Can you drill a well DIY?

Method of extracting a natural resource

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Well drilling is the process of drilling a hole in the ground for the extraction of a natural resource such as ground water, brine, natural gas, or petroleum, for the injection of a fluid from surface to a subsurface reservoir or for subsurface formations evaluation or monitoring. Drilling for the exploration of the nature of the material underground (for instance in search of metallic ore) is best described as borehole drilling.

The earliest wells were water wells, shallow pits dug by hand in regions where the water table approached the surface, usually with masonry or wooden walls lining the interior to prevent collapse. Modern drilling techniques utilize long drill shafts, producing holes much narrower and deeper than could be produced by digging.

Well drilling can be done either manually or mechanically and the nature of required equipment varies from extremely simple and cheap to very sophisticated.

Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) is defined by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) as &#;an adaptive drilling process used to more precisely control the annular pressure profile throughout the wellbore." The objectives of MPD are &#;to ascertain the downhole pressure environment limits and to manage the annular hydraulic pressure profile accordingly."

History

Earliest Record

The earliest record of well drilling dates from 347 AD in China.[1] Petroleum was used in ancient China for "lighting, as a lubricant for cart axles and the bearings of water-powered drop hammers, as a source of carbon for inksticks, and as a medical remedy for sores on humans and mange in animals."[2] In ancient China, deep well drilling machines were in the forefront of brine well production by the 1st century BC. The ancient Chinese developed advanced sinking wells and were the first civilization to use a well-drilling machine and to use bamboo well casings to keep the holes open.[3][4]

Modern Era

In the modern era, the first roller cone patent was for the rotary rock bit and was issued to American businessman and inventor Howard Hughes Sr. in . It consisted of two interlocking cones. American businessman Walter Benona Sharp worked very closely with Hughes in developing the rock bit. The success of this bit led to the founding of the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company. In two Hughes engineers, one of whom was Ralph Neuhaus, invented the tricone bit, which has three cones. The Hughes patent for the tricone bit lasted until , after which other companies made similar bits. However, Hughes still held 40% of the world's drill bit market in . The superior wear performance of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits gradually eroded the dominance of roller cone bits and early in this century PDC drill bit revenues overtook those of roller cone bits. The technology of both bit types has advanced significantly to provide improved durability and rate of penetration of the rock. This has been driven by the economics of the industry, and by the change from the empirical approach of Hughes in the s, to modern day domain Finite Element codes for both the hydraulic and cutter placement software.

Drill bits in mechanical drilling

The factors affecting drill bit selection include the type of geology and the capabilities of the rig. Due to the high number of wells that have been drilled, information from an adjacent well is most often used to make the appropriate selection. Two different types of drill bits exist: fixed cutter and roller cone. A fixed cutter bit is one where there are no moving parts, but drilling occurs due to shearing, scraping or abrasion of the rock. Fixed cutter bits can be either polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) or grit hot-pressed inserts (GHI) or natural diamond. Roller cone bits can be either tungsten carbide inserts (TCI) for harder formations or milled tooth (MT) for softer rock. The manufacturing process and composites used in each type of drill bit make them ideal for specific drilling situations. Additional enhancements can be made to any bit to increase the effectiveness for almost any drilling situation.

A major factor in drill bit selection is the type of formation to be drilled. The effectiveness of a drill bit varies by formation type. There are three types of formations: soft, medium and hard. A soft formation includes unconsolidated sands, clays, soft limestones, red beds and shale. Medium formations include dolomites, limestones, and hard shale. Hard formations include hard shale, calcites, mudstones, cherty lime stones and hard and abrasive formations.

Until , market share was divided primarily among Hughes Christensen, Security-DBS (Halliburton Drill Bits and Services), Smith Bits (a subsidiary of Schlumberger), and ReedHycalog (acquired by National Oilwell Varco in ).

By , Ulterra (then a subsidiary of ESCO Corp.) and Varel International (a subsidiary of Swedish engineering group Sandvik) had together gained nearly 30% of the U.S. bit market and eroded the historical dominance of the Smith, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes. By , Schlumberger, which acquired Smith in ,[5] became dominant in international markets thanks to packaging drill bits with their other tools and services, while Ulterra (owned by private equity firms Blackstone Energy Partners and American Securities) continued a Stark growth trend, becoming the market share leader in drill bits in the US according to Spears Research [6] and Kimberlite Research.[7]

• Tricone bit for well drilling (medium worn-out)

• PDC bit for well drilling

• Multiple Tricone Bits

• Tricone Bit

• Drill Bit

• Damaged Drill Bit, pieces missing on the left hand cone

• Mud log in process, a common way to study the lithology when drilling oil wells

Evaluation of the dull bit grading is done by a uniform system promoted by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC). See Society of Petroleum Engineers / IADC Papers SPE & . See also PDC Bits

See also

Manual well drilling methods

References

Bibliography

• Australian Drilling Industry Training Committee Ltd (). Drilling: the manual of methods, applications and management (4th ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 978-1--242-3.

85 web pages and 52 videos entirely devoted
to helping you drill your own well

You can drill your own shallow water well using PVC and household water hoses.   It is a cheap and effective way to dig your own shallow water well.  Water well drilling isn&#;t just for the pros with huge commercial drilling rigs.  Digging a water well yourself is both interesting and fun.

The water well drilling methods described here work well in digging/drilling through dirt, and clay, including really hard clay.  They will not work if you need to drill through rock but, if the area you live in is flat or relatively flat, it is definitely worth a try.  Many folks think they have to dig or drill their well into an aquifer.  For irrigation and lawn watering, reaching an aquifer isn&#;t necessary.  You only have to drill under the standing water level. It is very likely that you can drill your own well.  Many successful wells have been drilled using this well drilling method.  It is cheap. You can expect the &#;drilling&#; portion of the project to cost about $200.

YOU CAN DRILL YOUR OWN WELL

In these pages the &#;do it yourself water well drilling&#; technique is referred to as well drilling, but many call this technique &#;washing&#; or &#;jetting&#; a well.   It is somewhat similar to the rotary bit method which most real water well drillers use for water bore drilling.  

The DIY technique involves water pumped down the center of a PVC schedule 40 pipe used as both a drill stem and a drill bit.  At the bottom end of the PVC pipe a &#;drill bit&#; is fashioned by cutting teeth into the end of the PVC pipe.  The pipe is rotated back and forth as the PVC pipe is slowly worked into the ground while the cuttings are brought to the surface by the upward flow of water in the annular space around the pipe.   If you want to dig your own well, try this technique. 

Installing a well and a pump can save a lot of money, especially if you are now paying the local utility for irrigation water.  You have probably noticed that just watering the lawn can get expensive.  You can spend less money watering the lawn.  Actually, you can spend almost no money watering the lawn.  It is great for gardeners, too.

If you are a first time visitor to the site you will probably want to start out with either the &#;Background&#; or the &#;Basic Well Drilling Steps&#; pages.  The bulk of the site is dedicated to drilling water wells using just two hoses for drilling fluid.  Inexpensive PVC is used for the drill pipe, the drill bit, and the well screen.  This DIY water well drilling technique is very cheap and many successful shallow wells have been installed using this technique. 

When drilling a well by hand, it can be very helpful to at least be familiar with the techniques used by real well drillers &#; the kind with big powerful trucks and huge water tanks.  What we do is extremely similar, almost identical.  We can&#;t dig holes as wide or as deep but it is the same process.  A local well drilling company was kind enough to let me video their process.  Check it out at &#;Real Well Drilling.&#;

There are several enhancements you can make to the basic DIY well drilling technique.  To make the technique even more effective you can use the techniques described on the pages, &#;Drilling Deeper with BENTONITE&#; and &#;Drill 10 Feet Deeper.&#;  Additionally, converting to a metal drill bit will make your drilling more productive.  These are all techniques that were sent in by users of the site and discovered as they drilled their wells.

A gravel pack can increase a well&#;s production so there is a section on them.  I don&#;t recommend you include a gravel pack on your first well but after you get the hang of the technique this is something you will probably want to check out the pages on gravel packs.

Don&#;t go shopping for a pump without reading this page: Which Pump? You want a shallow well pump, also known as a suction pump. Pool pumps and other types of transfer pumps will not work.

In the &#;Videos&#; section, you will find videos that show techniques used world wide.  Some of these techniques, like the Baptist Method, require very little drilling fluid and have been used for centuries.

We&#;ve been fortunate enough to receive some input from Bob Tabor, a real well driller who has been drilling wells all of his life.  Please be sure and check out the page &#; &#;Advice from a REAL Well Driller.&#;

Bill Granade in Tampa, Florida has developed a very similar DIY water well drilling technique.  He has been wildly successful.  Bill has helped his neighbors drill a bunch of wells his protocols may be useful to you.  Look under &#;Another Home Driller.&#;

Several users of this site have been kind enough to send pictures and info about wells that they have drilled.  Check out &#;Success Stories&#; in the menu.  For example, one of our recent success stories, Steve in South Jersey is interesting. Steve needed a way to water his Christmas tree farm and he successfully drilled his own well.  Very impressive effort!  We even got a wonderful from Greg in Australia about his successful well. 

For drillers interested in moving up to the next level: be sure and check out the page on Mud Pump Drilling. It is absolutely the way to go if you can buy or borrow a mud pump (sometimes called a trash pump).  It costs more than the two hose method but is still a lot less expensive than hiring a driller.

There is a section for Questions and Answers where I have posted the most common questions I receive.  I hope it helps you.  There are also sections on Source of Supply, Well Drilling Manuals as well as Well Drilling Links.

Commercially drilled water wells tend to be very expensive.  This DIY well drilling technique is very cheap.  It will almost definitely work if you live near the coast and will likely work if you live in a flat inland area.It is great for saving money on watering your lawn and irrigating a garden.

As I mentioned in the video, the most interesting things I have experienced in posting this website are the enhancements and improvements that YOU, the viewers and users of this site have submitted.  I figured out a few improvements to the Brady Well Kit early on and I managed to drill a functional well after several tries and that is why I posted the site.  And then &#; users started writing me and showing me things they had discovered!  At this point, I can safely say that most of the techniques presented here are not mine.  They are yours!  I hope they help you.  I hope that if you discover an improvement or an enhancement that you will send it to me so I can post it for others to use.

Below is a video submitted by one of the users of this site.  Please take a look at the DIY water well drilled by Travis of Mobile, Alabama.  Travis used a 10 foot long 1.25 inch well screen.  Congratulations, Travis! 

The links in the menu describe the steps in detail. You can pick and choose what subjects to review by clicking on menu items or, if you want to be sure and hit every page, simply click on the &#;Next:&#; link at the bottom of each page.

Next: Background

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