# Trapped boring machine; personally, I wouldn't want to have it at a cocktail party **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 8, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777 "2023-07-08T16:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/21 "2023-09-24T16:05:48Z")
Here’s a thought: $6 million machine, $25 million to rescue, hmmmm. Why not ditch the machine, bring in a new one (or shop around for one “gently used”), and start all over again. I’d also recommend a different engineering firm to create the plans for this big drain. The new firm could do a lot of research on development above the projected drain tunnel, to determine whether or not there are any anchoring cables, gas lines, sanitary sewers, etc in the proposed path of the drain. And here’s a prediction. Those anchoring cables connected to the foundations of the condos were put there for a reason. Those tall buildings can fall down and go boom. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/22 "2023-09-24T16:23:27Z")
If they ditch the stuck machine, they could cannibalize it for parts, reduce the loss that way. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/23 "2023-09-25T00:59:55Z")
If i interpreted the photo from the CBC article correctly, the less than scintillating machine had nearly completed the full distance it needed to excavate when it hit the steel bars that it is now entangled in. I’m not sure why someone with a gas powered cut-off saw couldn’t free the poor thing and then just pull it out into the cavity that the picture was taken from. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/24 "2023-09-25T03:25:42Z")
I’m not seeing the same picture, I guess. From what I’ve heard of these sorts of machines, they have a cutting head of a certain diameter, and behind that they place concrete blocks to shore up the walls of the tunnel. The result is that the tunnel is smaller than the cutting head. You can’t bring it out the way it went in; at least, not in one piece. If I remember correctly, two of the boring machines that made the Channel Tunnel are still buried somewhere near the middle. The two machines that started from England had a greater diameter than the two that started from France. When they got near the middle, the two English machines angled downward and buried themselves. The two French machines completed the tunnels, and were small enough to be hauled forward and brought out of the tunnels on the English side. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/25 "2023-09-25T18:13:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > When I was a kid, whenever I saw a sign posted in front of a machine shop saying “boring worker wanted” it always made me chuckle. Yes, I was an easily amused kid. > > I always enjoyed seeing the “Slow men working” signs. Meant the kids who lived near the “slow children playing” signs could find jobs eventually. “Slow men working on boring job” works, too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/26 "2023-09-25T18:17:18Z")
> [@solost](#): > > When I was a kid, whenever I saw a sign posted in front of a machine shop saying “boring worker wanted” it always made me chuckle. Supposedly there once a listing in the Yellow Pages that read “Boring: see civil engineers”. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/27 "2023-09-25T19:10:54Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Supposedly there once a listing in the Yellow Pages that read “Boring: see civil engineers”. There is no such thing as a civil engineer. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/28 "2023-09-25T19:16:51Z")
The ones I have met have usually been polite. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/29 "2023-09-25T22:25:06Z")
But were they boring? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/30 "2023-09-28T07:48:19Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > “Boring machine rescue nearly triples in price, according to new city report” (I imagine most people might already know this) ambiguous headlines like this are called ‘Crash Blossoms’ [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ldT2g2qDQNQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Crash Blossoms and Being Drunk: Ambiguity") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldT2g2qDQNQ) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/31 "2023-09-28T13:46:15Z")
When I was new at my job, I encountered a map entitled, “Boring Locations in Lee County.” I had only been here a few years but I already knew it would be quicker to map out the non-boring locations. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/32 "2023-09-29T13:28:18Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > once went to a town in New Brunswick – was it Moncton? Yep, Moncton, NB. Was there many years ago on the way to PEI. Bore was only a foot or so high that time. But still interesting. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/33 "2023-10-04T23:20:45Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > > [@WildaBeast](#): > > > > Supposedly there once a listing in the Yellow Pages that read “Boring: see civil engineers”. > > There is no such thing as a civil engineer. What’s the old joke I’m reminded of? I think it goes something like, “God must be a civil engineer; because who else would have had the sense of humor to put a recreational area right next to a sewage outlet”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/34 "2023-10-05T00:06:47Z")
Dates back to Lord Chesterfield, I think, although not with the comparison to a civil engineer. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/35 "2023-10-05T00:39:13Z")
The inventor of the sofa? ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/36 "2023-10-11T19:47:01Z")
In the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Free at last!” [Trapped boring machine removed from underground | CP24.com](https://www.cp24.com/news/millions-of-dollars-later-crews-remove-final-piece-of-boring-machine-trapped-underground-1.6596895) ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777/37 "2023-10-11T20:27:45Z")
May it rest in pieces. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-boring-machine-personally-i-wouldnt-want-to-have-it-at-a-cocktail-party/986777.md?page=1)