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Thread: driving a well point

  1. #1
    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Default driving a well point

    I started to drive a well point down by the cabin, figured a little fresh water would be refreshing. I'm going to put a shallow well pump on it and by winter hope to make a well cylinder and install as drop pipe and sucker rod. This way it won't freeze. One thing I noticed is that I'm not as young as I use to be LOL I feel like somebody kicked my a double s. 12 slams with the rammer equals a half inch of pipe driven.

    The spot chosen was the only spot that my whitchin stick tugged on. There are no guarantees I'll hit water

    iIm down about 15 feet.

    Here's a photo of the point, pipes and rammer. I made the rammer from a chunk of 4 inch pipe and a heavy piece of steel.
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    I dug a hole with the digger and got it started straight with the rammer.
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    Senior Member Sparky93's Avatar
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    If I was closer to you I would come give you a hand, I am curious as to how this works. Is the pipe perforated? Did you just drive it down into the ground like a t-post? My dad has a heavy duty two guy rammer (he uses it by himself, but he has more muscle than me lol) he made out a a piece of 12" casing. Used it a few winters ago to drive 6x6 boards down into the lake for a dock, weighs about 100lbs.
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    Very energetic endeavor, I hope you hit a gusher.
    What does the first piece in look like?
    How deep do you think you will have to go?
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Good post, lots of info here.

    Driving a point does beat digging a well with a shovel....although that has been questioned by a poster here a while back....

    About 15 years ago I had help driving a point for a"stock well"...... that's what you call it if it's not been inspected and fee paid to the state.
    All sorts of rules governing approved water wells.
    Maybe not suitable for drinking without treatment.

    Neighbor helped pock out a spot on the edge of my lower field close to the river.....when it floods very close to the river.
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    Neighbor had a home made auger bit welded on a shaft, chucked up in a brace as in "brace and bit", was like 12 ft....stand on the tailgate of the truck to get it started.
    Did hit water at about 12 ft, which was about water level at the river bank.....so kept going.

    Used a steel post driver, but wasn't heavy enough and just bounced off the driving cap.

    I had bought 21" lengths of 1-1/2 pipe, but had to get it cut and threaded to 7 ft, or you couldn't reach it from the truck tail gate.
    Need 'driving couplers as well so the threads don't get beat up, as well as a 'driving cap", that has a hole to release air on you down stroke, and heavy duty threads to you can unscrew the cap to add lengths.

    As this was back in my "factory life" when I had a real complete machine shop at my disposal, for "government work' (personnel little jobs).
    They built me a 4 ft driver out of 6" schedule 80 pipe. welded cap and re-bar handles.
    I added about 25 pounds of molten lead as a cushion and driving weight into the cap.
    That sucker is heavy, I still have it and has been lent out many times over the years for other wells.

    Anyway, that really drove that point but was a 2 guy job (young guy at that, we don' need no stinkin' weight bench...LOL)....so hit hard pan about 20 ft and kept going to 27 ft of pipe, 48" point, so total depth is 31 ft.

    Added the small pitcher pump, but leathers are real hard to keep wet and not rot.....a deep sucker rod style would be better, but does work.....you can see the blue pump in the picture.

    Picked up a gas powered (no electric) 'trash pump" thinking I could use that, as I was having a problem finding a gas powered jet pump....Didn't work.

    The Amish use a hand pump with a gas powered "pump jack", used to work a hand pump with a gas motor,
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    Found one, but didn't use it yet, as we had a 'state approved deep well, and pump set up,drilled by the cabin......Up on the hill
    That well is 185 ft, cased and grouted,to 95",... 6" case to 4 in pipe.
    Last edited by hunter63; 04-30-2012 at 12:43 PM. Reason: splin'
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    Jeepers. You need a tractor with a bucket or a backhoe to push that down. My shoulders hurt just lookin' at it. Did you say you were witching for water or wishing for water. Never mind. It's the same thing. Good luck!!!!!!! If you were closer I'd come over and watch you work.
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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Thanks for ther comments. I wish Sparky was closer too. Only ten more feet to go, did I say yet that it feels like somebody kicked my a double s?

    The point is a perforated pipe about three to four feet long with a hardened point and ss screen. It's the first piece of the well.

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    years back I drove a shallow sand point well for my garden. I think my shoulders still hurt from that. lol Goodluck, and may that last 10ft be easy drivun !

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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    when I was a whippersnapper I would have drove that entire well down in a day. Now I'm about all wore out probably from doing $hit like that. LOL

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Sure is a good thing you can afford to mechanize operations or hire it out when you get older.....LOL....I hope.
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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I have a list of stuff I can't do any more. It's right next to the list of why I won't visit Florida. Almost as long, too.
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    Great info here. I'm really thinking about driving my own hand pump well on the new place. Two miles from the creek and will have to be about 60 feet deep I'm guessing. Haven't asked the locals how deep theirs are yet. Those are third date questions..

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    You finish driving that well point home you should be fairly well qualified to drive most any point home. Look forward to the debates.
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    If it takes 12 licks to move 1/2 inch, I'll be saving up some money to pay H63 to drive it..

  15. #15
    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    If I were going to drive a point 60 feet or so I would use a heavier wacker and a tripod with a slip winch. Set up a tripod with a pulley, then have a little engine with a pulley. Run a rope from the wacker up to the pulley on the tripod, down to the stationary engine pulley and then wrap the rope around the engine pulley a couple times. Get the engine running on low speed and engage the pulley with the clutch. To use pull the tail of the rope tight, it'll tighten on the pulley and that will lift the driver, when the driver just about gets to the top of the tripod , loosen up on the tail, the driver will drop, at the bottom of the drop tug the tail and start over. It works but being careful is in order.
    Uncle John and Uncle Ron were house builders in the seventies. This is the way they put the wells in. I suppose a winch would work too and probably better due to the lower speed. I'm not sure of their exact particulars. The next one I do will probably be driven this way.

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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    ya know some folks pay for a gym membership. I get my exercise for free, I'm frugal that way LOL.

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    With the soil and lack of rocks that we have, twelve whacks would probably result in a deep well.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    If I were going to do it again....I would have a loop welded on the cap of my heavy driver, and use a tripod, and counter weight set up.

    The coolest one i have ever seen, was a tripod, with pulley........rope from driver to pulley then to mechanized driver.
    In this case it was an old Ford with the rear end jacked up,...... second rim welded on the rear drive wheel....car was in gear at idle, rope wrapped around empty drum, once.
    To activate, operator would pull and tighten up rope, pulling up the driver, then loosen tension 9slack) to drop it, over and over.

    Be aware that keeping it straight is a real PITA as if it does hit a rock, it won't pound thru, but glance off, (hopefully) to keep going.

    If you do hit some thing that you can't get thru, you also have the problem of pulling it back out again, the points are expensive.
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  19. #19
    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Sounds good Hunter, this weekend I think I'm going to take my old homemade forktruck and pull the cable off the winch, run the forks all the way up and install a snatch block at the forks, wrap a rope around the drum and go to pounding. May have to add a few pounds to the driver.

  20. #20
    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    I beat and I hammered and beat and hammered and beat and hammered and beat and hammered, did I say I beat and hammered? LOL. Well (no pun intended) at 13 feet I hit something extremely hard, harder than my head. could not blast through so I moved over 20 feet or so and drove another and at 13 feet hit that same hard something. I hammered so hard I broke the pipe. I took my 90 pound bosch demo hammer and made a adapter for the top of the drive pipe and gave it the double hockey sticks with no success. So I'm back to square one.

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