Ever hand drive a well?

[WildwoodChuck]

I spent a few hours fixing up a driver for the old neighbor and drilling a well in his basement. He is 94 and refused to let us do it for him he wanted to work too. His wife gave me 2 quarts of homemade applesauce for all the work.

 

[signcrafter]

How does that machine work? I've pounded a shallow well by hand using a fence post type driver. Only had to go down about 30 feet or so threw easy soil.

 

[WildwoodChuck]

Electric motor 50:1 gear box brass pulley. Wrap the hemp rope around the brass pull 2-3 times then a little pressure on the line picks up the driver let the pressure off and the driver falls. It does take a pulley above the well pipe for the driver to ride on.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You can "jet" a well by hand with normal water pressure it the soil is not too hard or rocky. Not appropriate for inside work as there would be water all over the place. Works better with a 5hp trash pump put you need a way to recycle the water.

Also, if the soil is soft you will need bentonite clay to make "drilling mud" to prevent the walls from collapsing in as you go.

For a couple hundred dollars you can buy a well drill swivel that will connect a 2 man post hole digger that you can rent, to hollow drill rod with water for jetting and flushing. You typically need some kind of tower and hoist to pull up the rig and add more sections of pipe. With a rig like this you can go 100' in easy soil.