Earth auger with outer sleeve?

[MNBobcat]

Hi Guys,

I'm doing this as much for fun (experiment) as for practical reasons. I picked up a gas powered auger for $10 yesterday. I'm going to put in a shallow point well. I'm planning on drilling down about 15 feet or to wherever I hit water bearing sand, and then I'll stop drilling and will wash-in the well the rest of the way. Going to use 3" PVC as a casing. Will drop a 1 1/4" PVC point into a gravel pack and then will pull the 3" casing out of the ground.

Anyway....I'm going to fab up a quick, temporary, well drilling rig using the auger and 3/4" pipe extensions. Should be easy to do. The only thing I'm questioning is pulling the dirt out of the hole. I'll use a winch to lift the auger, but I'm not sure that the dirt will come out with the bit.

I'm thinking about sliding a sleeve about a foot down over the top of the bit, leaving the bottom half of the bit exposed. My thought being the auger would pull the dirt up into this sleeve and then when I lift it out I might be able to get a 4 or 5 foot core of dirt out. The sleeve could rotate with the bit and I would guess it would render the whole idea useless at that point.

Anyway, its a fun project. Might fall on its face and not work at all. The drilling will work...just don't know about this sleeve idea. What do you think about the sleeve? Waste of time or might possibly work?

 

[NormL]

Hi Guys,

I'm doing this as much for fun (experiment) as for practical reasons. I picked up a gas powered auger for $10 yesterday. I'm going to put in a shallow point well. I'm planning on drilling down about 15 feet or to wherever I hit water bearing sand, and then I'll stop drilling and will wash-in the well the rest of the way. Going to use 3" PVC as a casing. Will drop a 1 1/4" PVC point into a gravel pack and then will pull the 3" casing out of the ground.

Anyway....I'm going to fab up a quick, temporary, well drilling rig using the auger and 3/4" pipe extensions. Should be easy to do. The only thing I'm questioning is pulling the dirt out of the hole. I'll use a winch to lift the auger, but I'm not sure that the dirt will come out with the bit.

I'm thinking about sliding a sleeve about a foot down over the top of the bit, leaving the bottom half of the bit exposed. My thought being the auger would pull the dirt up into this sleeve and then when I lift it out I might be able to get a 4 or 5 foot core of dirt out. The sleeve could rotate with the bit and I would guess it would render the whole idea useless at that point.

Anyway, its a fun project. Might fall on its face and not work at all. The drilling will work...just don't know about this sleeve idea. What do you think about the sleeve? Waste of time or might possibly work?

Hmm... I'm thinking the sleeve will pack full at the two or three inch mark and then the auger will fill up tight. At that point you might break something. Or, you could then haul the auger full of mud out of your shaft. I'm just now realizing you probably don't have the same soil I do. The scenario I'm describing is what I could see happening in heavy clay soil. What sort of conditions do you have?

 

[beenthere]

Interested in how your idea works. I can think of a few things why it might not, but don't want to discourage you from giving this a try. Could just be me not aware of just how you will pull it off.

Hope we get some pics of the apparatus you have and when giving it a trial run or two.
thanks

 

[MNBobcat]

We're in sand. Shouldn't encounter any rock or gravel.

 

[NormL]

We're in sand. Shouldn't encounter any rock or gravel.

OK! Totally different than what I live with. Gotta learn to ask first before I make a fool of myself.

 

[MNBobcat]

OK! Totally different than what I live with. Gotta learn to ask first before I make a fool of myself.

You didn't make a fool of yourself!

I should have mentioned in my original post that we're in sand. I can try the auger without the sleeve, first, and see how the dirt comes up. Most of the videos I see show an auger the full length. So if you're drilling 20 feet deep you have a 20 foot long auger. My auger will be about 4 feet long on the end of 20 foot pipe. So the idea with the sleeve is to contain the sand so that I can pull up a bunch of sand at one time. No idea if it would work.

 

[BHD]

here is a possiblity,
Excavation Bucket,Hydraulic Excavator Buckets,Deep Excavation Bucket,Manufacturers

 

[jnjpream]

When you pull the bit and pipe out will the sand on the sides collapse, filling the hole again?

 

[MNBobcat]

When you pull the bit and pipe out will the sand on the sides collapse, filling the hole again?

It might. The plan is to slip a 3" PVC pipe down the hole. But if the hole collapses that's okay. I can wash down the 3" pvc and clean the hole out. It will be easy to wash it down since all the sand would be loose.

 

[PGBiodiesel]

What size auger do you have? 10$?
The 'Earthquake' augers I've seen for a couple hundred have had 6" or 8" available, maybe a 4" on order.
It would be a lot of work, but it would actually be easier to power auger a hole in clay.
A lot of lifting, cleaning, prying, washing the clay off the auger, then down the hole again. Hooking and unhooking your extensions.

The sand won't stick, it will slide down the auger as you pull it out.

If your going to set up to wash the point in, do it from the start.
Use the 3" or even a 4" PVC pipe for a liner for the hole.
Wash your way down till you get to the depth you think will work and drop your point down and pump.
If its not good yet, pull it out and wash somemore. The sand will loosen and flow in moving water.

When its done drop your point in and your rock and pull the PVC.

You know the rest.

Goodluck

 

[J_J]

The water you force down the the pipe, will wash the sand out the top.

You might even try a pressure washer with a turbo nozzle, add extra water to the water coming out the PW. Two hoses.

Cut notches in the bottom of the PVC pipe.

Bolt a handle to the 3 in pipe and move back and forth as you sink the well.

 

[BHD]

here is another spin on the idea,
Home
Sand Points Well Drilling
the baisic way they do it is leave the bit in under the casing, (for some reason they removed there directions on the well drilling),

 

[jbooth]

Attached is a drawing of a sand bailer we made and used to put down wells near Wichita KS. I hope my drawing is good enough so you can tell what it is. We were in sandy country and only put down cased wells. This could also be used with a sand point but I think you would need to leave the casing in the hole. We would use an old conventional hand twist auger to get to water. Water was anywhere from 10 - 20" depending on the elevation above the river. At that point we would insert the casing. (we generally used 6" PVC.) Prior to inserting the casing it was scored with a hacksaw for the perforations. A platform was made to clamp to casing to stand on. Our weight standing on the platform while raising the bailer up and down would cause the casing to go down while filling the bailer. Casing was cut to 4- 6ft lengths and was glued as we went down. It was amazing how fast this worked. We liked to get about 20 ft of water in the casing before we stopped going down. More important, we liked to get to coarse sand or gravel so our casing did not sand back in as water was drawn from the well. An A-frame and pulley system was helpful, but we put down a lot of wells before rigging the A-Frame. The well in my backyard was 60 ft deep and we hit solid rock at that depth. My well had about 45 ft of water in the 6" casing. A .5 HP submersible pump would not faze the water level in the well. I now live in eastern KS. and the rocks prevent this type of operation. I sure miss having all the water I want without paying the sewer tax on it.

 

[jbooth]

I got a bit off suject on my last post. We made a auger/digger with a pipe outer sleeve. It was patterned from the old hand turned augers and worked pretty good in sand. We made an adapter and turned the auger with a rigid power threader. It was easier than the hand turned one, but a lot of our wells were put down where no electric power was available. Seemed everyone wanted a well for their garden on the river.