Well-drilling Rig Intro
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Well Drilling Rig - water is crucial for human and animal consumption, washing, irrigation, and industrial processes. Access to clean drinking water is one of the key challenges facing many countries today.
Well - Background Debriefing
Well drilling can be broken down into three basic components: breaking up the rock/soil in the well column, removing the cuttings from the well column, stabilising the well column and preparing it for production. The first, the breaking of rock/soil to produce cuttings is achieved by a cutting tool, either a rotating drill bit or a raised and dropped 'chisel-like' device; for our well drilling rig we will employ the rotating bit design as it is a much more common method of well preparation. The bit is rotated by attaching it to the end of a long series of pipes connected together called the drill string, turning the drill string turns the cutting bit.
Once the bit has cut up the rock/dirt it needs to be lifted up out of the well. The most common way of doing this is to pump water/mud down the center of the piping that makes up the drill string, and letting it flow out the end of the bit. By continuously pumping more drilling mud into the well, it eventually fills up and the only place left for the mud to go is to be pushed up to the top of the well and spill over the side, carrying the cuttings along with it. This flow of mud and broken up rock spills over the top of the well and is sent to a small settling pond where the rocks and sand settle out of it. After some time in the settling pond the mud is recycled by the mud pump and pushed back down the well again to pick up and remove more cuttings allowing the well to be contiuously drilled deeper and deeper, stopping only to add new sections of drill string.
After the well is drilled to the desired depth it must be finished and put into production. The drill string is withrawn from the well, but the well is left full of water/drilling mud to prevent the sides from caving in until the well is finished. After the drill string is out the casing pipe is slid into the well to prevent caving in of the sides. Once this is done, the drilling mud is removed from the well column leaving it empty. At this point a water bucket or temporary well pump is placed in the well and as much water as possible is drawn up for a test period of 1 to 3 days to clean out any remaining drilling mud and stabilize the aquifer for production. Also during this time the water extraction rate is measured to verify that it is worth continuing to finish the well (poor producing wells may have the casing withdrawn and be re-drilled at a more favorable location). Once the well is shown to be a producing well it is capped with a cement cap, and the water pump is installed making the well operational.
Resource Map
- HydroMissions - open source plans for manual well drilling rigs
- Practica Foundation(broken link??)) - open source plans for low tech manual well drilling rigs [1](correct link??)
- http://drillingfab.com/
- http://www.lifewater.ca/download/Lifewater_Drilling_Manual_2004.pdf
See videos at www.vimeo.com from EMAS for hand powered low tech water well drilling technologies.
From Marshall
On well-drilling: I am interested in taking a course in well drilling at Living Water ( www.water.cc ) September 4-7. The cost is $600. I will call them for more details.
In the meantime, I found the jackpot of white papers on the subject! Here's one with lots of information about drilling wells and mitigating various problems (such as penetrating bedrock): http://www.watersanitationhygiene.org/References/EH_KEY_REFERENCES/WATER/Drilling/Drilling%20General%20Reference/Drilled%20Wells%20(SKAT).pdf but there are several others if that one doesn't answer all your questions as well as papers on sanitation here: http://www.watersanitationhygiene.org/References/Technical%20Resources%20-%20Wells.htm clicking on the cover doesn't work, you have to click on the title below it. And you have to register (free) on their forum to save the pdf or something but that might be a great place to talk to actual drillers.