Can I dig my own water well?

[bx24]

I am looking to get a old farm type windmill (both for show and for use). The field I plan on using it is next to a creek. There is a small 75' diameter pond about 400' from the creek that serves as a pretty good indicator of the water table. Throughout the year, the water table gets as high as 3' below the surface, and as low as about 9'.

I talked to a local well drilling company and they said their minimum charge was for 100' of well drilling ($2400). Given the shallow water table, and the make up of the sub soil (mostly sandy), is there any way to dig my own well to use with a windmill pump? How deep should it be? What diameter pipe should be used? How can you dig in sandy soil - below the water table level and not have things keep collapsing? I would really like to avoid paying twice as much for the hole than for the entire windmill!

The windmill I was looking at has a 10' diameter blade so I don't think power is the issue. I thought it would be neat to build an above ground water tank on poles about 16' off the ground to store 1000 gallons or so of the pumped water. Given all of these things, I was thinking a 2-3" well pump would be plenty.

Anyone have any ideas - as always, poke holes in my plans!

[MJPetersen]

Paul,

It seems to me that there are several ways that you could accomplish what you want. Here they simply push down a piece of 1 1/2 to 2 inch galvanized pipe with a "sand point." I have seen it done with a vibrator attached to the pipe that would just work its way down by the weight of the vibrator and twisting the pipe. The "sand point" is a piece of pipe with a couple of layers of very fine wire screen fastened on tightly. The pipe had lots of 1/2 inch holes, and the end was sealed with a point. The vibrator was an electric motor with an eccentric, the motor was mounted on a flat plate that had a pipe bushing welded on the bottom balance position. I have seen that them push these down 15-25 meters.

With sandy soil and a high water table I certainly think that would work. Another method that I have seen here is that they buy concrete rings that are about 1 meter across and 1/2 meter high. Lay the ring on the ground where you want the well and start digging with a short shovel from the inside. As you dig the ring will settle down in the hole. When the ring almost is level with the ground you add another ring to make a stack and just keep digging out the inside. I have seen wells and septic tanks made this way up to about 10 meters deep.

Just some ideas. Have fun!!

Mike

[bobodu]

Driving a Wellpoint

[sandman2234]

I would think that this is where the O/P should have his profile filled in with his location. Washing a wellpoint down is common around here, but at my Daddy's, the only way your going to wash anything down is at the dinner table with a glass of milk. Soil makeup has a lot to do with the ease of well drilling. Another way is to hammer a pipe down, washing the inside ahead of the pipe with a smaller pipe. That was how my last well was done.
David from jax

[TDVT]

I would think it would really depend on your specific location & soils.

When I was living in coastal SC (sandy soils & high water table) I helped a friend with a few aux garden wells which we "jetted" in with a gas-powered pump & ALOT of water. It was a while ago, but as I recall we first used just a pipe/extensions to get the bulk of the hole made then jetted in the actual well-point & any extensions that were needed. I think we went down around 30'.

Here in Vermont well drilling is a whole other story typically drilling quite deep through solid mostly solid rock. Not a home-guy project.

My folks had a well put in up here in VT 5 or 6 years ago. 3 days of drilling through ledge to around 320'. I think it was around $3500.

[bx24]

Thanks guys, great information. BTW - I updated my profile with my location "Indy" ... Maybe you have heard of the area, we have a small race this weekend. Me and 300,000 of my closest friends are going to go deaf for about 4 hours.

Thanks again

[Jimbrown]

Have you been here?
http://www.windmills.net/

[bx24]

Jim-

I have seen that site and this picture shows exactly what I would like to do. In the end I am sure it would be waaaayyyy cheaper to simply use 2" trash pumps to irrigate the garden areas, but I am planning on turning this property into a photo studio with outdoor gardens and I thought this bit of Americana would would look cool.

[BHD]

there is a method called cable drilling,

and here is a simple way, Wellspring Africa's Hand Powered Percussion Drill

http://www.consallen.com/Why-cable-percussion.pdf

http://www.consallen.com/How-to-dril...Percussion.pdf

the way a rig worked was a winch that had the cable tools on it,

the cable tools consist of bits, jars, and a bucket, normally,
the bit was lowered into the hole to dig, the jars are unit that allows some jarring force so if some thing gets stuck to jar it loose more of a set of large chain links,
and the bucket was a pipe with a trap door in it to excavate the muck that was dug,

the rig normally had some type of trip on it so one would lower the tools into the hole and then it will pull it up and then drop it and continue until it dug so deep, more water would be added to the hole to periodically.

Borehole drilling rig for water wells (cable tool percussion method), pile driving, site investigation, workover, geothermal, prospecting, environmental, peizometers, remediation & geotechnical.

Profile -- Cable Tool Drilling, 9/18/94
many pages of old rigs
Portable Cable Tool Drilling Machines

[Jimbrown]

Not sure if you understand how a windmill works? You would need probably a 4 1/2 in well casing. Then inside of there you have to put your up pipe for the water that also has the actual pump on the bottom of it. Normally a 3 1/4 in or so. Then inside of that pipe you have the sucker rod that goes up and down and actually pumps the water. We have one here that is over 60 years old and still pumps fine. it has had new sucker rods and leaters in the pump numerous times over its life.

To drill in sandy soil you must drive the casing pipe down as you drill.