lack of water volume, not pressure makes a huge difference, got a 330 gallon tote and used that with a water pump and drove down 40 feet. (no shell rock) in about 6 hours. first well took three long days because there was not enough water volume to lift the sand and dirt out of the way, But now you independent on water and that is a great thing. bravo for keep punching intill you knocked it down.
@@terrafirma9328 I already owned a 2” mud pump and a pressure washer. I bought the pressure washer jetter attachment and extra length of hose for about 40 bucks in Amazon. (Although the jetter and pressure washer method ended up not being a great method) Plus the cost of the PVC sticks,couplers, glue, galvanized coupler, pool filter sand, bentonite clay. So all in about 350-400 bucks, not including my time.
@@paperburn Is correct! A pressure nozzle could help to loosen material at the bottom of the hole but high water flow (volume) is what it will take to flush drill cuttings up and push them out of the bore hole. We sometimes used an air compressor to blow water and muck out of a well too. It takes a big compressor (ours was 185 CFM at 125 PSI) with enough air hose to reach the bottom. This can produce a nice geyser, very dramatic ! 😲
It was very entertaining and informative when you explained things at the end! I appreciate the fact that you were willing to share your true experience and I am glad that you didn’t give up and succeeded in getting it done for you and your family! I wish I could do it but I’m in Virginia and my soil is clay and it needs to be over 150’ to get to the water table. I have a 110’ well that gives me 150 gallons and then takes 3 hours to recover so it makes growing my garden a real challenge. I’m considering getting some ICB totes and putting a pump in them. I could collect rain water and use my well to fill them over time if needed but I’m on a fixed income and don’t have a lot of expendable income. I have more pressing needs and every time I save up for something another thing seems to come up and gobble up my savings. But I am very thankful for what I do have and I am very blessed in many ways! I pray that you and your family will be blessed in every way! ❤
Thank you for sharing. The galvanized “bit” that you made really helped your process, even if not cutting through shell rock I would think the steel vs PVC would cut so much better.
Interesting video, I don't think the process would be quite the same here in our rocky Pennsylvania ground, but it started the wheels turning in my mind. Pretty good story/plot delivery, thanks for taking the time to put the video together!
Great video Steve. Working on a shallow well using the pressure washer approach. We're about 30' down and progress is now slow....Very encouraging to see others run into problems, work through the process and figure it out in the end. Appreciate you showing failures as well as successes. Keep it up man.
You had the right idea for the drilling bit, but you needed carbide drill points or anything that was hardened steel to drill through the shale rock easier. But at least you got it done. Now you know what to do for the next one. Good job.
I drill a set of four near Ocoee, Florida about twenty years ago doing the double water hose method. Kicked my ass. We had very fine sand and clay, so output was low (hence the four wells), but the water was excellent. I only used it for irrigation but it tested fine for drinking.
Great job!! I have drilled 3 wells with a Deep Rock one man drill and got plenty of water, but had a problem because I had gravel and the gravel wouldn't flow out of the hole very well, but I finally had success and got plenty of water each time!!!
Proud of you. saved thousands of dollars. Unprofessional video but real and original. I like it. You are a hard working man. You needed to buy a batter pump though.
Glad you found it helpful. The best method I found was the mud pump attached to the top of the pipe. The only issue with this is adding another piece of pipe. I had to let the glue set for an hour before proceeding again
@@SteveDoesEverything well, I can understand the wait for the glue to set, it would be extremely sad to have your pipe fall off in the hole where you cannot reach it.
Makes me even more grateful that I live in West Michigan. I got a jackhammer and beat a well point down 25 feet to good water in an hour. The water is clear and delicious. I don't know why people want to live anywhere else. If you do, try a jackhammer and 3x10-foot sections of galvanized pipe and a jackhammer.
If you are going to hand drill do it in the valley center in a slight sloping ground, take two pieces of 2"×4" join them together with two bolts bore a round hole in the joint so when it is bolted around the pipe its tight enough to turn the pipe, use a belt as a shim if needed
Excuse me SIR, you SHOULD be using a N⁰ 3 OR N⁰ 7 16 tap certified water pick axe combo unit with a galvanized steel plate for the first hole pipe. I'm just being a turd burglar, lol, I love how you did this and the fact that you did it YOURSELF, with YOUR OWN TOOLS AND HANDS. BRAVO, kick ass!
In central Illinois (shameful state), I used a hand crank auger with extensions to go down about 20 feet (8inch diameter). I did the project in late summer when the water table was the lowest. It was crazy easy and did not take very much time.
You definitely have me thinking. We just had to have our well pump replaced $2,500 later. My current well is 220 feet deep with the well pump set at 120 feet. He said I could pump 100GPM which seems like a bunch... The well should always have plenty of water in it if it's that deep I have thought about the steel pointed drill, the one you drive into the ground. But I'm afraid the water might be too deep to reach after hearing how deep our well is. Our soil is very sandy even though we are well inland. Here SE Texas where we are there is sandy clay under the sand. I have not been down much more than a post hole digger, but the dirt all looks the same everywhere I have put a fence post. I think I have a shallow spring just outside of the back yard fence. Our pasture stays wet forever after a rain. Even though it has not rained here for two full months and we have been living with the 100 degree days my grass is still green in the low area that leads to the creek. Most of my grass in that area is still green. I'm just looking for water for my gardens (2) and fruit trees.
Been there, done that several years ago. I found it works better if you drill the coupling bit and put a bolt through it so it can't unscrew from the pvc. If you make a paddle board that you can grip on each side and then use steel hose clamps you can tighten it up on the pipe and turn the pipe in either direction and then as needed loosen the clamps and slide the paddle board up to where it works best. I drilled three wells and lost the second one and had to abandon it. I've decided if I ever want to drill another I'll dig a pit to fill with water and bentonite and use a mud pump to flush the mud out of the hole and save all that effort.
Oddly enough water jetting without predrilling a hole works better. If you pay attention to the videos created by the guy that started all this he’ll tells you. Use the well size you want and jet it down. I had coral about 2’ thick I had to get though. I made a drill bit using conduit. I cut a large bit in half wielding a section to each end. I used an impact hammer and after a couple of hours got through. If I ever do it again I will use galvanized well pipe and special couples and a jack hammer. The pros here use a sled with a hundred pounds to slam them down. I believe a jack hammer with a home built attachment would do it. I did 27’ before jetting stopped working. I ran 2 hoses and all the water just disappeared. It was 2013 and it has never run dry even after a massive drought.
How are you removing the particles you loosen by drilling? Normally a drilling fluid (thickened water) is used to lift up the particles. How deep did your working well go down?
Well done, I was watching your video couple times, as well as others. we're currently driving our own well. We also use same metal bit on a 2'' pipe for drilling, but 2 water hoses from normal water supply. we met small gravels, difficult to get them out. Question - did you smash the gravels and water rushed them out by using jet water? whats your mud pump's driving power or that of power washer pump? Thanks
Hi, if you connect 2 inch pump hose to end of drill pipe instead of 2 garden hoses, you’ll get way better pressure. Also if you use bentonite clay slurry in you water pump mix it will help bring small stones etc up from the hole.
Doing one now in Punta Gorda. Shell rock at 20'. Making a separate drill stem from galvanized 3/4 and fitting at the end with teeth. Connecting to post hole digger, to punch a hole through the hardpack. Should be fun.
Should be fun. Hopefully it goes smoothly for you. If I did another, I would use the mud pump from the get go and the clay to help cut and line the hole.
Yeah😂 ,it was entertaining. In my opinion, knowledge is the first step to DIY own well drilling. Learning from the best (on RU-vid, even if it's in foren language) will help you to be successful, with lot less of work
It look's like your in Fl. The "Shell Rock" is called Cashea (I probably slaughtered that lol), they have another way to do it and it's almost like an oil rig but way smaller and you drive 4" at a time. It's ssssoooooo much easier!.
Is it stuck, what a dump question. That’s basically how I did mine except I didn’t think to use a pressure washer. Mud pump would work better with the large pipe then maybe the pressure washer. I made it 27’ before all the water just disappeared. At 8’ I hit coral. I made a bit using steel electrical conduit as the shaft. I hooked it to my big electric impact. It was about 2’ thick. In the end it took me about 2 weeks also. That was 2013 and it runs perfectly. 1 hp Gould 27 gpm pump. Since you have a skid steer you could of used it to drive down s steel point.
I make that same configuration when drilling horizontal under slabs for irrigation. Best to make the teeth 45 degree or so..like a saw blade. Much better bite into soil.
various things... mount the drill on a frame, with enough height to pull each rod... or pair of rods. stops it spinning on you too... get down a few metres and its a nightmare... watch an oil rig setup... on that note, you want the clamps to hold the string when you add/remove rods. doesnt actually have to be much fancier than a decent bit of plate with a hole in it. pivot on the top edge and the hole will grab the rod... either grab some masonry drills, or stump grinder teeth, and weld them on the pilot...
Yep. Only other way is to drive. We’ll point down by hand or machine. This is how I got the first water source. But it was very shallow, about 16ft. Water flow was terrible.
@@joebobjenkins7837 every situation is different, there's no way anyone could make a video to address every single potential roadblock to getting water to drill a well
A high volume pump is what is needed to lift the soil & mud out of the well. If you hit rocks or Shale with this setup you are do e for sure. Rotary drills and carbide bits for most rocks is required at minimum.
We had a neighbor from england when i was young, he had forms to dig down 4 feet per day, mix concrete, fill forms and by the next day he could stand on the cement to dig the next 4 feet. It seemed to work pretty good. Dig as deep as you wanted in the ground in that area at least.
Estoy cavando un pozo a martillazos manual he llegado a una profundidad de 12 metros a una capa de lodo al perforar el hacha se pega en el lodo por lo que es dificil sacarla hasta que tenga la ayuda de otra persona para jala el grano ¿Nos puedes ayudar con una solución y el tipo de hacha que se usa en el lodo?
I drove a shallow well point with my skid steer several months prior on the lot next to this one. It only went down 16 feet and the water quality wasn’t great nor did it flow real well. But I used the water from that well to fill the reservoir I made for this well. Overall a constant supply of about 250 gallons should be enough
Your video was VERY AMUSING 👍😂😁😄😆 I was laughing endlessly. Are you serious. All of the great videos made of drilling an off grid home well. OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG You should have watched a few. Your poor choices and methods were endless, even to a rooky. I applaud your efforts, and willingness to share. Hitting water or not, it was A GREAT VIDEO 😂😆😄😁👍
Yes, hand dig 6 feet, put in 8" or 10" tube of 6 feet. Use the dug up soil to create a small dam around the world area, get some bentonite/clay/cow dung ANY ONE will do. Add water create slurry. Get a 3" steel pipe , attach a union or nipple with its edge ground sharp. Start lifting and dropping. Do it till you hit water. Once water hit, attach larger welded nipple to end with edges sharpened start widening hole. That's how we do in india. Mechanical rotary style costs 1-2 USD per feet.
I did 45 feet with just connecting metal pipes and a large auger type end to dig down all manually but around here it's supposed to be 100 feet that was way back in 2000 I might just invest in it because they want $800 dollars to renew contract that's why I am here looking to get ideas I had more energy back then
