Well Drilling Machine Breaks A Large Bit off in the Water Well.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ย. 2024
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In this video I show the tougher side of well drilling. When selecting a Well Driller to construct your well, the key factor in that investment is understanding that your paying for experience and understanding. A cheaper driller who doesn't go above and beyond for the customer often times will leave you with Discolored water. The Well in this Vlog shows a prime example of a terrible situation that could be fixed with a little time spent using the camera & the right direction to move towards. Although we saved the Well & produced lots of water, the Large 10" bit was damaged and broke a few days later. We lost that hole (only 47' at the time) and we lost a $3,200 bit. Hope you Enjoy the Video, showing the mishaps in this industry.
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That my friend is called a shanked bit. Could have fished the bit out. We used to fish hammer bits out anytime one broke. You can use a spear and spear into the hole of the bit..or use a grapple and grapple over the bit and pull it. If you get into a lot of water you can actually float the hammer a little and cause the hammer to hammer off bottom which is when the chuck isn't all the way against the bit...pretty much meaning you are allowing the shank of the bit or the top to travel all the way out and smack against the chuck causing fractures. We used a sub on top of the hammer with holes cut at an upward angle through to the sub bore so air would come from the angled cuts to push the hammer against bottom. Get too much water and we would switch to a tri-cone bit. Also if you get too much air pressure down hole and you air compressor is idling back or not pushing the CFM needing and the hammer wants to stall out from water and soap or dirty hole you can install a 1" bleeder valve on the air supply to bleed off air and bring the compressor back to full idle the hammer and keep hammering. Rough neck here..worked as a driller drilling natural gas wells up to 10,000 feet in Va, Tn, Ky and Wva. You can train a monkey to run a Rig panel but a professional know whats going on at the bit 2+ miles below them, by the time you see the issue at surface it's too late. Great videos though. Love watching keep up the good work. Be careful out there.
Dad saying he's proud of you feels good even when you are a grown man!
That rock formation is crazy. I called a driller not too far from me and he said he wont even come out my way because its "rock country" and he reccomended to call you guys instead. He said yall are damn good at what you do! Even though this video makes me so nervous (hoping we dont have a difficult rock formation like this) its very cool too see and learn from!
Nice reccom .He should buy you a coffee ☕️ 😜 😉
You pack a lot of information into a short film. When I was 12 I started working in an electric motor winding shop. You remind me of those wonderful mentors that helped me climb up to being a physician, now retired after 30 years. Your videos have deep meaning. Thank You Sir ! !
You sure have a way about you that makes watching and learning from your experiences so damn interesting and enjoyable. I sure appreciate that. Thank you.
Love water hydraulics. Great professional service.
Super stoked to find your channel. I have geo drill rigs. Both air rotary and auger. Bad formations that beat down hole hammers, I would recommend getting crack check kits. It sucks pulling the bit out, but you will be able to see if there were any cracks starting before the next job. Down hole hammers don't work well in my area but it has saved me on big tricones.
Completely get the "did have time" to set up a camera. I have been wanting to do TH-cam stuff for education on soil types because my area has collapsible silts to over 40% expansive clays to cemented materials. But when being paid by the foot, hard to stop to get a good video.
Either way. I do appreciate the effort you have put in because I enjoy it.
We were drilling a 26" holle one time for surface conductor at 1100', the Tri Cone bit broke in three sections, we had to make a "Poor Boy" junk basket out of a 20" joint of Casing, the Bit came out in three sections, pleased to say we got it, and saved the well
Back in the late 80s early 90s I worked for a machine job as a mechanical draftsman. My company was in Fort Louden PA. My main job was designing well drilling equipment. Most of it was down the whole bits and hammers. I remember a couple times going out in the field with a couple of our local well drillers to do testing with some of the our hammers and the down the hole bits that we made. I can't remember what the new company is that bought them out but I can't if I can remember right it was Swedish owned company. all this reminds me of when I was younger, brings back a lot of memories. If I can remember right the name today is epiroc.
Shanked bit? It happens! Get use to it. Part of well drilling! You guys do an awesome job.
Slather on the copper anti-seize.
When I had a new well drilled they pumped it for 15 minuets every hour for 24 hours. This was after pumping for an hour. Even after that I could still see yellow in a gallon bucket. It took 6 months before we had crystal clear water.
Very interesting videos here in rural Ireland we've got a 300ft well drilled 25 years ago water at 10ft on the third pump we've got a lot of grit causing pumps to wear out prematurely there's no well liner below rock level water table at 10ft speciation Very poor 25 years ago they have improved a lot since I like your work everything to the book and done properly and you explain everything brilliant 👍👍
Looked like a 'lovely' well up top. Never seen a square one before. 🙂 Nothing like shifting plates / loose stones to mess up a hole. Take care. Hope the crew and family are doing well.
you win some you lose some. just part of the job, nothing to lose sleep over, shit happens. as long as everyone goes home with all their fingers and toes attached its a good day.
Amen! I've seen too many people in this industry missing fingers, I try to move slow & have a plan. No need to rush or get frustrated, bc that's when accidents happen. It's a dangerous profession, I try to be as smart as possible with everything I do
@@h2omechanic my old man always said "if an accident is just around the corner that means luck is everywhere else". well, the luck at everywhere else ran out on him after 15 years on the job and he lost a foot and also caused a cowroker to mangle his arm. dont ever have my old mans attitude around your business, it will end up hurting people. equipment is replaceable and forgettable, losing a drill is something you will forget in weeks. you wont forget losing a limb.... ever...
@@h2omechanic how long is each section of drill pipe?
Very good job. Nice clear water👍
This is a good example of why this trade is a lot more than just drilling a hole in the ground. mine was a dry hole at 400' , and we ended up with 2.5 gpm at 500' with a 20' static water level with an option to hydrofrack. My neighbors were 120'-150' so you just never know.
One question.
Why do I love learning about this stuff? I would love to be on a drill job, start to finish. Just observing.
I worked on natural gas wells for a guy that does top holes and it’s funny to see how small water well bits and casings are. He ran a few Foremost DR rigs that run the casing and the hole at the same time. The casing is 20” to 24” depending on the customer and go down into bedrock, usually around 120’. Fishing out those 20” broken bits from 80’ down is crazy to watch.
The camera trip down the well reminded me of my recent colonoscopy!!
New subscriber. Anyone can drill a round hole,it takes skill to drill a square hole!😁 Great video, keep up the good work and Be Safe.
Is it possible to do a dye penetrant test on the bit occasionally and try to catch fatique fractures before there is a catastrophic failure?
Maybe another option is some kind of sonic test that might detect fractures.
Excellent video. Thank ya!
This makes me want to have a well drilled myself. Where I live, water is to be found not too deep down. Just have to have it signed off by the city. Unfortunately, I can't hire you, as I'm watching all the way from Austria. I appreciate your craftsmanship, and the videos you make!
Love your videos. No bs solid gold
awesome content as always.thanks for sharing and taking us along.
Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. After drilling in a fractured formation the bit broke on the following job. We usually do full casing and we use 9-5/8" steel surface casing to set 6" pvc.
That camera explains a 1000 words quick.
you guys have it easy i live on the big island of hawaii and all the fresh water wells are drilled at a minimum depth of around 1200' most are around 2000' and it cost close to $1,000,000 to drill. I used to work on the motors on some of them. The deepest fresh water well in the world used to be not sure it still is. Its at the Waikii ranch its 5380' deep they use a 250hp submersible pump that runs on 2500 volts
Most of the other pumps are vertical turbine pumps and they have to jack the bowls off the bottom and the 2-1/2" stainless shaft stretch's 3-4" before the bowls come off the bottom so it will turn.
Jeff said there are BB8 & QL 80 in stock in Liberty NC.
What a rough job!
I was wondering how much the new bit set you back.
$3,800 I believe with shipping
I don't know how quick you can "drop" the camera down the hole but in cases like this where you want to see the bottom before it fills up - it might be useful to drop the camera asap without analyzing the path, get a glimpse of the bottom, and then go slower on the return so you can analyze the path. Either way that rock formation was awesome to take a look at, thanks for sharing
So your comment is exactly what I did! As soon as the rods came out, the camera went in. It makes so much water it was filling up that fast.
@@h2omechanic Ah ok I guess because of the commentary I must've gotten the wrong impression as if you're going in slower.
It's hard to tell from the video because obviously the camera isn't going down in freefall as it has to be unrolled.
I don’t even want to know how $$$$. But I am betting 6 months of pay checks for that bit 😮😮
Yep do not put water wells next to electrical or other utilities. Sure in many cases it’ll be fine, but do you really want to be that one case that ends up with the broken pipe that leaks water on the electrical transformer, or the well that an electrician trenches a line through.
Your camera is amazing!!!👍🐢
My first guess was Colorado, but I changed my guess because of the weather.
You need one of them heavy duty magnets like the use for magnet fishing…. Try pulling that thing out
I am really surprised that you don’t case the full length of the well in New Mexico we have to case the full depth of the well with screen and cement seals
I have all the paper work from my well. Plans, inspection, everything that went to the county.
How do I get all of it interpreted?
Shenandoah Valley. On a mountain, elevation, 1,800'. 5 miles from Shenandoah river.
Nothing but rock here as far as the eyes can see. And can't see.
Wow that rock is jagged as hell!! Do you do extra protection on the wire because that going chaf on those sharp edges pretty good id imagine! Wow.
Not positive, but I think that the layer with the jagged rock is above the packer that they put in. So all of the jacket rockets on the outside of the casing. This means the wire shouldn’t ever come in contact with it.
In wonder if you had cleaned and crack tested the bit after the first well if it had already developed cracks before it even started second well
That flow of water make me feel like playing in the water
That is crazy. A few points in my well drillers said they were hitting loose voided sections. They expected water, but they were dry. I was thinking about it this summer after I ran my well way beyond its storage + 2 gpm recovery by accident. There might be some large void spaces in the ground that are holding volumes of water larger than just a 6" borehole. That or the recovery is improved since the airlift test?
Talk about luck to retrieve that bit out of the well. The Lord was looking down at you. The Lord figured it was only right to help you as you help others. Stay safe.
Are you familiar with stress fractures? The bit was probably full of microscopic cracks from all the forces put on it before.
Our old 380 bits would last 4-5 years, this made it 11 months...
@@h2omechanic Could be bad welds or even poor metallurgy in the bit from the manufacturer. Couple that with the stress it was bound to fail. I would take it back and ask them to test it.
Dry firing hammer does that to bits. Not real uncommon that bits break in fractured and voided holes. It’s not a torque issue that normally does that. The fact that the break above the splines somewhat supports that. Normally torque breaks are below splines or tend to threads of drill steel.
@matthewhayes7962 from what I think, I couldn't put enough down pressure on the bit bc it kept binding up. The bit pulled itself apart. More down pressure it would cut very fast & the rock would stop the rotation. Another driller explained it & I could see how it happens, that is alot of weight stopping itself
@@h2omechanic not knocking you or anything. But when the hammer fires and the bit is hitting really soft or fractured rock the mass from the bit will break them. Noticed it broke above the splines where it tapers down. So basically all the energy from the bit is caught by your keepers on the bit. Have seen it a ton with guys drilling micropiles. That in its nature is most of the time nasty drilling due to bad ground, hence while piles are be drilled in. The bits are really strong when the have solid ground to fire into, unfortunately their weakness is fractured ground which can let them dry fire or half fire making rings take the blow. If you look at the retainer rings you can probably see some marking on them from that. Shit happens sometimes. Ql80’s are a good strong bit. Sometimes cutting air back just a little takes some energy out of hammer in bad rock to help eliminate breakage. And if ever in a bind, Star Iron Works usually can get bits, hammers, etc overnighted. Rich there is great guy to work with.
A quick question - did the lower part of the bit come off down hole? How did you fish it out, so you could continue drilling the well to depth? Awesome job, and fantastic information!
Sorry, commented before watching all the video. My bad! You still do fantastic work 😊
Check out that running cedar
Was the image flipped at the start or was he on the wrong side of the truck to be driving?
I have a question I hope you can answer.
I live out in the country in southern Illinois.
Most of our ground water is contaminated and have been forced to connect to a rural water supplier.
.My house is 200 feet from the meter and the meter outlet is 3/4 inch I put a 3/4 to 1 inch and ran pipe to my house and I have great water volume but poor pressure.
Question can I install a bladder tank for the water to come into and exit into the house to increase my pressures.
Thanks for all your content and will be looking for a answer if you have time. Thanks again Roy.
Really like your videos as I live in an area where I see wells going in occasionally. Especially liked the divining as I have a friend who uses it. Are you kin to Rainman Ray, another you tuber? Y'all surely look alike.
When do you use bentonite as oppose to grout to seal the pvc sleeve in the ground
You, my man, are the Einstein of the well drilling profession. You would put any college professor to shame. Your parents should be proud of following in your fathers' footsteps. He sure has taught you a lot in your journey. God bless you and your family. Keep chasing your dreams......your doing a great job.
I know why it happened, it's like drilling a hole in aluminum the cuttings fall around the bit and bind until it can't turn anymore. When it starts to bind you have to stop and reverse the bit until it unloads and clean out the hole and start back over. The type of rocks I see in your videos are slate like driveway gravel is made of so the powder from the rock packs in tight and binds the bit. That's just my opinion from what I saw in your video. I hope it never happens to you again, but if it looks like the pressure is getting stronger and stronger just stop reverse backwards and pull the bit out slightly and then start back. I hope this helps. Johnny over and out.
Dude I thought you had drilled into an old mine shaft or something when I saw that square hole. Sounds like this was a well from hell.
How far do you have to drill for coffee?
Maybe I'm not picturing it right, but on the first well, the natural depth of the water level was around 80' and so you lined it to that depth and put a packer in place to keep seepage flowing into the well. Isn't just as likely that below that level, water is still able to seep in which may be murky? Meaning that when the pump runs and the water level drops a bit that exposes a portion of the well hole that can seep murky water at the top portion of the water level?
No, I put my camera in the well as soon as the drill rods were out, water filled up from 400ft to 70ft in about 25mins. I had limited time to see done there before the water level reached the 20ft area. There was alot going on. I can't film everything & cover everything, but hopefully that helps you understand why I was rushing. I had to see what was going on down there before the dirty water prevented it
@@h2omechanic All good and I think you were able to satisfy my curiosity and understanding. I didn't realize that the water level would have gotten even higher to the ~20ft level.
Thanks, stumbled on the channel a while ago and been hooked ever since. Was really cool to see down the well btw, was quite a wild view.
that looks like a @letsdig18 road he did a month ago
What areas do you cover with your business? I'd use your company in a heartbeat.
Do you not have a scorpion bit breaker, fishing tools, over shots, or taper taps. I also have to ask if you test the hammer on every hole before you drill?
Its a shame there isn't a easy out with a hole in center for camera to see if lining up with the broken head pull it out / just a thought
Is this well able to be re-Drilled in the future to either deepen or whatever? or because of the off-center or slant to the well would that prevent it in the future?
That is one big ass container of anti seize!
Do you have any fishing tools? I used to use a guy back in the 90s in Colorado who had a rig like yours without the rotary storage though. He often made fishing tools to get broke bits out of the hole. Was it just easier to leave the old bit in the hole? Loved seeing that borehole camera.
The square parts are the drill breaking through not drilling
do you x ray or magna flux your drills after a very hard drilling to insure no breakage on the next job ??
apparently not rofl
I'm trying to understand why the bore hole blows your mind. What's different about it?
Hmm....if this was stress cracking, I wonder if after a particularly heinous well or at regular intervals otherwise, a machine shop couldn't magnaflux these things and look for cracks.
If the cracks are internal, you'll need more exotic forms of non-destructive testing from an NDT firm.
Could the square hold have been a cavity within the rock?
So what happened to the bit that broke off? Is it still in the well?
I'm guessing you are in South Central Virginia. I say that because of the rock you dig up, the colors of the dert, and the seenery around you. Am I correct?
My water comes out a bit yellow before it goes through the water softener. Does this mean my packer and/or casing may be leaking surface water into my well?
How about using a $7 water quality tester?
Where can I get one of those hammer?
Weird you are using a crush washer, we just use copper coat in Ontario Canada, but we are breaking the bit out every day. Thoughts?
I've seen people use copper wire. But here we use the blue/white well rope bc its simple. Just make a rope loop & have someone hold it tight & tighten the bit, works perfectly. Easy to break loose too. (I couldn't fine any 8" plastic washers.)
Approx how many wells or feet does a bit last going through rock typically??
A 6" bit will run 800ft before getting re-sharpened, you can repeat this 6 times before the bit is too small to run. Then it's scrap.
The big 10" bit hear only sees about 20ft of rock on every job (it's like a pilot hole bit) it's good for 100 wells then it gets ReSharpened after 1 year. It should last us 3-4 years. This 1 lasted 11months
If you lost the drill bit down the well what would you do
That's exactly what happened on the next job, the bottom section stayed at 47ft, we fished for 3 hours & no luck. So we filled the hole with Grout & dirt, started a new hole the next day 5ft away
How much is that new 8" bit?
So is that a pre-fracked well?
You might be happy with that well, but it is still discoloured, will the water eventually clear ?
Love the hat. Where can we buy one
How much does one of those 10" bits cost?
It looked like you hit a bedrock of shale the way it fractured.
Do you work in Blackstone. I have customers that need help all the time.
Do you call 811 to mark the lines out there? I'd be worried where that main 7k line goes into the transformer, and it's like hitting a needle in a haystack, but if you ever accidentally hit that line, is gunna be a bad bad day. Lol.
We've hit a main line underground before, because customers moved our flags & mowed over utility marker flags. It was sparks everywhere! Elec company came out & pulled out the 400amp fuse in the transformer box, then we pulled the rig off the hole, until they came, no1 was allowed to touch the rig,
Can you provide any information on a hydro-pnuematic pump tank? We were told when we bought the house that the well needed a new pump. Following your videos I wanted to start simple troubleshooting but was stopped in my tracks when I saw the tank.
A galvanized tank has no bladder, it traps air in the upper section of the tank. It's 1970s technology. Unless you have a sulfur issue, it's best to update to a bladder type tank. Just have a plumbing co inspect your system & make sure its operating correctly and ask for update recommendations
@@h2omechanic thanks for the information.
@@h2omechanic one more quick question. To change it out to a bladder tank, will I need to change anything else?
@RM-iy7xx typically not, it's normally a direct swap out. But if inside the well still has the air injection valve, that'll need to come out. But you'll just notice air in the water once you replace the tank to a bladder type. If you don't get air in the water, you'll know that there's no air injection valve in the drop pipe. (It's only 10ft down the well mounted on the T) easy to remove if necessary
@@h2omechanic awesome, thanks for the information
Dude save all your broken stuff and sell it to fans. Other YT's do it. That bit would go for a mint.
How common is it; in the well drilling industry, to break bits off in the hole? Too bad there isn't an easy out for that, like on broken bolts.
An OverShot is a tool used to retrieve broke bits. That tools costs the same as 2 of these bits.
We have a big easy-out tap we tried to use, but it wouldn't bite the hardened steel enough to pick it up. A bit typically breaks once every 5-6 years, it's not common. But this is the first big bit we've ever seen break like this.
@h2omechanic wow, I never would've thought such a tool would exist....I literally have found a needle in a hay stack, but I would have figured a broken bit within the earth would just be a loss.
@WrenchHead it was in our case. An overshot tool is more for gas wells that are 1000+ft deep & are worth the time & effort in saving. In our case 47ft hole was worth a few hours of our time before we said oh well & filled in the hole.
You forgot to say how expensive those bits are.
About how much do those bits run?
Did I miss how you get the broken drill out of the hole? Or does that matter?
Nope, it's still 47ft below the surface. Lost it.
Could you not get that out with a strong magnet? Maybe an electro magnet? They make neodymium magnets with over 250lbs of lifting capacity. Attach it to a 1/4 or 3/8" cable . Surely it could save the hole?
When something is stuck in rock , Thousands of pounds of breakout force is usually not enough ; I have $ 5000.00 of drill rods in the ground and they are not coming out .
A lot of the time, you will shank a bit if you ever let the hammer work when bit is not on the bottom of the bore hole, effectively letting it hammer in open air. The bit takes all the force of the hammer rather than the material you are cutting.
what's the price for bit like this?
$3,800
@@h2omechanic Wow, looks like the new hole is going to be about breakeven. It's just the cost of doing business.
When they started drilling the well for my house, they also lost a bit about that size. It was only about 20 feet down though.
My neighbor's well is about 75 feet away from mine. His well is at 50 feet, they drilled mine down to 200 feet and only got the state minimum of 1 gallon per hour.
I have run it dry by leaving the garden hose on, but as far as the household, it never was a problem.
is it just never worth recovering the hole? if the bit is magnetic then i'm sure you could get an electromagnet strong enough to get some serious lifting power on the chunk at the bottom of the hole. The broken bit is probably worth a dollar a pound or so, but i imagine the surveyed location is worth something too. Its interesting to me that recovery is not even considered and you just immediately fill the well and start a new one. Do you have to pay to survey a new well?
Well, square pegs in round holes, sideways drilling for oil ????
Eventualy it would break anyway, sooner or later, even at lower rotatin pressures. Think about how many impacts it took over the course of a year!
so what kind of rocks was it?
Not sure, id call it black granite, but it acted very similar to Slate. Hard as can be, but broke in large fractured pieces. A 6" bit was blowing out a 12"-14" hole in some places. Jobs like these, an inexperienced driller would get his equipment stuck down the hole.
@@h2omechanic Had this happened drilling a geotech hole with a hammer and dragging casing. The outside wallowed out from loose stuff., never could get the casing to seal to the clayey rock (we had groundwater). spend 2 days trying, before i said screw it, and we moved the hole.
Did you try a taper tap to retrieve that bit?
Yup! Are you a driller?
The taper tap would not bit the hardened steel. It's more for broke drill rods
@@h2omechanic Yes I was in the business 35 years, I just retired.
Your videos are top notch, young man. I always learn something new. We had a well installed in Kansas just for yard irrigation. I had it tested and the lab says it is way too hard to use. Said it contains too much calcium chloride?? They also say it cannot be filtered out. Do you feel very hard water would hurt our fescue lawn or the trees? No one around here will comment. Thanks and keep the videos coming.