Drill Cuttings Measurement Box and System for Controlling Pilot Hole Drilling

A method of drilling a pilot hole, the method comprising:

• initiating drilling with a drill rod;
• pumping drilling fluid into the pilot hole to eject cuttings from the pilot hole;
• pumping the ejected cuttings into a cuttings box;
• generating a signal indicative of a weight of the cuttings in the cuttings box;
• in response to determining that the signal satisfies expected cutting weight criteria, ejecting cuttings from the cuttings box, wherein the expected cutting weight criteria being based on an amount of cuttings indicative of advancing the pilot hole substantially the length of the drill rod;
• and
• attaching a further drill rod and reinitiating drilling.

A non-transitory computer readable medium for drilling a pilot hole, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for:

• initiating drilling with a drill rod;
• pumping drilling fluid into the pilot hole to eject cuttings from the pilot hole;
• pumping the ejected cuttings into a cuttings box;
• generating a signal indicative of a weight of the cuttings in the cuttings box;
• in response to determining that the signal satisfies expected cutting weight criteria, ejecting cuttings from the cuttings box, wherein the expected cutting weight criteria being based on an amount of cuttings indicative of advancing the pilot hole substantially the length of the drill rod;
• and
• attaching a further drill rod and reinitiating drilling.