Homemade gravely well drill?

db556 · Mar 28, 2011

I'm just having a thought, I friend has a rotary plow gearbox(just the gearbox nothing else) that he might give me for free if I can find a cool use for it.

So I'm thinking well drilling rig, I take a 3 foot section of Hex stock bore it out to lets say the OD of 1" black pipe, and weld on a few inches of split tubing on top for a clamping collar. Ontop of this collar I'll mount a wheel bearing so the rollers point up, to the outer race I'll mount either a set of hooks for weights(10-15-25 pound) or two handles for manual cutting pressure maybe both.

For the gearbox I'll mount that on frame going to a section of 3'x3'x3/8" plate I have behind my shed, I'll weld some 1" washers of the corners for some large pins to keep it from spinning it I hit something harder than clay rock.

For the cutting head I have some old PTO yokes I knock the cross out and replace it with a hardened pin from a differential and for the teeth I have some old spider gears. I think the gears will last atleast a 40 feet with the sand/clayrock I have in beaver county.

For water injection I have swivel from a old hose reel that should screw right onto the 1". My 2" harbor freight pump should be able to keep up with the water demand of drilling easy so now its just the question of how deep is the water table at my house?

Project seem cool enough for a free gearbox?

Iplayfarmer · Mar 28, 2011

If I had an extra gear box, I'd throw it in to see how the project turns out. If it works it could be very useful. It could also get you in a lot of trouble, too, depending on well permitting practices in your area.

David Devuono · Mar 29, 2011

I may buy one when I am ready to build on my country property if it looks like a its gonna cost 5000 for someone else to do it. Problem is, what ever you put in the ground, stays in the ground, so you need enough diameter pipe to actually produce some water. In well pumps are about 4 inches in diameter. I can't picture your design, but would likely need a 4ft hydraulic cylinder to drive it into the ground? Not sure if you need galvanized pipe or what to keep it from rusting.

bobodu · Mar 30, 2011

Well casings are 4 inch but the pipe running down them is usually only a inch. If you don't plan on having to ever pull it ( like to place a foot valve) you can drive down a well point.

2manyrocks · Mar 31, 2011

The gravely gearbox has a spring loaded clutch to protect the Gravely tractor if you hit something digging. You need to figure out how to run it with the clutch to protect your tractor if you're intending to run this gearbox off your tractor PTO. You can probably get the matching drive piece you need off ebait or at your gravely dealer.

Taylortractornut · Mar 31, 2011

When I was in my last year in highschool shop class we built a well drill for the shop teacher. WE took a big 3/4 inch drive Drill an old aluminum cassed hand drill. It was a Porter Cable or Milwaulkee arm breaker. We made an adapter to adapt it to a 1 1/4 pipe/ Then we made a water swivel and then threaded alot of 10 foot sections of pipe for joints. The last joint was a 4 foot section that had a 2.750 carbide spade nose bit brazed into a slot on the last section.

The frame we made to hold it was 4 pipes about 12 feet tall with a winch on it and a snatch block to help raise it. We mounted it on an old popup camper frame. He drilled several wells in a real gravely area and in some hard clay. It didnt take long to drill them. THe next improvement we did was built a back reamer that would go down the borehole and when it was at the bottom spinning it would open up and ream the hole out to 4 inches.

dieselscout80 · Apr 1, 2011

Taylortractornut said:
When I was in my last year in highschool shop class we built a well drill for the shop teacher. WE took a big 3/4 inch drive Drill an old aluminum cassed hand drill. It was a Porter Cable or Milwaulkee arm breaker. We made an adapter to adapt it to a 1 1/4 pipe/ Then we made a water swivel and then threaded alot of 10 foot sections of pipe for joints. The last joint was a 4 foot section that had a 2.750 carbide spade nose bit brazed into a slot on the last section.

The frame we made to hold it was 4 pipes about 12 feet tall with a winch on it and a snatch block to help raise it. We mounted it on an old popup camper frame. He drilled several wells in a real gravely area and in some hard clay. It didnt take long to drill them. THe next improvement we did was built a back reamer that would go down the borehole and when it was at the bottom spinning it would open up and ream the hole out to 4 inches.

Is this like what your shop class built?
http://www.borit.com/

If so can you tell me how it was built and what parts/pieces you used?

norbie454 · Apr 2, 2011

About 30 years ago I helped a friend dig a well and I will do my best to describe the process we used. The ground where we were was sand and had no rocks kind of lucky here in Maine very unusual. We dug a hole as deep as the back hoe would dig and the hole had water in it as we did this in the spring of the year. We took and stacked (4) 4 foot diameter Concrete tiles in the bottom of the hole. We had a mud sucker that we chained to the backhoe and lowered into the tiles. We had a 10 X 10 beam that we placed on the tiles and pushed down with the bucket as the mud sucker was removing the sand from inside the weight of the tiles and down pressure of the backhoe caused the tiles to sink into the ground. We did this a couple times and by the time we ran out of Concrete tiles we were 40 feet below grade. Then we dumped a couple yards of crushed rock into the tiles and 2 days later we had crystal clear water.

Squeak n Itch · Apr 2, 2011

Perhaps another "cool use" has been kicking my mind for a year or two. A stump drill for small stumps. A product called Rotor S is a mammoth beast that drills into a stump and then two sharp wings on top grind the stump into bits. This thing does a moderate size stump in about 7 seconds!

Most here don't need that much of a beast but an offspring of the old Unicorn Screw Logsplitter and a very large step drill may be the thought here that gets someone's attention. If I could remove a mid sized stump or grind it into the ground in 15 - 30 minutes I'd be thrilled. Maybe this could be adapted to a posthole digger for a 3 point hitch. Perhaps safer than the super-sawblade type stump grinders as well.