DIY Water Well

possum on a stick?

I like it!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't it be better if it was a mole on a stick?

What diameter?

The way wells used to be dug was to build circular brickwork on the top of a cast-iron ring, and then undermine the ring so that the whole lot slides into the ground. The technique is not really practicable for wells less than 2m in diameter owing to the need to place a human with a Manual Dirt Transfer Device within it...

There is an outfit, DeepRock Manufacturing in Opelika, AL (www.deeprock.com) that makes do it yourself portable water well drills. Might take a look at their website for ideas, if nothing else.

I have never done it but I like the percussion method where you basically repeatedly drop a heavy tube shaped cutting tool down the hole. Modern ones use a motor to pull up the tool, but it could be pulled up by hand. The main reason I like this one is your depth is for the most part only limited by your rope/cable length.

I alway look for a different way.

1. Get you a weekend job with a well driller. Work but tell him you will not cash and paycheck and will return them to him when he drills your well.

Consider buying the casing he would need and then him repaying you for that.

2.Or you could convert an engine like a straight 6 to run Verticle on a chain hoist then attached to an automatic transmission you could drive a drill down. You will also need a lot of water running thru the drill head to flush out rock so it will keep cutting and flush out the ground up rock and dirt from the casing. You will need a settling pond too that will catch all waste, oil, and other materails to keep them out of the underground water.

I believe number 1 is best.

Thank you all for the comments and ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Pay attention! I am only going to make one comment regarding your idea of drilling your own well. If it were only being placed in the upper 20 to 40 feet of sand and loamy soil and not have to penetrate hard pan or hard packed clay soils or rock, you could drive the well pipe with a tri-pod, a hoist and a heavy weight, and pump it out when it is clearly in water bearing sandy soil. You will find that it is far more costly to purchase the materials needed to drill a well through rocky soil than to pay a professional to drill it.

AND: Do not tell the driller where to drill. If you do and you get a dry hole, you own it. Drillers commonly use a method called dousing to determine where a water source may be found. Let the professional earn his money. We are now living in the year 2008, not 1808.

TMF

Drillers commonly use a method called dousing to determine where a water source may be found. Let the professional earn his money. We are now living in the year 2008, not 1808.

I hate to say it, TMF, but I will. Gibberish. No disrespect intended to you or your belief in dousing, but I will out myself now as a non-believer. CR4 has many posts on the topic of dousing, mostly sceptics like myself. I do however concur with your opinion about letting an experienced driller get on with his job. 200' is not a realistic DIY job (unless you have lots of good gear in the shed). Best bet is to get expertize on where to drill, then hire the rig/crew appropriate to ground conditions. Sorry in advance if there was some subtle humour in your last para !

Unfortunately Chris, all too often, con artist's do surface. However I have witnessed the act of dousing by one individual who clearly was blessed with the talent. It occurred at my grand parents little farm in Chesterfield County, S.C. A local well driller was called in to drill a deep well for drinking water, as the hand dug shallow well dried up every summer and water had to be carried by the bucket full a distance of approx. 150 yds. I know as I was the carrier of said water. This driller selected a location about 20 ft. from the back porch and about the same distance from the existing shallow well. This well was drilled to a depth of 120 ft. and unfortunately proved to be a dry hole. The driller pulled the pipe back out of the ground. He called a well known local douser. The lady arrived in the late morning a few days later. She had with her a freshly cut branch from a peach tree. The primary branch separated into a forked section. the shorter two lengths were about 30" long and the primary section was about 4" long. She held the dousing rod by the ends of the two shorter sections with her hands turned upward and from the inside. This position looked awkward and clearly was a disadvantage as far as controlling the movement of the dousing rod. She began with locating water in the existing shallow well. She also checked the dry hole and the general area. Eventually she moved to an area that was about 20 feet away from both the shallow well and the dry hole. The dousing rod immediately turned downward toward the ground. She checked this location by approaching it from several different directions. She determined that there was an under ground stream or spring at that location. She was paid $50.00 for her services. The wall driller drilled a new well and found copious amounts of water at about 68 ft. below the surface.

Just like there are the unexplained abilities of some blessed healers that are well documented, there are some folks who are blessed with the ability to douse for water. Unfortunately we all have our bad days, and I suppose that goes for the hands on healers as well as the dousers. I don't have to justify this example, and I don't particularly care if my posting is doubted by others. I know what I witnessed, and that is good enough for me.

TMF

Thanks for the curtious feedback, TMF. It's one of those topics that can get people 'hot under the collar'. I don't discount the fact that one day I may see an example of dousing and find myself convinced, but as yet that is not so. This is an oft discussed topic on CR4, and I think majority opinion is against it. Not that that should disuade you in itself. I completely agree with your view on running with what you know to have worked. Direct personal experience is often better than some remote 'expert' knowledge. I do however remain sceptical until I've seen it done.

Kris

No problem partner! I can tell you that the douser was a little old lady about 5'2" tall, rather frail conditioned, was waring a home made bonnet/hat with a bit of curtain mesh that she could pull down over her face to protect herself from the direct sun, and her dress was made from the fabric that country folks salvaged from their chicken feed sacks back in the forty's and fifties. The dousing rod was at least 18" taller than she was, and when she passed it over the water spot, she was not able to prevent it from turning downward toward the area where the water was located. I would guess that she was in her late fifties or early sixties. I am a believer. In fact the dousing rod was a bit limber as the primary part was about 1/2" thick and the forked area was about 3/8" thick. The rod was so limber that it actually curved downward when passed over the wet area.

One of my best friends is a well driller, and he has had to douse for the best area to drill numerous times.

However I have no problem with those who are a bit skeptic regarding the matter. There are a lot of fakes out there.

TMF

"...She held the dousing rod by the ends of the two shorter sections with her hands turned upward and from the inside..."

- - - -

I personally, can smell water in the ground, not to mention fossil oils, just like the rest of us apes. The forked rods are mere props to convince my clients that their new-found wealth comes from the almighty, not myself.

To that, my little daughter is always saying: "If you're so smart, why can't you win the lottery once, just once, so that we can be convinced that your talent is genuine"

To that I reply: "I'm only a humble servant to those the almighty chooses to be wealthy. My reward is in the afterlife"

Boy, am I one big sucker. I even believe my own nonsense.

Just so you don't care, it's OK. She found the water, but now it may be hexed. It can be kind of like "anti-holy water." But if you don't believe in that sort of thing, then I guess it's OK. But you might want to think about why some call it "water-witching."

Also, some things may have been released when the well was opened. Again, just keep an eye on what occurs around the farm. You might want to hang a few rolls of tobacco around the place. It has a way of soothing restless things. The American Indians know this.

ACTUALLY Vermin, I find this whole (hole) blog to be a bit "humorous" and the idea that an inexperienced individual can save money drilling a 200 ft deep well, "well to be honost is a little fantabulas"(poor spelling intended." As stated in an earlier response, I have a friend that I have known for years, who drills wells and installs irrigation. I assure you that he is a professional. I have helped him on various occasions when he was short handed of employees.

Indigenous peoples from across the world manage to find water when they need it, leaves to relieve rashes, juices from plants to relieve Montazumas revenge, and they may never have heard of Holy Water. Only When the Scientific approach came into vogue was brazing rods bent a 90 degree angles and inserted into hollow tubes to assure that the witcher was not controlling out come the did the search for water and precious metals become suspicious.

From all that I have learned about water witching, It is best accomplished by using branches from willows and fruit trees. However I can tell you that I am not a witch. I have never tried to find water below the ground unless it was in a shallow well that I could either drive with a heavy weight or jet the pipe down with a force of water. I have one of each on my little ranchette.

However: the area that is known as Chesterfield, County, S.C. Is a rather arid place. Commonly referred as the sand hills area. Water is often difficult to locate under ground. Deviners have been locating water under ground for centuries in this area. Believe it or not! By the way, the well that the "little ole witch" located for my Grand parents, 58 years ago, that was more than 60 ft. deep actually had water standing in it at the 26 ft level. This is a clear indication that the water found at below 60 ft was under pressure, much like a spring that brings water to the surface when there is no other water around. Remember that I stated that only a few ft away was a deeper dry hole, drilled by an experienced well driller.

TMF

G'day Toomuchfun

• I know what I witnessed, and that is good enough for me.

Ah, but do you really know what you witnessed?

You have no way of knowing what the lady that did the dousing knew, for all you know she may have had access to a geological survey that clearly showed the position of an underground stream. All she did was some theatrical trickery to muddy the water and cover the fact that she was actually using something that anybody with any sort of geological experience could read.

Why would somebody go the such lengths? Well money of course. If she was making $50.00 a time for telling you what you could have found out yourself for zilch then the last thing she wants to do is let the cat out of the bag and show you the map.

Ok, that's just an example and there are a plethora of other explanations that could explain what you saw that have nothing to do with dousing.

Keep in mind, this sort of trick has been pulled on the unsuspecting and gullible public for as long as humans have been around. The pharaohs and priests of ancient Egypt were revered as demigods for thousands of years by predicting when the river Nile would flood, the moon would rise, the tides, seasons and a whole stack of other things. All they were doing was using a calendar but one that they kept secret so they could maintain their control over the populus.

Unfortunately predicting the tides with the moon and seasons from the sun was erroneously extrapolated into predicting wars, disasters, catastrophes etcetera from the lesser celestial bodies like planets, meteors and comets. Doing so is total garbage yet even more than 2,000 years after the fraud they pharaohs were perpetrating was revealed we still have ding bat brained dopes believing in things like astrology and trying to predict future events using the stars.

Here's a little snippet of scientific fact you can use next time you hear somebody quoting any sort of astrology crap. Astrology uses the position of the stars when you were born to generate your star sign and predict what will happen to you. The only trouble is that the lunatics that generated the astrological tables didn't know about that much about orbital mechanics. As a result the table astrologers now use are out by roughly a star sign so you really don't have the star sign the table say you have.

What does that say about astrology?

The only way that you can test any event for it's validity in a scientific manner is to use a double blind test. That means that both the person doing the dousing and all those around you do not have any knowledge of where the items they are searching for are located. Unfortunately for dousing, every time a double blind test has been set up it has failed miserably.

I think you would be better off hiring a well drilling outfit to do the job.

Is there any reason why you wouldn't hire someone?

Dear Rubberman,

Let me say right off, that were a bit more 1st Tech (TM) as compared to my fellow Cr4 members, so bear with me a moment in thought. This project should cost you on the order of less than $100 American dollars.

While the idea of well drilling ones self sounds like a great idea, but if you don't have the right tools any big job like this is just too much like work, as least for me. Perhaps a different thought upon your options, might be in order, until you can afford the well company to drill & pipe for you ? Mine was 400 ft , producing 125 gal a minute and over $18,000 after everything and we still have to do the DNR certification before we can use it commercially.

Build your family a cistern , They have been and still are , the worlds wells. After all that's what a well is - just deeper and hopefully self refilling. It needs to be covered by at least 1 foot of fill dirt after your finished and in a position that won't flood from ground water, but this will keep your water safe and in the end you will have water upon demand.

1) Dig yourself a hole about 8 feet wide and 6' deep and 8' feet long and pour yourself a floor of cement/lime and sand and add some 12 inch thick Rammed Earth or Adobe Block walls with a 6 inch dia. pipe leading into the tank for water filling entry and one 3/4 to 1 inch dia. for supply to come from.

Then pour yourself a lid ( slide it in place across some 4 x 4's , so you won't drag dirt into the cistern ) or better yet build the roof out of Adobe Blocks in a vaulted fashion ( this takes a bit of practice-but you'll get it ! ) .

After your finished with the roof , apply a layer of lime plaster to the insides and roof outside allow all to cure a few days , then crawl back out of the man hole you left in the top and cover the top with dirt.

2) Buy your water from a water delivery service ( they do pools ect ) and gently have them to fill the cistern you just built, and then pump or bucket over to the house, from the pipe you installed earlier. ( Don't forget to keep some priming water around if your hand pumping ) Filter or boil your drinking water as needed.

3. Direct all roof gutter rain water through the main entrance pipe , into your new cistern and then get down on both knees and pray for more rain.

There is a tutorial on my web site about Rammed Earth & Adobe Construction, Its Nothing Fancy - Just The Facts but it may help you develop your skills prior to the big cistern project.

I hope this was of some help to you.

Best Regards,

Joe Woodall, Managing Partner

Georgia Adobe LP Rammed Earth & Renewable Energy

2395 Bowman Hwy. NW.

Dewy Rose GA 30634

706-213-7693

http://www.georgiaadobe.com

This is a viable option. Thank you.

thanks to all.

Armstrong well digging method.

Old school and cheap