DIY well drilling / trench digging for GSHP

[Vlad]

After I built the rig one day I started drilling.

My plan was:

1. Dig a trench
2. Put the rig above trench, drill series of holes
3. Put U-bends(3/4 HDPE with U at the end)
4. Grout them
5. Connect them all into headers(1 1/4 HDPE)
6. Run headers into my house
7. Fill trenches

Now lets see what was done and what wasn't and why.

1. Dig a trench and put rig above was a BAD idea. It was so hard to move around. I wanted to save on digging and didn't want to dig near installed HDPE. Again, it brought me only a hassle.

2. Because trench was there it was VERY HARD to put heavy and bulky drilling rig above a trench.

2.a Drilling

I started drilling and realized water pump(for circulating mud)+electric motor was a BAD IDEA. The pump provided too much flow. It just made a huge fountain from my rig. It is very cool when you look at fountains somewhere in Venice but it is not fun when you have a MUD RAIN on your head . I was lucky because I had 2 electric motors running both 220V. I could be easy become a history but I was just lucky.
I added a T with valves to direct enough mud into swivel and recirculate back the rest. With gas engine it would be easier to control flow just by lowering RPM.

I started drilling 2 time and after making some adjustments to hydraulics I found right pressure and torque. Original 2000 PSI was just too much for 5HP electric motor. 1100 PSI made electric motor happy and I still had enough torque.

Drilling was easy until I got a rock. It happened at about 40 feet. But I was prepared for this. I had professional bits including a trycone. I pulled the pipe (sliding table was super handy for lifting pipe) changed bit and started drilling again. The pipe was spinning ind jumping up and down but nothing really happened. I started thinking that I was doing something wrong. I was thinking that trycone is cutting the rock but after some googling I found that trycones are not cutting but crashing the rock. You need A LOT OF PRESSURE to make it work it properly. Here I realized that I needed to add 2 winch (I added manual one) for pulling the drilling head down. Also I added extra weight on top of the frame because the whole rig was going up when I started to pull Drilling head with 2 winch down.

After all this I could drill a rock (it was 4-5 feet). Drilling became easy again until I got gravel. This is what made me stop at 65-70 feet.

GRAVEL is what made me stop. You can't use trycone because gravel just locks it. I pulled the pipe and switched to drug bit (I had a good one). Here I came to another problem My drilling pipe was 1 1/2" steel pipe it is almost 2" OD(couplings are even wider). My bits were 3 1/2". I only had enough clearance for cuttings but not for gravel. Gravel was pushed between pipe and wall clearance and couldn't go up. It was just locking the pipe. At one point it locked the pipe so bad that my top winch (3000 lb) couldn't get the pipe out. I added moving pulley to double winch power. Finally I managed to pull the pipe up.

At that point I had 2 choices: 1. get bigger bits (5"-6") They are getting very expensive and you need to hunt them on Ebay. It could take 1-2 month (weather made this impossible). 2. To drill 12 holes instead of 6.

I decided to choose #2 and drill 12 holes.

3. I prepared U-bends (I didn't go ACs way I bought socket fusion tool and sockets)
I put pipes into hole. (BTW this was impossible untill I filled them with water.)

4. Grouting. This is the end of story. This is what killed the whole project. I had a 3" diaphragm gas pump. I was thinking it could push clay/send/cement mix into hole. I couldn't make it work. The mix was getting stuck and was going nowhere. I just realized if I need to fight every hole I will not have enough time to finish before rain comes.

I know this sounds like I gave up. Yes I did at that point. I was so frustrated and pissed off. I couldn't believe that the least thing that I was thinking about became the most important one.

[AlanE]

Originally Posted by Vlad

AlanE, I don't believe in toy-rigs and plastic pipe drilling. Maybe somewhere where you have sand and clay only it will work but even a small rock or just a packed gravel will stop you.

I know I spent time and money to build this rig but I didn't want to spend half of what I spent and get nothing. Drilling is not cheap and easy.

You can read ACs struggle. He just ended up using a shovel and vacuum cleaner. And after all that He still doesn't have enough capacity.

I know it sound discouraging but you know it is better to estimate everything and find the right way then just jump into the project spend time, money and after all sit in a puddle of mud with mud all over your face and think "what the hell...." read my next post and try to feel what I was feeling at that time......

What about slinky? Slinky is much more DIY friendly.

Vlad, where did you get the idea that I wanted to build a rig that was half measure? I am intending on building a powerful rig to match yours, all I want to do is do the build in such a manner that the parts can be used for other projects after the well drilling is done. I'll probably be looking at a 25 hp engine, probably a diesel instead of gas powered, probably a more robust hydraulic unit because I want to use it for lifting logs that weigh a couple of tons.

So, knowing what you know now about the problems with gravel, what would you have done differently?

[Vlad]

AlanE, as is I spent about $2500 on parts only. If you are thinking about building something serious you should first think about buying Good Professional water swivel and bits.

When I switched to 15 HP gas engine it was more then enough. You do need good torque but you don't need speed(60-90 RPM is all you need). Torque= pressure, speed=flow(GPM).

If you want speed and torque then you need huge pump and hydraulic motor and huge engine, huge hydraulic hoses to handle the flow, huge control valve and a monster frame to hold this all together. Then you need huge water pump for circulation and so on and so on... $$$$$$$$

You can buy professional drill pipe instead of water pipe I used. But you will end up spending thousands $$ more.

When I started thinking about building a rig I started from nothing. I didn't even have a clue what to build and how. But I found this video on YouTube and I was inspired by it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhOyw-EJvk&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBRqt...feature=fvwrel

My rig was working really close to this one.

As you can see speed is slow, torque (I guess) is high. They used 25 HP Honda (I guess because it is twin cylinder Honda). But you can hear the engine in low RPM range and not under heavy load. Take a look at pressure gauge near the engine. I can hardly see pressure readings there.


I really do not know how you can reuse water swivel and bits other then just resale. But if you build really good rig you can just probably resale the whole rig to another drilling enthusiast like you.

I can see for sale real toys real junk like "Hydra-Drill" for sale in $5000 range. Even my rig as is much better then them.

[Vlad]

To be honest I do not know the answer. I am not a professional driller or rig builder. I am just an enthusiast like most of us at this forum. I only can guess If I had more clearance between pipe and wall It could probably work. But it means you need bigger hole diameter bigger bits, more grout to grout.

As I said before grouting was the killer for me. I didn't expect such a problem there.

I was thinking about drilling 2 water wells and just use open loop system for my GSHP. Another way is slinky coils.

[AlanE]

Originally Posted by Vlad

AlanE, as is I spent about $2500 on parts only. If you are thinking about building something serious you should first think about buying Good Professional water swivel and bits.

In my mind I thought you had spent much more than $2,500. I'd be comfortable with spending more than that if I could find uses for some of the major parts.

When I switched to 15 HP gas engine it was more then enough. You do need good torque but you don't need speed(60-90 RPM is all you need). Torque= pressure, speed=flow(GPM).

Very good to hear. This means that if I need to buy a bigger engine that will be determined solely by the bandsaw mill requirements.

You can buy professional drill pipe instead of water pipe I used. But you will end up spending thousands $$ more.

When I was reading your post and you mentioned that you were using couplers, I suspected that you weren't using drill pipe. It was the couplers which were blocking flow deep in the well, am I right? Do you think that a 6' drill bit would give enough diameter for the ejection of drilled material from the well and allow it to bypass the couplers?

If I can avoid buying drilling pipe and instead use water pipe, then I'd prefer that because I can't think of another use where I'd need drilling pipe in the future, so if I went that route (which I might have to) then that expense is only for drilling and when I'm done with the drilling, then the pipe just sits there for decades or until I can find a buyer for it.

I really do not know how you can reuse water swivel and bits other then just resale. But if you build really good rig you can just probably resale the whole rig to another drilling enthusiast like you.

Well, money spent on that equipment still makes it cheaper to DIY than it would be to hire a professional driller to drill a series of wells.

I can see for sale real toys real junk like "Hydra-Drill" for sale in $5000 range. Even my rig as is much better then them.

I saw those but quickly rejected them as being suitable for rock. No, for me it's either build it myself or hire someone to drill and I have better uses for the money than hiring someone to drill wells for me, even though DIY is going to be a lot of work.

[AlanE]

Originally Posted by Vlad

To be honest I do not know the answer. I am not a professional driller or rig builder. I am just an enthusiast like most of us at this forum. I only can guess If I had more clearance between pipe and wall It could probably work. But it means you need bigger hole diameter bigger bits, more grout to grout.

This answers my question.

As I said before grouting was the killer for me. I didn't expect such a problem there.

What exactly was the problem here?

I was thinking about drilling 2 water wells and just use open loop system for my GSHP. Another way is slinky coils.

Did you hit the water table in your drilling?

One idea that I'm kicking around is to set up some cheap solar thermal units and pump heat into the ground but if there is water flowing underneath then all that heat couldn't really be stored very well.

[Vlad]

AlanE, you definitely can reuse many components, especially if you plan ahead. You mentioned wood saw. You can reuse engine, and whole hydraulic station. It is good idea to add some sort of oil cooler in return line because continuous use of hydraulic station heats up oil.

Drill pipe.
Do not go smaller then 1 1/2" because if you hit rock and need to use trycone bit you will need to make sure you can push it down. My pipe looked very solid even when whole rig was "dancing" in the air. If you go with 2" you will find pipe and couplings are very expensive (I used 1 1/2" hydraulic couplings grade 3000psi rated they are about 20$ a piece). You can find a good use of pipe if you think. You can use them as posts for fence or ...

Try to find king swivel. It is the best for projects like yours. It has special type of seals to handle sand and mud. You can see many other ones use just regular type of seals or graphite rope.

When it comes to drilling you will find the paradox. The more you read and know the more questions you have. The main problem is you are drilling an earth and you have no idea where you are drilling and what is there. You asked me about water table. My answer: I don't know. When you use mud your hole is full of it and even if you hit water table how would you know? If you use a shovel this is easy: "here is water coming "

[AlanE]

So can we break this down for people who are coming in with no knowledge.

Components Needed:

-Engine
-Mud Pump
-Winch
-King Swivel
-Drill Pipe
-Drill Bit
-Frame
-Oil Cooler

-What Each Component Does:

Rather than listing this here is a video. Perhaps someone could fill in the blanks if they think of something that isn't explained in the video.

Here is a video for a commercially produced small rig which is more robust that the toy rigs. I think it breaks down all the components and explains what they do very thoroughly.

DeepRock - New M60 Drill Rig - YouTube

Now for most of the people who want to drill their own GSHP wells, this rig is overkill and the cost is a non-starter for a DIY drilling project. However, for people embarking on projects like mine there is reason to believe that DIY can be a money saver (but a huge time sink). Raw land is cheaper than developed land. Putting a water well on raw land can sometimes cost $20,000-$50,000 or just a few thousand dollars. If a drilling unit can be built for less than the cost of having a well drilled then your subsequent wells will only need material and so can be had very cheaply. Maybe some enterprising people can develop a sideline business of drilling for GSHP installations or renting their unit out to other DIYers.

Anyways, my question to people who've watched this video is how you'd go about duplicating what they've built. Where can we find 2nd hand hydraulics and oil coolers and such. The mud pump, King Swivel, drill bits and drill pipe all seem to me to be items that we'll have to buy new.

[AlanE]

Here is a pretty good tutorial on actual drilling for a water well. Most of the procedures are applicable for GSHP wells.

Lone Star Drills | Operation of the LS-100 - YouTube

[Vlad]

To be honest, I don't like it at all. It is full of "features" but only sale features.

1. Water swivel (the heart of the system) is junk.

2. If you put it on trailer which is a GOOD IDEA it must be bigger. There is absolutely no room to add extra weight (a MUST be when trycone is used). So, other then mobility gives nothing else.

3. 25 HP Kohler is a beautiful engine but $$$$$$$ (I guess it is like 4000$-5000$ VS 400$-500$ 15HP good Honda replica ). Loading everything on the same engine is not good for DIY. It is very complicated to match all components when they need to work together.

3. As they say they only take 7 HP for turning pipe. This is why I said 15 HP is a plenty of power.

4. Pipe is only 1" water pipe. You can't push trycone with it and water flow is restricted.

5. Stroke is too short. My pipe is full 10' and their I guess is 5'. If you need to change bit and you are 100 feet down how many times you need to go up and down?

6. They use pipe wrench. I built sliding table that holds coupling and don't let it spin.


I like they say on their website:"As an introductory special, we are offering a special package of the M60 with all the bells and whistles to drill 300 feet for $17,995!"

This is exactly what I wanted to say you get "bells and whistles" for 18K and nothing else.

300!!!! feet only in their dreams.


I just noticed they had to add steel triangle to hold must from bending. You can see fresh weld there.