batman villains get their start, isn’t it? Now he does it for fun; one psychotic break later, his models are digging into BANK VAULTS!

  But seriously, this is awesome. Crazy inefficient for moving the dirt but I kinda think that’s TOTALLY NOT THE POINT.

• [Austin Deely]

  Now there’s reason #1021 for there’s not much to do up in Canada…
  Saskatchewan no less… don’t get me wrong, I love our Canadian brethren, but did he not stop and consider his country’s image? C’mon man!  Like they need another jab (although all that jabbing has produced some funny comics – maybe that downtime is worthwhile after all…)

• [Eric Hunting]

  I think this is a great project that hints at the possibility of even greater things. 

  For some time I’ve been advocating the idea of an open source space program tapping into today’s burgeoning amateur robotics hobby culture that would seek to create a full scale prototype telerobotic lunar outpost in the Atacama dessert. The facility would be completely unmanned save for a perimeter support facility, all hardware going in by simulated equivalents of ‘rough’ and ‘soft’ lander systems and coming out in a few perimeter drop zones. 

  Just like the real thing, the facility would be managed by remote via a satellite internet uplink adapted to simulate lunar signal latencies and would support both VPN access for outpost management teams and limited public access to web cams and possible ‘sandbox’ areas. 

  The facility would be divided into three areas for testing systems for the three basic phases of outpost development; beachhead, surface cluster (assay), and excavated complex. Over time, systems would evolve to spaceworthiness status and be designated as part of the real outpost mission package eventually deployed on the Moon. Depending on deployment strategies, a fourth facility in a different location might be development to mock-up an additional teleoperated orbital logistics facility used for cis-lunar transport construction. 

  The program would be like the greatest cooperative model train layout ever; one where people around the world participate and can look forward to putting real community-developed hardware into space to create a permanent teleoperated research facility on the Moon. This would give some real purpose to the amateur robotics movement and catalyze a host of new technologies and businesses. 

• [Michael Smith]

  Best not to make it automatic because if he forgets, he could make a Mohole.