Subscribe to download
Skipjack Tunnel Master

Have you ever wanted to punch a really straight tunnel into a hill or asteroid? Now you can with Spiff's Skipjack Tunnel Master! Designed as a low-budget solution for tunnel creation, this ship will clear a tunnel of any length with a finished inside size of 9-blocks wide and 5-blocks high. Optionally extending the tunneler's drill grid will correspondingly expand the tunnel's size. {Sorry about the video quality; it was my first attempt at video-recording and uploading to YouTube, so it's really rough.}

The tunneling process is simple:

1. Build part of the tunnel's floor to establish its level and direction.

2. On top of the tunnel floor, lay a single row of armor block scaffolds going into the ground; hand-drill as necessary to provide clearance for yourself and this single row of blocks; the armor block scaffold assembly is the drilling guide.

3. Using hotkeys {8} and {9}, engage the atmospheric thrusters and fly the tunneler over and positioned onto the armor block scaffold guide.

4. Using hotkey {7}, engage the downward facing atmospheric thrusters to provide a clamping force onto the guide.

5. Select drills {1}, right-click and hold for clearing, and rapidly tap the forward key to nudge the tunneler forward, watching that it does not bind and rotate forward; if it gets caught, just keep tapping the forward key lightly until it unsticks.

6. Drill as far (deep) as desired, extending the guide, if desired.

7. Remove the tunneler, grind off the guide scaffold, and finish the tunnel with armor blocks.

SHIP STATISTICS
- PCUs: 8,370
- Blocks: 416
- NO MODS, NO DLC, NO SUBGRIDS