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egon
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Well Drilling
08/07/05 06:49 AM Attachment
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An old time well drilling rig good for about 400 feet.
My Grandfather and Father built and used it. There were a few times I even got to help. 
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: egon]
08/07/05 10:37 AM
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Egon, Since I was a kid I have heard the expression, "cold as a well diggers butt." Can you comment on that in F or C or were they too circumspect to let on to you. Any personal experience?
 Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (08/07/05 10:38 AM)
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egon
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: Pat]
08/07/05 11:30 AM
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Oh this wasn't cold work Pat. The only digging involved a sump maybe three feet in diameter and four feet deep. The picture you see is a well being drilled or modified in an existing cistern that may also have been used to keep milk, cream and such cool.
Egon
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cowboyjg
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: egon]
08/07/05 02:21 PM
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Egon, have you found an old box of family photo's or something? I have noticed them popping up all over the place...
They remind me of the story of the 40 mile barefoot walk thru the woods my grandfather says he had to take to school when he was a boy...
In snow up to his knees....BTW
"Wisdom isn't free, though your only price is to pay attention"
Edited by cowboyjg (08/07/05 02:22 PM)
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egon
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: cowboyjg]
08/07/05 07:14 PM
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Ah - everyonce in a while get to reminising and look at old pictures.
Think about how some things used to be done.
For instance that simple looking well drilling outfit could probably do 200 feet in several days. It's much more sensitive to low water flows than the rotary models. Other than the motor and pipe could probably build one for a few hundred dollars.
Egon
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GaryM
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: cowboyjg]
08/07/05 08:40 PM
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In reply to:
In snow up to his knees....BTW
You forgot the "uphill both ways!"
Gary
----------------------------------------------
Hey! Aren't you supposed to be working?
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CJDave
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: Pat]
08/08/05 06:14 PM
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 Pat....., allow me to personalize that famous saying for you: In very rocky, very mountainous areas where there IS water available; but the water is trapped in between clay layers and doesn't move sideways into a depression cone as would water in a more permeable strata; they drill what is called a "Radial" well. The everyday term is "wagon wheel" well, because if you were Superman and flew over the site and used your X-Ray vision, you would see what resembled a wagon wheel without the rim. The driller digs a 36" diameter hole straight down in ROCK; using jackhammers and enduring leakage from the surrounding clay layers as he digs past them. Once he has dug down anywhere from thirty to two-hundred feet, he trades the jackhammer for a horizontal drill with two-foot drill stem segments. He drills radially, making a complete circle with the many "spokes" of the wagon wheel, and as his drill crosses those clay layers, the water comes to him. Of course the dewatering pump must be going the whole time. As he finishes each radial, he plugs it up with an expansion plug. When the last radial is done, he cleans up the hole, takes out the hoses and bits, and all the rest. The last guy out pulls the expansion plugs, and you've got a well! Don't even ASK what something like that costs, but you generally see that sort of thing in posh mountain subdivisions where movie stars want to build houses and want water so: "Go get me some! I don't CARE what it costs!" So....Pat, does the expression mean more to you now? Seventy feet down in a rock hole with chilly water drizzling into your hip pocket as you back up against the wall to get a good push on that horizontal drill. Standing in slush and cuttings, hoping that the dewatering pump; which is being rapidly disolved by pumping granite chips; will last one more day before it has to be completely rebuilt. Having your lunch topside in soaking wet levis and knowing that tomorrow is going to be JUST LIKE today. The ONLY dry thing you can look forward to is the CHECK that the owner will write to you for all of this unbelieveable effort and discomfort. "Rocky" Albritten of Albritten Bros. Drilling, out of Coarsegold, CA, would be glad to have you work with them on their next job. just for the experience mind you.....no pay. 
CJDave
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Pat
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: CJDave]
08/09/05 08:01 AM
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CJDave, Thanks ever so much for the descriptive narrative! I'll bet I'm not the only one who enjoyed it A LOT. I had never heard of a wagon wheel well but it sure makes sense.
What I know about wells is that in many areas wells have to be drilled deeper and deeper and get less and less water as many aquifers are being over used at a rate far above their replenishment. This is especially true where you see those huge circular irrigation outfits (the ones that make a green circle visible from a space orbit) in areas that otherwise are so arid as to have no agricultural use.
Thanks again for wagon wheel info.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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egon
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: Pat]
08/09/05 01:30 PM
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A site where different well drilling methods are expained.
None are thew same as the one my Grandfater and Father used.
Egon
web page
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CJDave
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: egon]
08/10/05 02:20 AM
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 DRAT! I couldn't get that page to display.  The well rig in your old time photo is what we always called a "cable tool" rig; because the tool literally hung on the cable; there was no rotary drilling. Cable tool rigs have a walking beam that pulls the cable up and down and we call that "spudding". They use a heavy bucket to cut through the strata and the same bucket hauls the cuttings to the surface. Cable tool well drilling requires that you case the well as you drill, adding five-foot segments of casing and driving it down with the heavy bucket. Often the perforated section of casing is installed as the first segment, and if other water bearing strata is encountered, after-the-fact perforating can be done to access these strata. Since no bentonite is used to keep the hole open as in a rotary drilling job, the water bearing strata is not "slicked over" as it so often is in a rotary-drilled well. For perfectly clean wells, the drillers will often drill......install developing pump.....drill....install developing pump...drill.....install developing pump. A tedious process, yes, but it develops each strata independently to where there is no more loose sand whatsoever. Cable tool rigs are superior in gravely substrata where it would be nearly impossible to keep the bore open while you drilled with a rotary rig.
CJDave
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egon
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: CJDave]
08/10/05 04:53 AM
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Sorry CJ. Not even close other than it does go up and down.
When I get time I'll draw and post a picture. You were misled by the picture as it was being drilled in a cistern and all you could see was the rope.
Egon
Edited by egon (08/10/05 05:05 AM)
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papakris
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Re: Well Drilling
[re: egon]
09/14/05 08:09 AM
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The page cannot be displayed! I tried to load that URL and was unable to display it. :-(
papakris. 
Left wing, Right wing, It's still the same bird.
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