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Old 05-29-11, 02:06 PM   #24
mejunkhound
Apprentice EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: PNW
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I'll throw one in here, as have done a couple of wells.

1st one we literally dug by hand (small air hammer, posthole digger, tripod over the hole, vacuum cleaner on blower for air. 30 in dia, 18 ft deep, supplied all our domestic needs for 25 years..

Then a 62 house subdevelopment went in 500 ft uphill, so needed a deeper well. From well logs of others (check you state registers) knew I'd likely hit good abundant water at a blue clay layer about 60-70 ft down, but heeded to go thru 55 ft of hardpan with occasional 3 ft dia bassalt and granite boulders.
Tried a rotary setup first after welding up a 30 foot tower to bolt to the back of my dozer. Twisted the shaft off every trnsmission drive I tried when hitting a boulder (including a specially machined 2 in dia 4340 shaft as have a machine shop)

Went with the old cable tool standby, welded some 4140 steel to the end of a few 5 inch billets of steel (aka old railroad car axles) and hardfaced them. Built a walking beam out of some 8" channel and 3 old trucks, drove with the truck engine.

Biggest pump I have will pump 29 GPM, did that one august and pumped all day with no drop in delivery. Hit the blue clay right at 60 ft, 5 ft of sand above that.

'Only' took 5 months of spare time, but still have a rig if I need one again..<G>
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