Going To Wash A Well

[assateague]

Wife stopped at some estate sale thing yesterday, and brought home this for me:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408115326.839785.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408115335.809091.jpg

Going to refurbish the pump. Got a couple emails out looking for info on the size of pump leathers I need. There are only two sizes, and only two places on the whole interwebs that sell them, so hopefully one of those sizes is what I need. From some basic research, the "2" on the top seems to be the size, and is fairly standard, so I should be ok. Going to use a garden hose and PVC pipe to wash in a shallow well, about 20 feet or so. Our water table is right around 28 inches, so the hard part should be getting good tasting water, rather than hitting water.



Amish Weekend is going to be in full effect.

[Feelin' Fowl]

Neat project, Jim. Do I see a waffle maker too?

[Steele22]

Cool looking unit

[assateague]

Neat project, Jim. Do I see a waffle maker too?

Damn straight! I was way too happy about the pump to worry about that last night. Layniebug and I used it this morning. It's one of those kinds like in hotels that spin upside down, and works like a champ. Can't wait to get some tater tots. She also got me a bunch of other stuff. I don't think the folks really understood what they had, or they just wanted to get rid of it. She kept calling asking me "Is _____ dollars a good price for ______?" DeWalt 18V set (I really just needed the new sawzall, since mine shit the bed) for $50, Milwaukee 1 3/4 HP router for $15, another food dehydrator for my jerky ($5), that waffle maker ($10), a bread maker ($10), and a Milwaukee radio for her barn, so she can stop stealing mine ($10). It was a pretty damn good haul, especially for all new stuff, still in the plastic.

The funny part is, they threw the pump in for free, and it was what I wanted more than any of the other stuff.

[Steele22]

Sounds like a hell of a score, lucky fucker lol. I never find those deals

[Feelin' Fowl]

Nice! Post up about the tots when it happens.

[assateague]

I will. I was thinking how nice it'll be, with the deeper "indentations" (or whatever they're called) that this style waffle maker puts in the wafffles. I bet the tater tot hash brown will hold a lot more sausage gravy that way.

Damn, I'm hungry. Just eating a syrup waffle this morning isn't cutting it, thinking about tater tot hash browns loaded with many little ponds off sausage gravy

[assateague]

And I just heard back from one of the companies, and their pump leathers are a match. And they're only $4 each, but the guy said they need to be replaced every year, so I should probably buy about 20, in case they stop making them.

[RonE]

I love waffles with real maple syrup and real butter.........Fuck pancakes, gimme waffles.

[assateague]

You ever wash in a well? Seems like something you'd have done. My concern is being able to tell the water-bearing sand apart from the "regular" sand. Supposedly, it's a LOT more coarse, and easily distinguished.

[Woody]

You ever wash in a well? Seems like something you'd have done. My concern is being able to tell the water-bearing sand apart from the "regular" sand. Supposedly, it's a LOT more coarse, and easily distinguished.

I looked up how to do it once (trying to flood a corn field) there are a lot of videos on you tube and a website completely dedicated to doing it with PVC.

[assateague]

Those are what I was watching, too. From what I've seen, the hardest part will be distinguishing the water bearing sand. I'm hoping it'll be obvious when I hit it, though.

[RonE]

You ever wash in a well? Seems like something you'd have done. My concern is being able to tell the water-bearing sand apart from the "regular" sand. Supposedly, it's a LOT more coarse, and easily distinguished.

Nope, never have. Looked into it several times but never got around to it.

[Woody]

Those are what I was watching, too. From what I've seen, the hardest part will be distinguishing the water bearing sand. I'm hoping it'll be obvious when I hit it, though.

There is a video somewhere on you tube that covers that... If I remember correctly it is impossible to not distinguish.

[Duckdog]

It looks like it's in really good shape too!
Is it brass or cast iron?

[Woody]

The guy with the video I was talking about started selling an informational booklet...

http://howtodrillawell.com/contact_us.php#question15

How can I tell when I hit water?

It's difficult to say exactly; the best way is to ask your neighbors who have a well, if any, how deep their water level is, then pick a depth at least 20-30 feet below that as a target depth. Or if you want to be sure, go 40-50 feet deeper to be on the safe side. This point is also addressed in the plans in some detail, but generally, you may feel a change in the water temperature (suddenly colder) when you hit water, you may notice a difference in the sand that might indicate water (discussed in the plans), but the surest way is to let it set overnight. The vast majority of wells can't be finished in a day, so when you go back to the well after it setting overnight, you'll be able to either see the water standing in the hole, or drop a float to it. It will almost always be standing at the depth of your groundwater. That's the best way to tell. There are a few other more subtle indications, and the plans tell you about those.

In other words, you gotta pay for that info now.

[assateague]

That's just silly! Our old well was 12 feet deep, and our groundwater is less than 30 inches below the surface. I just want to make sure I get through the proper layers of clay to hit the "sweet" water sand, because when you go down the mandated depth here from the health department (I believe it is 50 feet, but may be 60), you get into the nasty, hard water that everyone has. Sucks. Before they mandated the deeper wells, everyone had pretty decent water.

From my understanding, what that guy said is silly. Going 20 feet deeper than what "the neighbors have" may very well take you through another layer of clay, and into shitty or poorly flowing water. Deeper isn't always better, at least not around here. It takes something like 30 days for water to seep through a foot of clay, so simply going deeper doesn't really mean shit. You want to hit that sweet spot between layers of clay. At least that's my understanding, from my very basic research.

[RonE]

First thing: Locate the septic tank and any old outhouse sites............

Don't put your well near there.

[Woody]

:lol:

That's just silly! Our old well was 12 feet deep, and our groundwater is less than 30 inches below the surface. I just want to make sure I get through the proper layers of clay to hit the "sweet" water sand, because when you go down the mandated depth here from the health department (I believe it is 50 feet, but may be 60), you get into the nasty, hard water that everyone has. Sucks. Before they mandated the deeper wells, everyone had pretty decent water.

From my understanding, what that guy said is silly. Going 20 feet deeper than what "the neighbors have" may very well take you through another layer of clay, and into shitty or poorly flowing water. Deeper isn't always better, at least not around here. It takes something like 30 days for water to seep through a foot of clay, so simply going deeper doesn't really mean shit. You want to hit that sweet spot between layers of clay. At least that's my understanding, from my very basic research.

You go until you hit the "sweet" sand (it is a different color and you should notice) then go between 10 and 50 feet past that and back fill around the pipe with stone or gravel. That way it is not flowing through the clay, but gravel and also makes a reservoir.

[RonE]

Search on YouTube: "DIY Well Drilling" There are many pages of videos, some long some short. Here is a pretty good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UD8_yzxgWA

[assateague]

I take no credit for any of this so far. Almost exclusively from YouTube


First step, digging as far as I can with a post hole digger. Was a muddy mess by the end, so hopefully that'll make it easier tomorrow.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162561.747297.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162578.435943.jpg

[assateague]

The business end done.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162609.469239.jpg

[assateague]

This end clamps onto the end of the piece you're drilling with, and the hose feeds into it. For the record, there is no damn easy way to reduce from 3" PVC to 3/4" hose thread. What a pain in the ass that was.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162729.391111.jpg

[assateague]

Casing sections with the drilling end and couplings glued on

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162819.125913.jpg

[assateague]

The handle. 2 hose clamps wrap around the pipe and through, and you just loosen and move it to where you need to hold it to rotate the pipe as it goes down.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162895.298198.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1408162923.342855.jpg

[assateague]

That's it for tonight. Drilling starts in the morning.

[jarbo03]

Curious to see how this goes. No way in hell I could do it here with the ground, but I like seeing cool shit happen.

[assateague]

The shitty part is that my pump parts won't be in until end of next week. I may just go buy a cheap pitcher pump to see if it works.

[3legged_lab]

Please tell me youtube told you to use a toilet flange to connect your pump head to your casing. Dont know why, but I find that funny.

[Duckdog]

You're not wasting any time!
This is gonna be cool to watch play out.