New Way To Drill Your Own Well

New Way To Drill Your Own Well SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 32-4-34 If you've checked the price of drilling a new well lately, you know you're looking at an expense of thousands of dollars. That's what prompted a pair of Texas inventors to come up with a new do-it-yourself method. "When our local water company wanted $1,500 to hook up a water meter and that didn't include the cost of laying pipe, my dad decided to drill his own well," explains Nathaniel Burson, Well-Tek. "He and I worked on it for most of two years. We tried lots of different ideas before we came up with this system." The heart of the system is an air-powered sander/polisher that can be picked up for about $35. The Bursons removed the handle to fit the power tool inside a piece of pvc pipe. Then they drilled a hole in the back of the sander's housing so air could exit. With the right selection of "bits" and a compressor that'll put out 16 cfm at 90 psi, they soon had a well drilling rig. Best of all, Burson says, it practically digs the well by itself. Here's how it works: A small hole is dug and water is added. Then the pipe with the sander and bit inside is inserted into the hole. As air passes up the pipe, it creates a vacuum that pulls in the water and soil to the surface through a hose. After filtering out the solids, the water is returned to the hole. "The most revolutionary idea in the system was using the exhaust air coming out the hole in the sander's housing to remove water and dirt from the hole," says Burson. "Basically we're using air power to dig the hole. We knew others were interested in drilling their own wells, so we started selling do-it-yourself kits. Burson reports using the system to dig wells as deep as 210 feet. He's confident it could go even deeper. Kits ship with bits to drill a hole large enough for a 4-in. thin wall, pvc casing. Burson reports that due to requests for a 6-in. bore, they have been testing larger bits. In addition to North American sales, the Bursons have shipped kits to customers in India, Tasmania, New Zealand, several African countries and Portugal. Burson says the recent drought in New Zealand has created lots of interest in that country. The time needed to drill a well depends on the type of soil and the depth needed to find water. In sandy areas of Florida, drilling a well can take as little as a day, while clay and rock can stretch drilling out to a week or more. "I've drilled as fast as 20 ft. in an hour and, on a good day on easy soil, I've drilled 90 ft. in a day," says Burson. "Most people should expect to spend a week drilling a 100-ft. well." Well-Tek sells kits for $399.95, and individual parts are also available. Plans and an instructional DVD are available on the company website, which features video of the system at work. Burson does advise checking with local authorities first regarding any permits or local regulations related to well drilling. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Well-Tek, 10758 Highway 155 S., Big Sandy, Texas 75755 (ph 903 576-6800; orders@how todrillawell.com; www.howtodrillawell. com).

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