Drilling water well through solid rock for $36 dollars

Started by SansPlans, April 19, 2009, 09:01:19 PM

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SansPlans

Well ok not quite $36 bucks, that is what I spent on the main component (the percussion bit made out of heavy steel pipe).

Pictures and short videos are here http://drop.io/1qy44lc

Laugh all you want, but it's working and I have a few upgrades planned.

Material being drilled through: Limestone. Based on the highways blasted through hills around here, I think limestone may be solid all the way down to the water (assuming there is water down there).

Planned depth: 100-150 feet max.

Neighbors well depth: 80 ft reportedly.

Specs:
Big Pipe, 5/8" thick wall, very heavy, just over 6" diameter (not counting the chisel bit which makes the hole a bit wider, to maybe 7.5") about 180 pounds as weighed by the salvage yard, maybe 4 ft tall. It was purchased from a salvage yard for $36 dollars.  Used some scrap leaf spring steel for the cross piece to hang the bit from, and more for the chisel points welded to the bottom.  The leaf spring steel is very hard and the ground chisel points we put on it have not shown any sign of dulling yet after a couple hours of drilling.

Square tube serving as "walking beam" of sorts: on loan from my dad, it is maybe 3 inches diameter and I'm not sure how long...maybe 12'? It is attached via U-bolts which allow me to change the amount of leverage with a wrench.

Drilling rate:  Currently about 8 inches an hour (through solid rock, would be much faster through anything else....I guess if I were in clay I would be done by now!).  I have a few upgrades planned to increase the rate.

Cement Mixer: 1/3 HP.

Planned upgrades:
-1 hp agricultural motor has been ordered.  Once this is installed I plan to experiment with increasing the rotation rate by at least 50% maybe more. 
-Then I will weld on more chisel points. I thought that the less surface area of impact would help focus the force, but I realize after experimenting that I have plenty of force and now need to add more teeth to the bit. The goal of these two upgrades is to get the feet per hour to 1 to 1.5 feet/hour or more if at all possible.
-Obviously I need to attach a mechanism to allow the bit to go deeper into the hole as the depth progresses.  Could be a simple rope tie off cleat bolted to the beam, which I adjust as depth requires to let more slack down.
-Incorporate flap made out of an auto tire into pipe to let it double as a bailer to remove cuttings. If that doesn't work out I have another lighter-weight pipe I can use for that.
-Some sort of winch to quickly bring up the bit when it's (hopefully) deeper down the hole.

If/when the cement mixer gives out on me, my next idea would be to replace its rotating drum with the rear wheel of my vehicle somehow.  One idea I had was to attach a snow chain around the wheel, jack up the back, and attach a swivel attachment with rope to the outside of the snow chain and attach the other end of the rope to the walking beam. If anyone has any better or easier ideas on how to actuate the beam I'm all ears!  I'm trying to avoid loud gas engines because of the duration of the project and the potential for irritating the neighbors.

rocking23nf

I really dont see how your gonna get down 100 feet with this device. One you add on the extra length and weight, this thing is gonna fall apart.


SansPlans

Why not? It will be doing basically the same thing it's doing at 2 ft when it is at 100ft.  The only difference will be it will have more rope between the bit and the beam.

MountainDon

I believe I understand your device. It's not clear how the bit is being rotated though. Am I correct in believing the pipe/bit is rotated a little so that with each crop the bit edges impact a different area? Or does it rotate at the same time it is dropped, producing a scraping action in the hole.  How will you rotate the bit at depth?

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

SansPlans

#4
It is currently hanging from a tireswing swivel mount, and it spins itself little by little. I can also stand next to it and twist it here and there if desired. Once it gets deep enough to necessitate adding rope, it should rotate by itself little by little. Also, once I  crisscross across the current chisel bit with another chisel surface, that will become less of an issue hopefully. The big pipe has a tendency to crush anything in its path if the chisel bit happens to get stuck in a rut deep enough for the pipe edge to make contact.

Here is what it is loosely patterned after.
http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/pages/Cable/walking.html

To answer your question, it is chipping away at the rock only through the percussion action, it doesn't rotate once it has made contact with the rock. it's an up and down motion, and the incidental spinning while the bit is in the air is enough to make the hole round.


MountainDon

Maybe you could make a disc attached to a rim. Jack up the axle and attach it. It would have to extend out past the body more than likely. Attach the rope to a swivel on the perimeter.   ???

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Pritch

Interesting.  How do you remove material from the hole? 

-- Pritch
"The problem with quotes from the internet is that they're not always accurate." -- Abraham Lincoln

SansPlans

#7
@MountainDon:  That is a good idea. I was thinking about taking two sacrificial rims and welding them together to extend past the fenders, but I am unsure of how I would attach the rim to the wheel at that point since the outer rim might get in the way.  Any on a quick and easy solution?

@Pritch: For the small progress shown in the pictures, I just used a shopvac. I will use a bailer when it gets deeper.  A bailer is a lighter weight pipe with a flap. It drops into the mush, the crushed rock enters the flap, and the flap lets the material in but not out again. You then raise it up and empty it out.

MountainDon

Quote from: SansPlans on April 20, 2009, 12:12:51 PM
@MountainDon:  That is a good idea. I was thinking about taking two sacrificial rims and welding them together to extend past the fenders, but I am unsure of how I would attach the rim to the wheel at that point since the outer rim might get in the way.  Any on a quick and easy solution?

You wouldn't really need a full circle would you. An arm welded across the rim face with a swivel to attach the rope to should work. Although something like a disc might help in preventing tangle ups.

This would never pass a safety inspection.

And perhaps steel cable would be better than rope; less likely to rub/cut through and drop the bit into the hole.   ???
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


SansPlans

I was thinking of a full circle with full wheel rim welded on because eventually I will be deep enough that I will need to winch the bit out as quickly as possible, and if I used a rim, then that could double as the winch to remove the bit by wrapping the rope around it which would be expedient assuming it worked as I hope it would.

I might try the steel arm first as you suggested, it sounds easier and I don't currently have any steel discs laying around. 

I am open to using a steel cable, I just happen to have rope laying around so I figured I would use that first.  I also plan to have another secondary safety line attached to the bit either way once I'm deep enough, in case I have a problem down the hole.

I don't think I have any safety inspections where I live, but avoiding death or dismemberment is an important factor.  I can't really think of anyway to make this happen safer other than to just stay away from it while it's operating (which I will).  I have checked out professional cable tool rigs on youtube and they don't look particularly safe either!

DirtyLittleSecret

Jeez, and I thought I was desperate!  Have you thought about bottled water?
Fortunately for me I've got the deepest "shallow well" my region's ever seen (45 ft deep, 8 ft wide, and standing water about 4 feet down). 
Good luck on that limestone...it can eat up bits.  Remember to water it down well/often.
Thumb, meet hammer...hammer, meet thumb...

Squirl


SansPlans

@Squirl:

I didn't have plans exactly for the bit, I just went to the salvage yard and saw a pipe that was bigger and heavier than my wildest dreams, and welded the leaf spring steel to it.  I have bought several ebooks about this method, but none of them used such a massive bit. It is not complicated, you're just trying to apply force to the rock (or dirt as the case may be for the lucky among you). 

One of the books I bought a while back was this one http://www.lostcreek.net/drilla400waterwell.html which is where I got the idea to use the cement mixer. Note that in that book, he's just wrapping the rope around the cement mixer, and he's using a pulley instead of a walking beam.

If you want I can take some closer up pictures of the bit so you can see exactly how it is made.

@DirtyLittleSecret:
I wouldn't say I am desperate. I currently have someone bring me water in 1500 gallon increments every two months. However that isn't enough to do things like water a good garden, do laundry as often as I would like, and it costs a lot of money per gallon relative to pumping it out of the ground.  Of course I could pay someone to drill the well for me, but I would have to get a permit in that case based on the law as I understand it, and in neighboring counties in my state, people have reported to me that they have had meters put on their own wells.  So I am trying to avoid that by doing it myself, which is a right that my state currently recognizes I can exercise on my own property.

DirtyLittleSecret

good man!  I love it when it takes gumption to get things done...filters those with and without determination!
Thumb, meet hammer...hammer, meet thumb...


glenn kangiser

Percussion drilling was invented by the Chinese about  -- what was it - 2000 years ago.  Thay had lots of time but it has been improved a bit since 1900.  I and my crews have drilled around 300 cable tool wells over the years before I moved to Mariposa.  I still own 3 drilling rigs and some junk rigs.  2 Speed Star 71's and a Speed Star 72.

My son got his right arm ripped off on one but he got it put back on, so - yes - there can be danger involved.  Be careful.

I plan on bringing one up here some day and drilling a well through our meta-andesite rock.  It is extremely hard, but I have the solid tools.  I drilled in the valley with mud scows.  We cased our wells as we drilled then drilled an open bottom after we hit a landing.  Developing was done with an air lift then followed with a developing pump on the big wells.

This looks almost exactly like one of my rigs - except mines beat up and well used. d*

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

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