18V is also 50% more current, so 125% more power (heat). It might work better on 18V or it might go bang and not work at all.
Agen Allwedd - Priory Road Exploration
- Thread starter marsrat
- Start date
georgenorth
Well-known member
Yep - I’m banking on the cooling cave air preventing it from going bang. The fans are relatively cheap (£25), so it’s worth a bit of experimentation to find what works best.
Jedexertus
Well-known member
Update from x3 separate digging trips all happened to fall on consecutive weekends again lol
the first was a 3 day camp on 22nd / 25th making the most of the bank holiday x12 people on the Saturday the highest turn out we have had.
(Myself David Kinzett) Paul Stacey / Alex stacey / Sam Coleman / Ben sumpter / Ben morgan / Joe Bidie / Daniel Rose / Sam Brace / John Stevens / Billy Evens / Mike Reid
Myself / Paul / Coleman / Alex / Ben S
In friday staying until Monday. John Stevens and mike Reid doing a long day trip on the Saturday, everyone else in Saturday out sunday.
Friday group got to dig at around 11am the rest joined us at 1.30pm ish. x2 more sections of air ducting were installed and all of the spoil from the vertical choke and all of the spoil from the face was hauled back to sick parrot where it was all stacked and more pack wall built, the additional people really helped with the haul and stacking, having the additional backlog of spoil at the choke kept everyone busy all day no hanging around waiting for trays coming just from the face etc. The face was a heavy plug n feather session using x4 or our x8 batteries we managed to make better progress than we initially expected and dug approx 0.6m forward getting through a large boulder of basically the entire distance surrounded by clay infill.
Alex Stacey had agreed on the friday that if we thought we would need more or similar battery power for the sunday session he would take out the used batteries charge them and bring them back down sunday morning, Alex left the dig with x4 batteries at 6.30pm. John and Mike left the dig at 6.15pm and did some fantastic work on their exit enlarging and improving multiple different crawls and cruxs along priory and the route to Sick parrot chamber. Everyone else left the dig at 10.30 ish. 10.5 hour total working time with 1 break great work and effort buy all
Sunday morning Alex Stacey tuned up at Rockhard Cafe at 9am with x4 fully charged batteries, staying at WW Saturday night and having alarms set through the night to get them all charged and brought back down to camp for 9am Sunday morning, what an absolute f@#kin legend
. The others left camp and exited the cave sunday afternoon at some point ? after myself / paul / alex / Coleman / Ben s / left camp to dig, we got to dig at 12.20 We dug and hauled spoil as best we could with just the x5 of us, only really getting spoil back to vertical choke and slighty higher up the approach, Going was very hard at the face with more large boulders and what appears to be a bedding plain with some cracks / spaces between the rock / boulders, we could not tell if any of the cracks were draughting but we did notice not having to use the blower as much as on previous sessions, it potentially looks like we may actually be out of the choke now ? Witch is interesting, maybe very good maybe very shit lol we managed approx 0.3m through this and are hoping we can maybe get down and under it into something more loose / or similar to what we have currently been dealing with clay or sand ? If we have to continue through it it is going to slow progress considerably. we left the dig at 11pm Approx 10 hours working with 1 break. We all exited the cave at different times during the monday afternoon.
The second dig was a day trip on sunday 31/05/26
Team of x3 Alex Randall / Samuel Hill / Tom Jackson
Not sure exactly what times they got in and out of the cave but dug at the face for 6.5 hours again heavy plug and feather session with only being able to remove spoil back to the vertical choke due to only x3 people, approximately another approx 0.3 forward progress in the same stuff as we had previously been confronted by aswell as leveling off a boulder in the floor we had previously worked over but was interfering with the drag tray top work by lads
3rd trip was another day trip Saturday 06/06/26 not a camp as we struggled for higher numbers this time unfortunately.
Team of x6 Myself/ Paul Stacey / John Stevens / Samuel Hill / Stanley Lewis / Willem glass
Entered cave at 8.50am arrived at dig 11.10am another heavy plug and feather session again slow hard going removing spoil only to the choke and some of the choke spoil further back up the approach and to sick parrot in stages as face spoil was not coming out fast, the air situation still seems slightly better than it had been not using the blower as much again but still wanting it occasionally, We worked for 6.5 hours and got another 0.2m forward with no signs of being through or under the current situation at the end, we left dig 6.40pm and exited the cave between 9.20 pm / 9.45pm
So far we have used the 1991 radio location data to give us the approximate direction to dig, now we think we caves are less than 10m apart, the inherent inaccuracies of both the RL and G5 survey means that we now need a much more refined position as we dig forwards to maximise the efficiency of digging efforts especially now we have got into some much harder to dig ground, we are waiting on some radio location equipment that is going to work at such a short range -10 meters as the previous equipment used in 1991 will not work at all or be totally inaccurate at this close range, all of the data indicates we are slightly higher than daren so trying to go slightly down was always the plan not it seems we have no real choice ? And also left , this sort of confirmed with our previous knock / sound tests. Our current plan is to do another dig session or 2 with our current heading and slighty down and hopefully we get the RL gear by August ? If no joy with getting hold of some RL gear we will be arranging another knock / sound test between the caves, we are now best part of 4m further forward in the dig than when the last sound test was carried out so hopefully we get some good directional indication ? we know that knock tests can be inaccurate and give unpredictable results due to multiple factors with the medium the sound vibration is travelling through but it's the best we can do and try as we get closer and closer without the RL.
Next camp is looking like mid to end of july and numbers are looking good , we will need a full team as we have spoil at the vertical coke and other areas that needs to be moved back to Sick Parrot .
Some of the stuff we have been dealing with
All of the full weekends team in sick parrot
The Saturday day trip team before heading down
Current situation at the face
For those who like feet
the first was a 3 day camp on 22nd / 25th making the most of the bank holiday x12 people on the Saturday the highest turn out we have had.
(Myself David Kinzett) Paul Stacey / Alex stacey / Sam Coleman / Ben sumpter / Ben morgan / Joe Bidie / Daniel Rose / Sam Brace / John Stevens / Billy Evens / Mike Reid
Myself / Paul / Coleman / Alex / Ben S
In friday staying until Monday. John Stevens and mike Reid doing a long day trip on the Saturday, everyone else in Saturday out sunday.
Friday group got to dig at around 11am the rest joined us at 1.30pm ish. x2 more sections of air ducting were installed and all of the spoil from the vertical choke and all of the spoil from the face was hauled back to sick parrot where it was all stacked and more pack wall built, the additional people really helped with the haul and stacking, having the additional backlog of spoil at the choke kept everyone busy all day no hanging around waiting for trays coming just from the face etc. The face was a heavy plug n feather session using x4 or our x8 batteries we managed to make better progress than we initially expected and dug approx 0.6m forward getting through a large boulder of basically the entire distance surrounded by clay infill.
Alex Stacey had agreed on the friday that if we thought we would need more or similar battery power for the sunday session he would take out the used batteries charge them and bring them back down sunday morning, Alex left the dig with x4 batteries at 6.30pm. John and Mike left the dig at 6.15pm and did some fantastic work on their exit enlarging and improving multiple different crawls and cruxs along priory and the route to Sick parrot chamber. Everyone else left the dig at 10.30 ish. 10.5 hour total working time with 1 break great work and effort buy all
Sunday morning Alex Stacey tuned up at Rockhard Cafe at 9am with x4 fully charged batteries, staying at WW Saturday night and having alarms set through the night to get them all charged and brought back down to camp for 9am Sunday morning, what an absolute f@#kin legend
. The others left camp and exited the cave sunday afternoon at some point ? after myself / paul / alex / Coleman / Ben s / left camp to dig, we got to dig at 12.20 We dug and hauled spoil as best we could with just the x5 of us, only really getting spoil back to vertical choke and slighty higher up the approach, Going was very hard at the face with more large boulders and what appears to be a bedding plain with some cracks / spaces between the rock / boulders, we could not tell if any of the cracks were draughting but we did notice not having to use the blower as much as on previous sessions, it potentially looks like we may actually be out of the choke now ? Witch is interesting, maybe very good maybe very shit lol we managed approx 0.3m through this and are hoping we can maybe get down and under it into something more loose / or similar to what we have currently been dealing with clay or sand ? If we have to continue through it it is going to slow progress considerably. we left the dig at 11pm Approx 10 hours working with 1 break. We all exited the cave at different times during the monday afternoon.The second dig was a day trip on sunday 31/05/26
Team of x3 Alex Randall / Samuel Hill / Tom Jackson
Not sure exactly what times they got in and out of the cave but dug at the face for 6.5 hours again heavy plug and feather session with only being able to remove spoil back to the vertical choke due to only x3 people, approximately another approx 0.3 forward progress in the same stuff as we had previously been confronted by aswell as leveling off a boulder in the floor we had previously worked over but was interfering with the drag tray top work by lads
3rd trip was another day trip Saturday 06/06/26 not a camp as we struggled for higher numbers this time unfortunately.
Team of x6 Myself/ Paul Stacey / John Stevens / Samuel Hill / Stanley Lewis / Willem glass
Entered cave at 8.50am arrived at dig 11.10am another heavy plug and feather session again slow hard going removing spoil only to the choke and some of the choke spoil further back up the approach and to sick parrot in stages as face spoil was not coming out fast, the air situation still seems slightly better than it had been not using the blower as much again but still wanting it occasionally, We worked for 6.5 hours and got another 0.2m forward with no signs of being through or under the current situation at the end, we left dig 6.40pm and exited the cave between 9.20 pm / 9.45pm
So far we have used the 1991 radio location data to give us the approximate direction to dig, now we think we caves are less than 10m apart, the inherent inaccuracies of both the RL and G5 survey means that we now need a much more refined position as we dig forwards to maximise the efficiency of digging efforts especially now we have got into some much harder to dig ground, we are waiting on some radio location equipment that is going to work at such a short range -10 meters as the previous equipment used in 1991 will not work at all or be totally inaccurate at this close range, all of the data indicates we are slightly higher than daren so trying to go slightly down was always the plan not it seems we have no real choice ? And also left , this sort of confirmed with our previous knock / sound tests. Our current plan is to do another dig session or 2 with our current heading and slighty down and hopefully we get the RL gear by August ? If no joy with getting hold of some RL gear we will be arranging another knock / sound test between the caves, we are now best part of 4m further forward in the dig than when the last sound test was carried out so hopefully we get some good directional indication ? we know that knock tests can be inaccurate and give unpredictable results due to multiple factors with the medium the sound vibration is travelling through but it's the best we can do and try as we get closer and closer without the RL.
Next camp is looking like mid to end of july and numbers are looking good , we will need a full team as we have spoil at the vertical coke and other areas that needs to be moved back to Sick Parrot .
Some of the stuff we have been dealing with
All of the full weekends team in sick parrot
The Saturday day trip team before heading down
Current situation at the face
For those who like feet
asheshouse
Member
Have you tried monitoring the draught with an accurate anemometer?
Jedexertus
Well-known member
No but i don't think the (potential) draught is going to change or be any relevance to our plan of attack and direction going forward, obviously it is handy if it clears the air at the dig face better, the cracks in the face will be followed more than likely as this will be the path of least resistance using the gaps and widening them with the plug and feathers, if any draught it could just be circulating back to the vertical choke or wherever that air moves to ? Not going towards daren etc
following the draught in this area the past hasn't payed off lol , we need the RL or a sound/ knock test very soon 
Last edited:
Mike Kushy
Well-known member
Are you in there digging this Sunday?
Jedexertus
Well-known member
We were digging this weekend digging Saturday,
Jedexertus
Well-known member
Update from x2 digging trips
The first was a day trip on Saturday 27/06/26 the CSS BBQ weekend team of x2 Alex Randall / Samuel hill they Spent approximately 6 hours digging at the end achieving approximately 0.25 m forward progress through very tough ground large boulders and shale bedding plain, leaving the fresh spoil in the dig for the next dig team to clear, due to there only being 2 of them on the day.
There was no actual dig in june as alot of the core and regular attendees had other more appealing summer plans lol
The 2nd trip was a camp from the 31/07/26 to the 02/08/26
team of x11 myself / Alex Stacey / Adrian Fawcett / Mathilde feral / Emma Caspers / Isaac neale camping , and the following day tripping / Emily wormleightion / Ben Morgan / Daniel Rose / Joe Bidie / Sam Brace
On the friday all campers caved in at different times over the afternoon/ evening, myself and Mathilde the last 2 to arrive at camp at 12.20am on the Saturday morning after having an excursion to Maytime on the way down, my present to mathilde on her birthday to see the brilliant formations and lovely streamway, though our favourite part was of course all of the long crawls and flat out sand swims everyone was in bed by 2.00am early for an average Rockhard Cafe friday night. All of the campers got to the dig at 11.30am and the day trippers arrived about 30 minutes later, when we got down to the scaffed area just past the vertical choke it was obvious that stuff had come down since the last dig 
. Damp Clay and a couple brick / football sized boulders had slightly moved the plastic grating we had put above the scaff but had still caught the majority of the stuff, this is the same side where the large boulder came down, we feel the scaff installed is doing enough and is placed in a way that all the large boulders in the choke appear to be supported so we are not worried about the whole area coming in etc some of the gaps between the scaff tubes have unsupported areas of open space, they are not very large though so anything large wouldn't fit though these gaps only smaller loose stuff. So we plan on installing more crate and boards above the scaff to prevent anything else coming through, maybe even pack some of the larger spoil boulders up there to fill some of the voids ? The rest of the dig beyond still seems the same self supporting and doesn't look as if anything has moved or changed hopefully this remains the case Going at the end is still the same and forward progress very slow in comparison to what we were getting in the choke, with clay and boulders before hitting this bedding plain progress was about 0.7m per session vs about 0.25m now so progress is considerably slower at the moment , we are currently following the crack / fissure and hoping that it opens out or we find the lower part of this bedding plain and soon get into something less difficult to dig we are still happy with the current heading aswell. Everyone worked hard the team we currently have is great and the hauling back of spoil works so smoothly with the correct numberr and experienced team, all the spoil from the dig and vertical choke area was cleared back to sick parrot and also stacked. We worked for 7.5 hours. Day trippers leaving around 6.30pm and campers shortly after.
All campers were back at camp before 8pm the earliest ever back to camp after a Saturday dig day, for the belated birthday celebration of Mathilde and everyone in bed by 12.30am Sunday another Rockhard Cafe camp first
Also thank you to whoever ? brought the washing up and some water back to camp from the steamway it is always appreciated.
current situation at the dig face
Happy birthday
My bag to go out , water bags and washing up to go to the streamway,
The first was a day trip on Saturday 27/06/26 the CSS BBQ weekend team of x2 Alex Randall / Samuel hill they Spent approximately 6 hours digging at the end achieving approximately 0.25 m forward progress through very tough ground large boulders and shale bedding plain, leaving the fresh spoil in the dig for the next dig team to clear, due to there only being 2 of them on the day.
There was no actual dig in june as alot of the core and regular attendees had other more appealing summer plans lol
The 2nd trip was a camp from the 31/07/26 to the 02/08/26
team of x11 myself / Alex Stacey / Adrian Fawcett / Mathilde feral / Emma Caspers / Isaac neale camping , and the following day tripping / Emily wormleightion / Ben Morgan / Daniel Rose / Joe Bidie / Sam Brace
On the friday all campers caved in at different times over the afternoon/ evening, myself and Mathilde the last 2 to arrive at camp at 12.20am on the Saturday morning after having an excursion to Maytime on the way down, my present to mathilde on her birthday to see the brilliant formations and lovely streamway, though our favourite part was of course all of the long crawls and flat out sand swims
everyone was in bed by 2.00am early for an average Rockhard Cafe friday night. All of the campers got to the dig at 11.30am and the day trippers arrived about 30 minutes later, when we got down to the scaffed area just past the vertical choke it was obvious that stuff had come down since the last dig . Damp Clay and a couple brick / football sized boulders had slightly moved the plastic grating we had put above the scaff but had still caught the majority of the stuff, this is the same side where the large boulder came down, we feel the scaff installed is doing enough and is placed in a way that all the large boulders in the choke appear to be supported so we are not worried about the whole area coming in etc some of the gaps between the scaff tubes have unsupported areas of open space, they are not very large though so anything large wouldn't fit though these gaps only smaller loose stuff. So we plan on installing more crate and boards above the scaff to prevent anything else coming through, maybe even pack some of the larger spoil boulders up there to fill some of the voids ? The rest of the dig beyond still seems the same self supporting and doesn't look as if anything has moved or changed hopefully this remains the case Going at the end is still the same and forward progress very slow in comparison to what we were getting in the choke, with clay and boulders before hitting this bedding plain progress was about 0.7m per session vs about 0.25m now so progress is considerably slower at the moment , we are currently following the crack / fissure and hoping that it opens out or we find the lower part of this bedding plain and soon get into something less difficult to dig we are still happy with the current heading aswell. Everyone worked hard the team we currently have is great and the hauling back of spoil works so smoothly with the correct numberr and experienced team, all the spoil from the dig and vertical choke area was cleared back to sick parrot and also stacked. We worked for 7.5 hours. Day trippers leaving around 6.30pm and campers shortly after. All campers were back at camp before 8pm the earliest ever back to camp after a Saturday dig day, for the belated birthday celebration of Mathilde and everyone in bed by 12.30am Sunday another Rockhard Cafe camp first
Also thank you to whoever ? brought the washing up and some water back to camp from the steamway
it is always appreciated. current situation at the dig face
Happy birthday
My bag to go out , water bags and washing up to go to the streamway,
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