Thread: Bung sinks a bore

Next job was to select a site.

I had already scoped this out, a mate convinced me that you can divine for water and after some initial sceptism tried it out. I walked a grid around where I watned it and sure enough everytime I went over the one spot the bent wires I had pointing straight out in front of my hands would swing to the sides. Luckily it was right where I had hoped to put it!



Now the first thing the boys did when they arrived was pull out some divining rods which enabled me to bost about how I already knew about that stuff!

Here they are wih their rig getting started. First job, dig a hole.

Now that pump looks very interesting.
I have never seen one like that before.

More details to come I hope

Mmmm, from my brief time here it seems a fair thing to say that many of the posters live in a relatively rural/rustic setting and areas?

Nowt wrong with that, all props to you. I however can barely conceive of doing something like sinking my own bore hole at my house (and not that I'd need to).

Cripes, I actually even have 'mains' hot-water in my house. I guess I'm a bit of a pampered namby-pamby. Oh well, tough job but someones got to do it I suppose

That being said I should point out that I do really enjoy these type of threads on here. Very interesting to see the progression of someones latest project or even house building, I can live vicariously through them. There is actually some fantastic threads on here in that vein!

For the reasons above though I can't really contribute any of my own, sorry chaps. Mind, maybe I could start a retrospective thread on rebuilding my bike or even a current one on restoring my Merc... hmmm...

Originally Posted by blackgang

picks up about an equal amount of water and carrys it back to the tank.

Then it is not of much use if it is the same water cicrulating.
No, you get much more up than you inject.

Originally Posted by lom

Then it is not of much use if it is the same water cicrulating.

If it picks up an equal amount then the water volume has been doubled.
That's how I read it anyway.

So how deep can these Jet Pumps go ?

Thats correct, doubles the water, for real deep wells with high outputs, say 4000 gals per minute they usually use a turbine pump which has the pump parts down below water surface and the motor on top above ground and a driveshaft going down the pipe.
A sub pump is actually more efficent than a jet, but does have that disadvantage of the pump in the bottom and wires running down and depends on good seals to keep moisture out of the motor.
Eductors are also used for dewatering spaces and compartments that have water in them and maybe junk and rags that will clog a pump but will pass thru and eductor safely, of coarse they are a bit larger than you would use in a well.

My bore is 85 metres deep and I got a submersible at the moment.

If it goes bang do I have the option of using a jet pump/ eductor .

I don't think that a jet will work much over 30 meters, I might be wrong ,but I would stick with a sub. pump.

Still lots of mud coming out!



Hang about, It's changing colour!



Ah! Finally a nervous Bung sees that we are in sand. (I was worried about the depth compared to what the pump rating was, I had already bought the pump before I started)

Now it was time to blow out the hole with some compressed air to clear out the mud. They backed up an old pick up with a compressor on the back that made the drill rig look like a million bucks!

Well it was a good day and this is what we ended up with.



Time to pop up to the top of the soi and pick up a bottle of lao khao and m150 for the boys and a couple of beers for yours truly. Thirsty work!

That rig looks better than the one they brought to drill my well, which by the way was still dry at 148 meters so they gave up, and I do with harvested roof water, we can get stinking sewer/cess pit drain water at 4 meters sand layer, some use it but not me.
I like how they seem to have used an old pickup rear end to drive the kelly from the looks of things.

So on to the next phase, placing the lining pipe in the hole.



If you look closly you will notice that these pipes have slots cut into them to allow water to flow through them. So they drilled to 32m and put 2, 4m sections of this pipe in which will take it up to 26m, about where they started to see sand. they know what they are doing!

After these 2 sloted sections were put in it was normal, slotted pipe all the way to the top. This is 2 inch pipe by the way.



Next it was time to fire up the old compressor again and keep blowing out the mud. The boy's were happy at this time as it took ages so the all crashed out under the trees, hungover from me buying the lao khao the day before.

Seems to me that they did you a right fine job, Hard to get a good finish to any job here I have found..

I was probably lucky more than anything else! These guy's did one up the road and for someone who was happy with the work.

Also it was soft mud the whole way down and not that deep.

So now it's starting to look like a pump. I bought the round concrete section and lid for 160 baht or something but you need to have it set somewhere off the ground and secure. i should have got them to fill it with dirt first mines hollow and I think it amplifies the noise it makes a bit.



Here's a close up of the jet unit. They connect 1 1/2 inch pipe to this and slide it down the lining. I used a heat gun to soften the pipe then slid it over the end which made it a nice tightr fit. You do not want any leaks here. I also pop rivited it so there was no way it could come off. Once slid down into position (I think at 28m) it is then twisted so the rubber sections expand and it forms a seal. If you ever come across one of these and you need to take it out remember to untwist it and hang onto it or you could lose it and the whole bore will be useless!

Anyway, here is the finished product. I did add a cement footing around it as well. Yawn.