Anyone have any luck drilling their own well?

theuniquey · #1 03/08/08, 08:14 PM

My wife and I just got a quote to have a 200' well drilled for $12,000 OUCH! We did a little surfing and found a couple of companies that sell rigs for about $6,000 that supposedly can drill a 300' deep 6" well. I love the idea of drilling my own well but am a bit leery. Has anyone done this with any success?

pointer_hunter · #2 03/08/08, 10:40 PM

The 12,000 quote most likely included the casing, point, screen and pump along with the actual drilling. If you are looking into drilling your own, be sure to add all of those costs into your plan before purchasing the unit. If you have the time and strength you can drill a well using a sledge hammer!

Scrounger · #3 03/09/08, 07:30 AM

We bought one of the drilling units from "DeepRock" a few years back. It was "well" worth the money (pardon the pun....). We Devined for the spot and hit water right where we should have.
The casing, point and screen came with the unit. We went down 120' and are using a hand pump.

Remember, if you have someone drill it for you, you usually end up paying - even if it's a "dry hole".

kasilofhome · #4 03/09/08, 09:03 AM

Scrounger, What kind of hand pump do you have. I would like to add a second well on the land (esp. with having lost water for a bit - having a back up would be great I think)
The locals say that hand pumps have limits for drawing water up some claim that 80 feet is the max a pump can go. I am just not sure that that is a real number. I would only need say 60 to 80 feet as the water sits 40 feet down but I have learned that just cause the water is at 40 feet the pump needs to sit in farther.

Info would be nice. Also does it work at temps at 40 below 0 F? or could it?

theuniquey · #5 03/09/08, 11:58 AM

Thanks Scrounger. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Deep Rock is one of the units I've been flirting with. The most attractive part about this is I can put down as many wells as I want if I have the rig.

I'm very curious about your hand pump as well. I'd also like to know where to find diy ways to add wind and solar to pull the water out with. I do have some pretty awesome and simple instructions on how to make a small windmill to charge batteries but I need some that show me how to make a windmill pump.

By the way, I'm new here, what does "bump" mean?

Scrounger · #6 03/09/08, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasilofhome

Scrounger, What kind of hand pump do you have. I would like to add a second well on the land (esp. with having lost water for a bit - having a back up would be great I think)
The locals say that hand pumps have limits for drawing water up some claim that 80 feet is the max a pump can go. I am just not sure that that is a real number. I would only need say 60 to 80 feet as the water sits 40 feet down but I have learned that just cause the water is at 40 feet the pump needs to sit in farther.

Info would be nice. Also does it work at temps at 40 below 0 F? or could it?

Dunno about the -40° thing......
Is that -40° F or -40° C?

As far as the pump goes. Mine is just and ordinary old fashioned "windmill" pump (don't have the windmill, though). It's not the PUMP that makes the difference, it's the CYLINDER. Go to a plumbing supply house that sells the cylinders and they will get you the right one. Do a search for well cylinders online, also.

I have the drive head to an old windmill, but no wheel or fan. One of these days I need to find the rest. Hookling them up to a pump is not hard.

Scrounger · #7 03/09/08, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theuniquey

Thanks Scrounger. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Deep Rock is one of the units I've been flirting with. The most attractive part about this is I can put down as many wells as I want if I have the rig.

I'm very curious about your hand pump as well. I'd also like to know where to find diy ways to add wind and solar to pull the water out with. I do have some pretty awesome and simple instructions on how to make a small windmill to charge batteries but I need some that show me how to make a windmill pump.

By the way, I'm new here, what does "bump" mean?

They also make solar powered pumps.

"Bump" means that someone posts to a thread to "bump" it back to the top for more discussion.

theuniquey · #8 03/09/08, 12:43 PM

Gotcha

blufford · #9 03/09/08, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasilofhome

Scrounger, What kind of hand pump do you have. I would like to add a second well on the land (esp. with having lost water for a bit - having a back up would be great I think)
The locals say that hand pumps have limits for drawing water up some claim that 80 feet is the max a pump can go. I am just not sure that that is a real number. I would only need say 60 to 80 feet as the water sits 40 feet down but I have learned that just cause the water is at 40 feet the pump needs to sit in farther.

Info would be nice. Also does it work at temps at 40 below 0 F? or could it?

Don't you have permafrost to drill through?

theuniquey · #10 03/09/08, 02:23 PM

No permafrost in the U.P.

simplyflow · #11 03/09/08, 03:18 PM

At least no permafrost where you are at, near Lake Superior.

Welcome!

theuniquey · #12 03/09/08, 03:54 PM

Thanks Flow

texican · #13 03/09/08, 04:00 PM

I've got a Deep Rock machine. Drilled a well for me, my pa, an uncle and several neighbors. Max depth I was able to go was ~120'. Lots of work. Drill one well successfully for a neighbor, and your rig is paid for. After that, all you have is a couple of gallons of gas, the pipe and the fittings.

If you have rock formations, it's ten times more work. Helps if you can fix things in a hurry, especially drill bits. Or have plenty of extras.

Sand Flat Bob · #14 03/09/08, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theuniquey

Thanks Scrounger. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Deep Rock is one of the units I've been flirting with. The most attractive part about this is I can put down as many wells as I want if I have the rig.

I'm very curious about your hand pump as well. I'd also like to know where to find diy ways to add wind and solar to pull the water out with. I do have some pretty awesome and simple instructions on how to make a small windmill to charge batteries but I need some that show me how to make a windmill pump.

By the way, I'm new here, what does "bump" mean?

Something that has always interested me is pumping water from a well using a wind driven air pump. There are two of these systems within 2 miles of me. The newest is right across the county road from me. He paid about $1500 for the entire rig, tower, fan compressor and all. It is fairly short tower, about 20 feet, but you can locate the windmill on a hill and just run a compressed air line down to and in the well. Google pumping water with compressed air. Nothing below ground to ever wear out.

Have fun,

Bob

theuniquey · #15 03/09/08, 04:56 PM

Nice to hear Texican, thanks. Were you only able to go to 120' because of your rig or the ground?

theuniquey · #16 03/09/08, 04:59 PM

Hi Bob, So technically, the actual mill doesn't need to be on top of the well? That's an awesome concept. Thanks

kasilofhome · #17 03/09/08, 05:57 PM

-40 f below 0 --F (not c)
U P would be upper Penn
we do not ha permafrost --the ground does freeze but just 10 to 12 feet deep but come mid May it is pretty much all unfrozen and most often will not freeze up till Dec - Jan

**highlands** · #18 03/09/08, 06:06 PM

That kind of price is why we bought a tractor. We were quoted $15,000 to put in the the trench for the water line from our spring to the house. We went without water for a year hauling it from the spring and saved our pennies. We spent a small fraction of the quoted money, bought a tractor and did the work ourselves. Now we have a free tractor.

In our case we didn't have to drill as the water is up hill of the house and flows out of a crack in the mountain. In other situations investing in a drilling rig might be the wise idea. Then you can make money doing it for other people too...!

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

Scrounger · #19 03/09/08, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasilofhome

-40 f below 0 --F (not c)
U P would be upper Penn
we do not ha permafrost --the ground does freeze but just 10 to 12 feet deep but come mid May it is pretty much all unfrozen and most often will not freeze up till Dec - Jan

It was actually a joke.
-40° is the same on BOTH F° and C° scales.......

texican · #20 03/09/08, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theuniquey

Nice to hear Texican, thanks. Were you only able to go to 120' because of your rig or the ground?

Probably had to do with the size of my pump, a honda 4hp 2" pump... the weight of the cuttings at a certain point would make the flow out of the drill hole neglible. We have good water beds down to 150', then you start hitting salty water.

A guy with a cutting rig and welding machine and little know how could make a "deep rock" rig for a lot less (third?)... by getting over the counter parts, post hole digging rig (2 cycle), and a few specialized parts from 'deep rock'.