We have decided to construct a custom drill rig as part of a small business and to drill our 4" ag wells. I have been on a rig a limited amount of times and my father was an oil driller. I have most of the concepts down but have some ignorance questions mostly and possibly some ideas to get going. I intend to base the design on I beam construction with a trolly to skate along the I beam vertically. I will likely build to accommodate 10ft lengths of structural DOM drill stem from a horizontal driller. I do not intend to achieve commercial drill rig productivity, but will be more mobile and much smaller. This system will mate to the 3pt system on a 130HP ag tractor that weighs 20k lbs. I have not decided if out stabilizers will be needed for this. All holes will be punched no more than 150ft and will set 5" casing in a roughly 8" hole and gravel pack the casing along the length. I plan to use the remote hydros of the tractor to run both the lift and rotary hydro motor. I am still trying to design the drive system, swivel, and such. I am not sure if the kelly and kelly bushing system is really needed for this. I planned to use only the weight of the drill stem and water column for acting drill force. My procedure was to drill with a simple 3 blade water well bit (assuming it runs well) at about a 4-5" diam to depth, allow plenty of time for cuttings to clear. Pull out and install an 8" rock head, mix my mud pit with bagged mud, go back in for final boring while pumping in the drill mud to help stabilize the hole, float up cuttings, and keep open for casing. I will then pull out and install final casing and gravel pack in place. I will be drilling mostly clays/sand but my area is known to have gray shale throughout. I do not expect any large compositions of rock but will probably fight shale for 50+ ft. Questions: 1. Is there any math that can be applied here to determine how much mud pressure/volume I need? I can get a gas powered pump but I also had thoughts of using my PTO to operate a pump as well. Maybe that can be thought out after I get the bugs worked out. Need to have an idea of how much I need though. 2. Drill RPM. I will be able to modulate RPM with engine RPM on the tractor a bit but need to have an idea in design of what target RPM should run. I do realize that geological conditions and drill head sort of dictate some of this. 3. Is drill force usually sufficient with just the drill stem/water? Does that need further throttled to modulate feed rate?
This is outside my realm but I would sure think so outriggers would be beneficial to use. Also, I'd consider having something to provide down pressure. Check out some of those small rigs that do holes for soil bore testing Brett
Hello fastline, i saw i rig being built on you tube, not sure what type power he had, good luck and drill deep. sam.
I don't know much about drilling but I see the use of the tractor remotes as a problem as I have been told they will not stand to run a hyd. motor long. This is because of the heat and lack of cooling capacity as most tractors are designed to use hyd. cylinders. I would build a pto. run system for the drill. Good luck sounds like a good project.
I was just thinking about that about an hour ago. Actually I am not sure we will get all the "go" from our rotary motor since I bet the hydros on that tractor run at 1000psi or less where most motors can handle 3000psi. I was originally going to use a PTO driven pump but they are just stupid expensive for what they are! You can get any other pump NOT PTO driven for a fraction. I was also trying to avoid the costs to build the entire valve block and hoses but I guess it will mate to a smaller tractor easier that way.
I have seen a regular pump used and speed up the shaft with a chain drive. If you have a 1000 rpm. tractor you won't have to speed it up that much. A pump for a dump truck is usually 40 gpm or higher and I rum my salt spreaders using 2 motors off of one and they max out around 1800 rpm. not sure on pressure.