It is surprising there are no local well drillers in your neck of the woods. I have my own opinions as to wells, drilling methods and dowsing. The subject of getting a well drilled is bound to at least revive memories of what became the longest thread and most controversial thread in the history of this website.
In the Catskill Mountains of NY State, many of us rely on wells for water for homes & businesses. There's an age-old controversy here as to the type of well drilling rig to use. "Pounder" vs "Rotary" was a fairly hot topic of debate if you were putting down a well at your place. The Pounders are the old cable-tool rigs,. Older, slower, and a lot of people will insist their wells be drilled with them instead of the newer rotary rigs. The belief is that the jarring action of the cable tool rig "opens the veins". There is some truth to this theory, as with a cable-tool rig, the fact is that the process is slower and does not have a drill bit and stem turning at high-speed with air blasting up the hole. The people who believe in the cable-tool rigs insist the modern rotaries "grout" or "seal" the veins due to the rapis turning of the tool and stem and the air blasting up. In truth, the bulk of the well drillers around these parts all use rotary rigs- mostly built by Ingersoll Rand. To be competitive, they all have turret type "magazines" to hold drill stem and casing pipe.
I had our home well drilled using a rotary rig as we were in a hurry to get the well in. We dowsed or witched the site, and got a good pull on the stick at this one spot. My buddy- a good dowser- said we'd hit water at about 180 feet, likely around 5 gpm judging by how the stick was acting. The rotary arrived, and put the well down on that spot. At 180 feet, we had water, but not enough of it. We got down about 300 feet on that first day with the rotary. Overnight, the water in the well "headed up" to within 100 feet of the surface. We were in shale formations, so there was clay bedding the seams. The driller came back that next morning and put down another 200 feet of well, stopping when he got into a solid sandstone formation. It was pretty amazing to me to see a rig put down that well that quickly. They had it down to a science, and the stem sections and casing pipe were right on those turrets. It was production drilling.
My well took years to "clean up", and we would months of clear water, then get gushes of clay and mud runs as the hydrostatic pressure in the aquifer changed seasonally. This would support the contention that the rotaries did, in fact, seal the veins. Over the years, the well flow has increased, and it has given good clear water aside from the spurts of clay, and has always headed up to within 100 feet of the surface.
I've met a couple of drillers since that time- a husband and wife- who each run a cable tool rig. They have all the work they can handle despite the fact the old cable tool rigs are slower.
This couple, aside from being drillers, are also dowsers. They refuse to drill on anyone's property unless they, or another dowser, has "witched" the site first. They have drilled literally hundreds of wells, and never a dry hole. They claim to have drilled good water wells come on sites where the rotary rigs produced dry holes. They credit the use of the pounder and the fact they witched the site to this success. They enjoy a fine reputation and have hundreds of wells to their credit, so this is not idle talk on their part.
IMO, in a limestone formation, if you could get your cable-tool rig working, will liekly bring in a well with good flow at less depth than if you turned loose a rotary rig. As for building your own rig, you could, but it would be a massive undertaking. Wells, even for residential use, are typically drileld at 6" diameter. That is a big bit to turn and push down into the ground and thru rock strata. If you saw a rotary rig, it is on a heavy carrier with a substantial mast and hydraulics. It has several hundred HP avialable to turn the drill stem, as well as to provide probably 300-600 scfm of compressed air to keep blowign the drill fines back up the hole and to run the hydraulics to feed the drill stem and handle the stem and casings.
The cable tool rig, OTOH, is actually the more likely rig to repair and use. Most of them in our hills run around on single-axle truck chassis. The couple I know who are drillers have, I believe, two older Bucyrus-Erie rigs on maybe Ford 8000 series chassis. These are rigs that they can work on themselves, and cost a fraction of what even a used rotary rig would cost. If you have a older cable tool rig, IMO, repair it and use it. The costs of setting a cable tool rig to rights are going to be a fraction of what you will spend on a rotary rig.
Building your own rotary to mount on a tractor three point hitch is, IMO, not a good approach to building a well drilling rig. I do not think the tractor is massive enough to support and kepp a rotary rig solidly centered and plumbed up over the hole. The rotary rigs do have a hammering action as well as rotating, so you would need more than a hydraulic motor to turn a drill stem. In addition, the rotaries are setup with a hollow stem. High flows of compressed air, on the order of 300-600 scfm, are sent down the stem continuously during drilling to blow the drill fines back up the hole and keep the hole clear.
The downfeed on a rotary rig is at least as long as a length of drill stem or casing pipe and then some to allow for tool changes and similar. The downfeed pressure on a rotary is also quite heavy. In short, reinventing the wheel by building your own rotary drillign rig on a three-point hitch will not be too practical for drilling even a 4" diameter well. Bear in mind that you need a bore hole diameter big enough to get a submersible pump down, so 4" would likely be the absolute minimum, with 6" diameter being preferable.
Joe Michaels
