HORZONTAL BORING - Porta-Mole Earth Boring Machines

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The simplest solution is usually the best one, and that adage is exemplified by a lawnmower-size device that bores holes as big as 15 inches in diameter under roads and highways. The device, called the Porta-Mole, has received industry awards based on the benefits it brings to the process of underground facility placement.

The machine, manufactured by Carlton International Mfg. Corp. of Fort Worth, TX, uses a 5 - or 9hp motor to drive a drill stem at 600 rpm. A small stream of water goes through the stem to cool the bit and flush out the cuttings. Different bits allow drilling through virtually any rock or soil. The Porta-Mole can be purchased for less than $5,000 …

According to Tena Bradley, vice president of sales for Carlton, the machine's most highly prized feature is it's accuracy. She explains that a special drill stem guide controls the depth and angle of the bore. Direction is controlled by a aiming sight that can be aimed at a target stake up to 200 feet away.

When the boring is underway, forward speed is controlled by a hand winch mounted on the machine. "The operator can feel impulses from the drill bit that are transmitted up the drill stem," Bradley said. "From this feel, the operator knows when to slow down or change the bit. But, if the propulsion were mechanized, the drill would be automatically forced forward and be deflected off of rocks or other obstructions."

The 600-rpm speed of the drill rotation is also a factor in accuracy, according to Bradley. "Any physics teacher will tell you that the faster you spin an object, the more it wants to stay in it's original path …

it's a principal called 'conservation of angular momentum'." Bradley added, "The Porta-Mole is so accurate that some of our customers use it for sewer placement. You can maintain the exact grade needed for drainage flow."

Because of the low cost of the Porta-Mole, it is proving extremely popular with public works departments in smaller communities with very limited budgets. Officials of the city of Roanoke, TX. Reported they were able to save nearly $50,000 on a water project. In nearby Farmers Branch, the public works people reportedly drilled through 44 feet of "solid white rock" in less than 90 minutes.

An Oklahoma contractor reported he has been using a Porta-Mole to install telephone cables and gas pipelines. "Overall, it's been a good machine," he said. "It works better in some terrains than others, but it does go through rock real well."

Art Harbolt, tool manager for Henderson Electric Company of Louisville, KY, said his first experience with Porta-Mole was during a highway project. His company was already behind schedule and was paying penalties when they experienced problems getting pipe under the highway. As the crew waited, one manufacturer demonstrated his boring system and promptly lost $28,000 worth of equipment beneath the roadbed. "The state wouldn't let him dig into the road to retrieve it either," Harbolt said.

Next, Harbolt tried the Porta-Mole. "We went through hard rock, pulled the pipe under that highway, cleaned up and were back at the shop in less than four hours," he said. "I just love the thing (the Porta- Mole). As a tool manager, when I find something that works this well, I get really excited about it."