Hello all, this will take me a bit to get this posted with several posts, I will do it as I have free time in the evenings.
If you have done this or have knowledge that you want to share on this adventure, jump on here and let us know how you did it.
So for 18 months or so I have been interested in having the ability to drill my own water well. I have some land and I want to be able to install a few solar pumps in different areas to keep my food plots watered. Some of it is close to groundwater or near existing water sources and does not need to go very deep.
On the property an old existing cabin well is 135' deep and is now too far from the new cabin site which is about 1000' or so away. I know this because I pulled the pump and replaced it. It was 41 years old.
As far as water well drilling goes I am green to this. I have never actually seen a well drilling rig up close nor have I been around when one is drilled. But I have watched every video I could find on drilling a well, sealing a well and installing casing. Online, I have seen some very neat simple machines.
That being said I am also interested in down the hole hammers and rock cutting bits. I have been thinking of ways to make my own bits. The tri-cone bit is very neat. I am going to drill into sandy type soil that is mixed with red clay. I don't believe I will hit rock but who knows. I have many options I could choose, to get a well. I am most interested in doing this myself.
Some options I have thought of:
A. Buy a tractor mounted pto drill.
B. Use a skid steer with an existing auger attachment / Build a derrick to mount on a skid steer.
C. Build a trailer mounted drill unit.
D. Use a dump truck with bed extender, a long cable and heavy steel drop a pipe, hit the same place over and over to make a hole as it goes down.
E. Pay someone. I will do this if my project fails.
F. Other
Looking through the options:
A. - A tractor mounted drill was not going to have enough flexibility nor weight carrying ability.
B. - I have a skid steer and looked hard at using it. I spoke to several people about it and got laughed at.
I wanted the rig to be portable and to be able to move into the woods and do its job. After much thought I decided that what I wanted would be more than a skid steer could do. The weight of the derreck, drill and drill rod and misc was going to be heavy. I also did not want to ruin the hydraulic system on the skid steer since I will more that likely not be able to keep it very clean. I also do not want to work on one. They are hard to get into the engine bay and a pain to work on.
C. - A trailer mounted rig is a great option. For me the power unit was the problem, I did not want to take the time to fab a diesel engine and fuel tank to a trailer to power the hydraulics.
D. - The dump truck option works and I saw guys in texas going deep with this setup. This could be a 2nd attempt.
E. - Not ready to call a professional just yet.
F. - I am looking.
On my rig project, I have decided that I want it to be able to do several things hydraulically.
1. Run a drill. Forward and backwards.
2. Run a winch. Up and down.
3. Power drill up and power down. I want up and down pressure.
4. Level the derrick left and right
5. Level the derrick front to back.
6. A hydraulic drill stem clamp.
7. The derrick must tilt so that the mast can lay down for travel.
That is a lot of functions.
In addition to that I also want
8. To use 2 6' long drill stems each time I add stem. So it will need 12+ feet of up and down travel.
9. To use existing materials I have around the yard. Things I have laying around, to build it....
10. I want to be able to install 20' runs of casing.
I will be building this rig on my OWN in my free time. I want to keep it simple..
My main area of concern is moving the drill cuttings out of the hole. Most big guys use hydraulic mud pumps which are high dollar. I have decided that I will not pay for one of those systems. I will not have enough horsepower available nor do I have access to a nice hydraulic mud pump.
to be continued...