Can I dig my own water well?

[Egon]

You could build a well drilling rig for very little money but; by the time you get through a drilled well for twenty four hundred may seem like a deal!

My Grandfather and Father had a home made well drilling rig that was very simple in construction and operated somewhat like a cable tool rig only it used drill stem going up and down instead of the cable.

 

[bx24]

You could build a well drilling rig for very little money but; by the time you get through a drilled well for twenty four hundred may seem like a deal!

Your probably not that far off, but given that this is for fun and a learning experience, I usually try everything once and decide from there whether to ever do it again!

 

[bx24]

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.

The drilling part makes sense to me. I guess I have to bone up some more on the pump sizing. I have looked at a bunch of wind mill web sites and they have pumps starting under 2" in size going up from there. I figure a pump 2" to 3" should be plenty. Bigger would be great, but I would think that the bigger you go, the better and deeper you need to make the well it is attached to.

Jim- How deep is the water table by you and how deep is your well?

 

[BHD]

Go to the aermotor windmill site, or vintage windmills,

the Aermotor has spec, on different sizes of mills depth and cylinder size,

Aermotor
Aermotor Windmill Company Inc.- Economical Energy Wind Water Pump - Welcome
Dean Bennett catalog has a lot of information.
DEAN BENNETT SUPPLY at 800-621-4291 is your water well pump and windmill supply store.
Vintage windmills, a site for windmill lovers and restorers
Vintage Windmills go to community and there is a forum to answer your questions.
Under resources, there are a lot of manuals and other to down load,
an Aermotor windmill manual http://www.vintagewindmills.com/Resources/Library/manufacturers/aermotor/Documents/aermotor1.pdf

 

[WarrenF]

The drilling part makes sense to me. I guess I have to bone up some more on the pump sizing. I have looked at a bunch of wind mill web sites and they have pumps starting under 2" in size going up from there. I figure a pump 2" to 3" should be plenty. Bigger would be great, but I would think that the bigger you go, the better and deeper you need to make the well it is attached to.

Jim- How deep is the water table by you and how deep is your well?

Get yourself about twenty feet of 6 inch casing. Have a friend who might have a very high pressure pump....similar to a fire truck. Get the casing into the ground a bit....then turn the hose on full power. Hang on, and go for it. My friend can sink a twenty foot hole in about a half an hour this way.

 

[Jimbrown]

We actually have/had two windmills. One kinda lost an argument with a dust devil.
Both are about 280 feet deep and the pumps are at about 100ft. I just had the working one redone. The pump itself is about 2in. But it is hooked to a 3 1/2 in up pipe. I think if you get the up pipe too small the sucker rods will wear holes in it.

 

[sandman2234]

We went thru a lot of testing on sucker rods at a plant I worked at (in QA lab) as we were trying to make sucker rods out of high strenght cable. Never could get the attachment points to hold, so it never happened, but I gained some respect for people who made quality sucker rods.
David from jax

 

[Egon]

the up pipe too small the sucker rods will wear holes in it.

Rod guides, sinker bar, stroke length and pump strokes per minute may be an answerer to this problem!

 

[bx24]

We actually have/had two windmills. One kinda lost an argument with a dust devil.
Both are about 280 feet deep and the pumps are at about 100ft. I just had the working one redone. The pump itself is about 2in. But it is hooked to a 3 1/2 in up pipe. I think if you get the up pipe too small the sucker rods will wear holes in it.

Wow, thats a lot of damage. How big is that tank? 1500 gallons? It amazes me that those little steel "chicken legs" can support 5 tons. So your pump casing is 3 1/2 inches and the pump is suspended inside right?

Get yourself about twenty feet of 6 inch casing. Have a friend who might have a very high pressure pump....similar to a fire truck. Get the casing into the ground a bit....then turn the hose on full power. Hang on, and go for it. My friend can sink a twenty foot hole in about a half an hour this way.

I thought about doing it this way. I am assuming you get a nice mud shower, but what the heck, the price is right. I wonder if you could rig some chains or straps hanging on both sides of the top of the pipe and use the FEL to put down pressure on pipe. I think I would be temped to try digging a hole as far as I can down to the water table and try this method to go the rest of the way. Would it make sense to drill holes in the side of the pipe near the bottom to increase water flow from the sides, or would this simply make the sand go through and silt up the bottom faster? Now I just need a well so I can have a source of water to use to make the well ......

 

[Jimbrown]

The pump is different from what most people are used to. A Pump cylinder is actually screwed to the bottom of the up pipe. they come in various sizes. It is open at both ends. You then drop the foot valve down the up pipe from the top of the well. It just kinda sits in the bottom of the cylinder. You then lower the pump piston down the pipe with the sucker rod untill it fits inside of the cylinder. The sucker rod is then connected to the wind motor and the motor adjusted for the length of stroke that you need. That is a 1200 gallon tank. te other well has a 2200 tank on it. Those spindly legs are 6in pipe.