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[Ghills]

Dig out 1 z-level at a time, starting from the bottom. Tedious but completes without a lot of micromanagement.

[Bumber]

Dig out 1 z-level at a time, starting from the bottom. Tedious but completes without a lot of micromanagement.

You still need a way to get up to the next floor. I don't see the difference over top-down. Isn't tedium the definition of micromanagement?

[vanatteveldt]

Try locking them in with a hatch. They shouldn't climb if they have nowhere to go to.

There's a thread somewhere discussing solutions. I don't have time to find it right now.

I can't get this to work with a 1x1 hole. If I lock the hatch as soon as my miner is below it, he gets stuck after a couple z levels  and just keeps standing there with "no job" on the level of the "downward slope", ie one above the level to channel. Maybe he fell, grabbed the ledge, but refuses to climb down to continue channeling?

With a 2x2 hole it does work but then you need to assign level by level to prevent them skipping tiles on levels.

Edit: a 2x1 hole gives pretty good results: I channeled 15 z levels down and they only skipped one of the tiles on one floor (near the top). So it seems that this might be good, I assume that in every case they channel from the tile next to the current tile, preventing them from grabbing the wall. I'll try again with a deeper hole (hit the caverns this time). Procedure: channel one layer; build hatches; order full channel; lock hatches as soon as miner is in.
Edit2: second experiment also yielded decent results. The miner channeled a 27 level deep  2x1 hole. At that level, he "cancelled dig: dangerous terrain" and is now standing at the bottom of the pit with no job complaining of thirst. I mean, what *was* he thinking?
Edit3: You don't actually need the hatch covers, just doing a 2x1 hole works pretty good as it doesn't cause falling.

So, if you need a drop chute (for minecarts or as a garbage dump) it seems that a 2x1 hole channeled from above is easiest. Note that if your miner does get stuck, he won't rescue himself since he ignores dig orders when he is climbing. So, if this is your only/last miner it might not be a good idea.

[PatrikLundell]

Both for a garbage dump and for a mine cart chute I'd say it's better to build a stair beside the chute. The only cases I can think of when that is not suitable is that when you want to stop climbing (such as when the "garbage" isn't dead or might get raised), or for aesthetic reasons.

[Bumber]

I can't get this to work with a 1x1 hole. If I lock the hatch as soon as my miner is below it, he gets stuck after a couple z levels  and just keeps standing there with "no job" on the level of the "downward slope", ie one above the level to channel. Maybe he fell, grabbed the ledge, but refuses to climb down to continue channeling?

See the following post. Try digging them out as stairs first or smooth the walls and see if that works.

Additionally, try putting a meeting zone at the bottom of the shaft and see if they climb down to it. This should be viable for the staircase method, but it's more work than smoothing otherwise.

[Loci]

So, if you need a drop chute (for minecarts or as a garbage dump) it seems that a 2x1 hole channeled from above is easiest. Note that if your miner does get stuck, he won't rescue himself since he ignores dig orders when he is climbing. So, if this is your only/last miner it might not be a good idea.

You can guarantee that your miner won't get stuck if you designate a single tile for channeling in a 2x1 chute, alternating which tile each z-level (hint: use a macro or a pattern-designation tool). This will only allow one miner to work on the job, will prevent that miner from ever channeling the tile under himself, and will prevent that miner from leaving the job until it's complete. You'll need to cause a cave-in to clear out all the left-over floors and ramps, but the chute should require no monitoring or micromanagement while the miner digs it. This is probably as close as you can get to the old drop chute digging process.