The water bore has been a bit sidelined recently due to all my energy being focussed on the Tesla Coil. However I did manage to progress a few more inches late Sunday afternoon. I’m confident that I’m well into the water table’s capillary fringe as things are getting quite muddy. I now need lots of bentonite clay in the mud mix to hold things together. Hopefully free flowing water isn’t far off!
I’m still persisting with the extended hand auger and will continue to do so until it gets too difficult. It’s almost due for another extension and is looking a little worse for wear though! I’ll switch to a home made percussion rig once things get too difficult. A rundown of my current drilling procedure is outlined below….
I’m currently pulling out more rocks than soil so I need a way of breaking and dislodging them. To this end, here is my percussion drill bit, a large crowbar on a rope 🙂 :
Here I am, running in hole (RIH) with the percussion bit:
And then, drilling ahead at 6″/hr by jerking the bit up and down:
Next, assuming the role of mud engineer by adding bentonite clay. This makes the cuttings sticky and absorbs excess water which ensures they can be removed from the hole by the rotary bit:
Then it’s time for a bit change. Here’s the super duper extended rotary hand auger/bit:
RIH with the rotary bit:
Next thing is to set the top drive in motion:
Then pull out of hole (POOH) with the rotary bit and remove the cuttings:
Note how wet the soil is getting, even with the dry bentonite added:
Then some downtime to service the rig before repeating above steps:
