My long quest for water... A homemade well drilling rig. Have you ever done this?

[Georgia Iron]

That could work on a very specific soil type, and then it might have some big problems. They're doing a cable tool method substituting an expensive backhoe for a cheap winch, and doing without the automatic hammer action. Not the greatest strategy in my book. Pennsylvania oil wells were originally drilled with a steel drill, a rope and a few logs, and man power. The Chinese drilled wells 40 times as deep as you need, with bamboo, thousands of years ago. I would look into a used cable tool rig before I tried to turn a bucket truck lift into a well drilling rig, but I don't know you or what you do. My closest experience with cable tool drilling is an Amish neighbor that had another Amish guy drill his well, didn't see it in action, and the guy wouldn't talk about it much, but was interested in selling the rig for $10K. He wasn't legal, and only worked "close to home".

I would get a cable rig that worked in a heartbeat if it were affordable and available.

I have not seen anything around me for sale.

In my area you can legally dig yourself a well for either your own use or irrigation. I looked into it. I don't plan to do this work for others.

The drill stem I got was used for horizontal drilling. Maybe it is not strong enough for vertical work. They weight about 50 to 60 lbs each per 6'. So at 120' deep that is about 1200 lbs hanging in the hole.



I have seen a lot of videos of guys in other countries using pipe and augers and they seem to work fine. I am attempting to duplicate what others have successfully done.

 

[Georgia Iron]

Only really standout concern with a dry drill is locking the bit in the hole. Not a problem with shallow drilling but do fine until hit sand at 300' then lose a drill to collapse or just fall in or have hole collapse on drop bit and your done. Is a reason the regular drillers went to air/water and drill mud rigs.

So I have been told if you keep the bore hole full of water it is less likely to collapse is that correct?

 

[Georgia Iron]

After much thought as in 6 months worth, I decided that a ditch witch model 4010 would be my base for my drill rig.

It is in need of a rehab. it found it's 2nd life with plumber who quickly realized that a new small excavator was a better fit for him. It will live its last life with me.



It uses a 3 cylinder air cooled duetz diesel at 49 horse power. It has 4 wheel steer, mechanical trencher drive and an alluxillary excavator on it. Which will be removed.

 

[Georgia Iron]

If your not familiar witha 4010, it is a very well made machine, it's frame has a lot of 1/2" plate, lots of good places to weld to and its a mechanical machine. It has a hydraulic creeper mode to slowly move the trencher as it digs, a 6 way dozer blade and and heavy duty rops.

It does not have a radiator or wet cooling for the motor it uses a turbine and air. I am not certain that the heat from running a hydraulic motor will be to much or if i will need to add a cooler.

 

[Legdoc]

So I have been told if you keep the bore hole full of water it is less likely to collapse is that correct?

Basically yes. Most professional drillers will use a drilling fluid which is generally water with a thickening agent referred to as gel. The formulation can get quite involved in deep hole drilling like in the energy industry where there are mud engineers monitoring the fluid around the clock. For our purpose adding a little gel adds body to the water making it a bit heavier. Some types "coat" the bore hole and help stabilize the wall reducing sloughing of sand strata. Most well driller supply houses will sell it by the bag in powder form. If you want to get really specific on the mix it can be tested with a viscosity cup. I have watched many DIY videos where the drillers just used water. I'm not sure how that works. Horizontal drillers using Ditch Witch and Vermeer units mix their drilling fluid. Remember the thicker fluid will need more power to pump.
Also, seismic drillers do basically the same thing we are discussing. They rotary drill shallow holes with a top drive mini derrick mounted on a fat tired mud buggy.

 

[Georgia Iron]

This is an interesting well drilling technique...

 

[JaredV]

I'm following with interest, but not because I want to drill a well. Just because I've never been around well work and I like seeing guys do stuff themselves on the cheap.

 

[Georgia Iron]

So, I broke down the boom into more usable pieces. It could have been went threw and installed on a truck but it needs a pretty complex hydraulic system to make it work. I had hoped to use the valve body and electrical switches.


This joker weights in at about 4000 lbs...

I called Altec and they sent me the plans and complete hydraulic system information. I could see how every part worked once I figured out the plan symbols. Very nice guys there, I would buy one of their new booms if I needed one.




This is an electrical controls valve body with mechanical levers in case of failure. Pretty cool and expensive stuff.

 

[Georgia Iron]

It needs a variable load sensing pump setup. After spending a few days studing it, I decided to take a step back and make it less complicated.



Electrical winch controls, with safeties on every hydraulic circuit. Very well made with SO much things to reuse. So many hoses and fittings and top of the line stuff.




I cut and removed every thing I could get. I cut out bushings, pins, hoses, wires, all of it. And put it in piles for later use.


Did you know the pins and bushing's use isolators to try and prevent electrical shock by stopping the boom from grounding. All the pins are in heavy fabric type bushings. I did not know this...

 

[Georgia Iron]

This cylinder will raise and lower my drill. It will extend 14 or so feet.

 

[Georgia Iron]

Those drawings are actually to the relays on a TL150...

 

[Legdoc]

You are well on your way.

 

[redneckracin]

Not to make things more complicated, but Schramm makes a tele-mast system if you google them. Basically they use the hydraulic cylinders to push up the pulleys to get double the travel out of the top drive.

video from the company.

I'm curious what you are going to use to rotate the drill string?

 

[Old Doug]

The Amish were i live were going to build a rig . They were at my place looking for steel. I dont know if they got anything built or not. There are several different Amish groups around me they are the most primitive they have a machine shop but i dont know if they have electric welding . The Amish group i know the best can use portable welders. I am interested if they got anything going. The Amish i know all have Diesel powered air compressors they use the air to run well pumps.

 

[Georgia Iron]

Not to make things more complicated, but Schramm makes a tele-mast system if you google them. Basically they use the hydraulic cylinders to push up the pulleys to get double the travel out of the top drive.

video from the company.

I'm curious what you are going to use to rotate the drill string?

They have some amazing machines. They look to be well funded an have lots of men working for them. When you see rigs like that you almost want to stop and be like what's the point. But my target is within reach, I think.


I am going to use the boom swing motor to turn the drill string. I tested it on the ditch witch's hydraulics and it turns slower than I want. But maybe it will not destroy itself since it has such a large gear reduction on it.

I definitely wont be plowing threw any hard rock with it.

I am still trying to figure out how to attach to the gear with the drill stem...

 

[Georgia Iron]

The Amish were i live were going to build a rig . They were at my place looking for steel. I dont know if they got anything built or not. There are several different Amish groups around me they are the most primitive they have a machine shop but i dont know if they have electric welding . The Amish group i know the best can use portable welders. I am interested if they got anything going. The Amish i know all have Diesel powered air compressors they use the air to run well pumps.

Old Doug,

About 15 years ago I got to go spend a week with an Amish family in Colorado. They were very nice and they were brothers near green mountain. They had a metal roofing business to include a roll former and a wood molding business that made trim. They ran there equipment with a diesel generator.

They were allowed to have a bobcat and a phone on the wall at the business for conducting business. At home it was gas lamps, and no power. Water was heated with a copper tubing arrangement that set out in the sun.

They traveled by horse and buggies and would pay non Amish folks to deliver there products. I will never forget my week with them. They had the finest horses I have ever been on.

 

[crane operator]

That swing motor looks like may have a spring brake pack in it.

 

[Georgia Iron]

That swing motor looks like may have a spring brake pack in it.

I believe you are correct. As best I can tell from testing it, it will be ok to use it as is?

What I am not sure of is if the motor can handle a strong force pressing up on the sprocket? Or even if a lot of weight can hang off the motor...

I dont know how it is made internally, I just need it to make it threw one good borehole... I was wanting to take the short method of just trying to use it, I was thinking of different ways to reshape the sprocket end without going to too much effort to be able to strongly attach the drill stem. Such as grinding it square or drilling a large hole threw it, for a bolt and slipping a coupling over it...

I could make a transfer case of sorts to offset the drill motor to remove it from the ground up pressure. That could throw off the balance on the top of the mast. There is a lot of rabbit holes I can find on this project. The KISS method is in my mind.

Most all rigs have water swivels in line with drill stem. I looked at them in detail, including how to make one. I believe I can drill my well without using a swivel or a mud pump. My plan is to attach the motor straight to the drill string. But I need to be able to attach one if my plan fails.

I can perform small machine shop type work. I have a mill and a lathe and can just get by mostly by turning and fitting items slowly. I cannot cut parts to a plan or get specific measurement made parts made 100% correctly just yet. Mostly I can do rough parts, I am still not able to get mirror finish when turning. I dont know how to make a taper thread that will fit the drill string. I have seen it done on you tube but I would need a few days to figure out if my lathe could even do it. It has a good bit of backlash and some table wear so I am still learning how to get parts made correctly and dealing with an older lathe.


I had to go to Ditch Witch 5 times so far, getting cylinder rebuild kits, and teeth for the chain. They have an adaptor that is a solid metal end that screws into the drill string and it has a flange on the other end to attach to with bolts. It is $900.00 for a small part...

 

[crane operator]

The bearings will be set up for only rotational thrust, no real up and down. I think you would throw the bearings right out of it if you try to drive your vertical stem right off of the sprocket.

 

[Georgia Iron]

The bearings will be set up for only rotational thrust, no real up and down. I think you would throw the bearings right out of it if you try to drive your vertical stem right off of the sprocket.

Anyone got any ideas on how to make an inline support that can couple to the sprocket and support the drill string?.

Use common easy to find parts..

Maybe f350 / dana60 wheel bearings mounted in some kind of holder...

Surely wheel bearings can take side loading??

I guess I could also take some flat plate drill a hole in it, put a shaft threw it. Put a bushing on each side of the plate but weld it to the shaft. So the shaft can't move up or down but it can spin. Then mount it in a housing. Weld that to the bottom of the motor frame. Couple it to the sprocket and cut an end off one of the drill stems and weld that to the shaft. Greeze it and let it go...

Heck I could use the drill stem as the shaft ...