So, (i'm a Countryside subscriber) I've been working on how to drill a well in my suburban back yard for Y2K and to cut our outrageous water (and sewer and trash) bill.... I know water is within 50 feet from "neighboring" wells....I thought maybe someone out there would have some thoughts to share....

our ground is clayish, with possible granite "floaters"...I had seen and collected information on hand augering a 6" hole (and lots of other info), but that's real manual labor, so I've started building a well drilling machine which will turn the manual auger (& maybe other homebuilt drill tips) at slow speed (when full, I'll pull it & empty)....

what I've done is get a 1 ton truck rear end, pulled the axles, cut off the housing and pulled the "spider" gears - the point is to make a right angle gear drive using the truck differential....

I intend to use a 3/4 hp 1750 rpm electric motor running thru chain & reduction sprockets to drive the pinion gear (@ u-joint) which will drive the ring gear and 3/4" or 1" schedule 80 iron pipe...

I'll use a tripod and cable / pulleys to pull it up out of the hole...

Don't want to pay a well driller, probably couldn't get a "permit" from big brother (it's my water), and, I own desert land which needs a well as well...

Thanks for reading this far! -Guy-

-- Guy Winton III (guyiii@home.com), August 25, 1999

Answers

Sounds like you are well on your way to water. However, I worry about the granite that you may encounter. If instead, you had made a walking beam and spudded the hole, you might have been ahead. You might still have to spud the hole to break up any chunks of granite. To explain--think of a walking beam as similar to a teeter totter with a pulley attached to one end of it. As the beam goes down, the pulley puts pressure on a cable. The cable comes from a winch, under the beam's pulley, then up to a suspended pulley over the drilling hole, then down into the hole and attached to a spud, i.e. a hard pointed tapered driver. The spud super packs the material against the walls of the hole, or with a drilling fluid, the particulates come to the surface as fresh drilling fluid is added. For a better idea of what I am talking about, rent the video of the movie "Giant." It shows old oil field drilling with a walking beam. In Western Kansas where I grew up, most all of the water wells of old had been hand dug. Can you imagine digging in a hole of about a 4 foot diameter to a depth of 100 feet, without any wall shoring? Where was OSHA 100 years ago? Thank goodness the clay soils were very stable. I never heard of any pioneers involved in a "cave-in." Many of these wells are still in use and have never had a cave-in. Few are cased or walled with tile. Good luck.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), August 31, 1999.

hey guy! don't believe you need anyinfo from me-looks like you researched it very well. a friend of mine built one from the picts. of the deep rock drilling rig out of arkansas, i believe. made his own drill bits out of 3" well casing about 6" long. started using a gasoline motor and got sick of fueling it and listening to the motor screaming. he then put a 220 v. 1 hp, 1175 rpm electric motor and rant it through the gearbox. worked real good, quiet and had plenty of weight to helpit drill. believe he went as far as 120 foot when he hit water. 3/4" iron pipe for drill stem and bought a swivel from deep rock to circulate the drilling mud. you should have not trouble driling with your setup. Oh yes! almost forgot--for wells just drilled or spudded-old timers use a crawdad tied on a string. lower the little raskels into the well and they'll seek out the veins that are sealed off by the drilling process. it works!

-- k.d. 'hoot' gibson (hoot@wworld.com), January 26, 2000.