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mejunkhound · 09-18-11, 10:21 PM

re:
It went to 15 ft. and then hit a pocket of what must be small rock as it gets stuck there

I see that G NR G is in the Seattle area. Have drilled a couple of wells east of Renton and am familiar with the type of 'pockets' described. IMO a 'toy' like the hydra drill has no chance, based on the geology of the area. Co-worker back in the early 80's tried a hydra drill down by Chehalis and thought he'd wasted his $$.

My experience: Tried drilling and even driving a well with small rig back in 1971 when building the house. No internet then for info, just the library. Anyway, at about 10 ft down where the cemented hardpan starts driving just plain does not work (e.g 800# 'hammer', collapsed 2" pipe trying to drive it)
Ended up hand digging a 20 ft well for water (classical rope on a bucket with me in hole and DW hauling stuff out, no worry about collaplse with the cemented hardpan)

Fast forward to early 90's, neighbor sold his 8 acres and developer put 62 houses on it!! Worried about my shallow well, did not want to go onto city water.
Built a 30 ft tower to bolt to the back of my dozer, drove a rotary rig with a 2T IH truck transmission with 5HP elec motor on starter pinion. Hit rocks at about 20 ft and sheared 1-1/2" output shaft of tranny, machined a 2" shaft from 4340M steel which held but then stripped all the bull gear teeth - so reset my thinking.

Built a pitman arm on an old truck chassis to lift and drop a 900# cable tool, those go thru anything. Based on chipsbailed out of hole, hit a couple of 3 ft diameter basalt boulders about 3 ft diameter at around 30 feet. Took awhile to drill thru those, but eventually hit a 5 ft thick layer of black sand at 55 ft with impermeable blue clay at 60 ft. All the water I want, water rights for enough to run gshp also - dump to my pond.

All in all, spent about 5 months of weekends building the machinery and drilling a 60 ft deep well (> 30 gpm all year) - good experience one time, but if I ever need another well, I'll hire somebody with a 50,000# truck mounted rig.

Have fun.....

09-18-11, 10:21 PM	#947
mejunkhound Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: PNW Posts: 197 Thanks: 0 Thanked 47 Times in 31 Posts	re: It went to 15 ft. and then hit a pocket of what must be small rock as it gets stuck there I see that G NR G is in the Seattle area. Have drilled a couple of wells east of Renton and am familiar with the type of 'pockets' described. IMO a 'toy' like the hydra drill has no chance, based on the geology of the area. Co-worker back in the early 80's tried a hydra drill down by Chehalis and thought he'd wasted his $$. My experience: Tried drilling and even driving a well with small rig back in 1971 when building the house. No internet then for info, just the library. Anyway, at about 10 ft down where the cemented hardpan starts driving just plain does not work (e.g 800# 'hammer', collapsed 2" pipe trying to drive it) Ended up hand digging a 20 ft well for water (classical rope on a bucket with me in hole and DW hauling stuff out, no worry about collaplse with the cemented hardpan) Fast forward to early 90's, neighbor sold his 8 acres and developer put 62 houses on it!! Worried about my shallow well, did not want to go onto city water. Built a 30 ft tower to bolt to the back of my dozer, drove a rotary rig with a 2T IH truck transmission with 5HP elec motor on starter pinion. Hit rocks at about 20 ft and sheared 1-1/2" output shaft of tranny, machined a 2" shaft from 4340M steel which held but then stripped all the bull gear teeth - so reset my thinking. Built a pitman arm on an old truck chassis to lift and drop a 900# cable tool, those go thru anything. Based on chipsbailed out of hole, hit a couple of 3 ft diameter basalt boulders about 3 ft diameter at around 30 feet. Took awhile to drill thru those, but eventually hit a 5 ft thick layer of black sand at 55 ft with impermeable blue clay at 60 ft. All the water I want, water rights for enough to run gshp also - dump to my pond. All in all, spent about 5 months of weekends building the machinery and drilling a 60 ft deep well (> 30 gpm all year) - good experience one time, but if I ever need another well, I'll hire somebody with a 50,000# truck mounted rig. Have fun.....