I worked for a well drilling company in NY, '85-'87.
He had a crew that worked in northern NY spring, summer and fall, both years there I volunteered to be on that crew of three.
First year I was a helper, they do most of the hard work while the driller runs the machine. You become really strong doing the helper job, or you quit! 45 people started working that year, only had 23 employees then, most quit the first week or two. It made baling hay look easy.
Second year I ran the machine we used up north the year before.
The well I referred to was for a big famous golf course on the nw side of lake placid.
I started drilling with the regular air hammer method, got down to 100-140 feet in overburden.
Then I probably went through a gravel bed with water in it, the hole collapsed down below, I lost circulation and rotation.
We normally drilled ten feet into bed rock then set steel pipe and look for water with a smaller air hammer.
I had to put our 150 lb wood blocks under the wheels, lower the rig down on the blocks with the derrick still in upright position.
Pretty scary due to possible tip over. Pull rig ahead one foot, set blocks under jacks again, jack machine up level, then drill a new hole next to the one with 10-15,000$ tools stuck in.
When you get down to where the first set of tools were then remove second set of rods and hammer, stabilizer.
When the hole collapses then you probably have to dig a pit mix up a clay slurry, and use a mud pump to pump drilling hole full of heavy clay to help hold you hole open.
This method we used a roller bit, because an air hammer won't work.
I pulled second set, set machine down, backed up, set up and luckily the first set came loose!
I think then I cleaned hole out with the roller bit and clay slurry.
I started putting 20' steel well pipe in, welded couplings together.
I went down in the pipe to clean it out and start drilling for water.
Part of the overburden, soil , rocks whatever before solid rock was heaving sand, probably about 40-50 feet of it.
It's pure sand with water running through it, basically quicksand.
I'm going down the pipe, the heaving sand came up the well pipe to the water level, when I shut my air and water off to add another 25' drilling rod the heaving sand came up and filled my 4' long 4" air hammer.
So I had to pull four or more drilling rods, to get the hammer back up, take it apart, clean all the sand out.
The piston inside this small hammer weighs 70 lbs, crazy how fast the hammer cycles this heavy thing.
Now I have to clear the well pipe with a roller bit and my air pressure.
I'm going down, sand and water are coming out, and I accidentally sent the bit into the sand too fast, I lost air circulation.
Being in a hurry, stressed out I remember my air gauge maxed out at 350 foot pounds, I think that's like 12x pounds per inch.
I removed the tools too fast maybe, I remember thinking 350 ft lbs! That's a lot of air pressure!
Next thing I knew there was an explosion of sand, it hit me so hard I was knocked over against the water truck four feet away! It hit the side of my head like a big boxing glove! Lucky no pebbles in it.
I had sand in my eyes, ears, mouth, lol 😆
I finished clearing the pipe, pulled the tools and put the air hammer on before dark that night. All these steps took me close to a week, at least 3-4 days of work!
The next morning we started drilling for water in bedrock, the machine Carries 300 ft of drilling rods on it, the other 200+ feet of rods we pull off the water truck.
I drilled 560 feet that day, my all time record on a single day!
We got water I think about 690 foot, I drilled to 710.
All the wells I drilled near lake placid I had trouble losing the hole, the last one was the worst, I lost and regained two sets of tools there!
Fun job huh? Lol
Last edited by Tactical.20; 02/14/23 01:28 PM.