So we bought some land (a bit less than two acres) and we’ve begun developing it. Now, if you’ve ever picked up a shovel and tried to dig into firm soil, you know that it is hard and slow work.

That’s where an excavator comes in.  Hydraulic pistons, a large steel bucket, and an engine to drive the hydraulic pump, and firm soil cuts like butter. (Well, “digs like butter” just didn’t sound right.) So we’ve got gardens to dig up, trees to plant, pipes to lay, roads to pave, and many other projects to handle, and I’ve got more technology credentials than shoveling stamina.

After a few months of background research, I’ve found that excavators are ridiculously expensive here in Thailand. The price of what seems to be 30 year old second hand Japanese import micro excavators appear to run around 10,000USD here. And this appears to be something that was in industrial use in Japan for a number of years before it was auctioned off and shipped to Thailand where it was in industrial use for many more years before I saw it for sale. I am expecting this thing to need a lot of repairs and general maintenance, which I don’t exactly know how to handle. Anything better, and the prices go up steeply.

This is where DIY excavators come in. Most discussions I’ve found in the US appear to discourage building your own because a 2nd hand backhoe can apparently be picked up for about $2000, but I don’t have that option. But we do have access to all the materials, as well as welders and engineers galore, so I’ve decided to build one from scratch.

Well… at least I’m going to go for a modest one at first. Let’s see where we end up.