Underdown Trenching – Recap

Today was the last day working with Underdown Trenching. I think I’ve really gotten used to getting up early and it’s nice because I get of at noon. I’ve learned a lot more and recently got to go to house where they were running the boring machine. The machine has all the rods that threading onto each other, and when you put the rods in the tray the machine will feed it into the next road and thread it for you. While the machine is running, you have to have somebody with the located checking to see how deep the bit is, that way you don’t hit any water lines or something like propane. Once your hole/trench is the correct length, you dig a hole at the end with a shovel. You then connect a plastic tube to the end of the drill bit. The operator then back pulls, which means they reverse the drill and all the boring rods come out. After the last one is through, the plastic tube has now come out the other side. Now you can put whatever you want through it.

Another thing I learned about was fiber optic. Fiber is made up of these little glass pieces, almost like tubes. The signal goes through the glass as light, which is faster then coax since coax uses sound. There is an tiny number of houses that have fiber directly to it, but David said if you could get fiber directly to your house the speeds would be almost unlimited. Fiber is harder to use which is why is doesn’t go directly to houses. You have to have special people connect it or splice it, which are called splicers. Splicers have to have this special box that fuses the glass together, and you have to be very careful because I’d you get even dust in it the signal will be screwed up. I really enjoyed my time here and it was something that I haven’t done before and previously didn’t know much about.