Drilling Technology

[Klause]

At $80/m (plus the cost of the 8” pipe?) how could that ever be affordable for a farmer to do though, cheaper to just live with the wet hole and work around it, no?

Well, often times don't have to pay for the HDPE since it comes with. Just pay for the 4" or 6" drain tile.

DR17 8" is about $25 a meter if you bought it. If you did 2 or 5 bores you'd just re-use it... In this case you could get away with DR26 or DR 32.5 which is quite a bit cheaper.

Get a drill crew with a guy with a fusing ticket, and they can assemble it all for you too.


We did some 10" work were we drilled and supplied pipe for $100 all in for the government.

[Klause]

So if you have 80 acres of water when you traditionally had 40, and your corrals and yard are flooding, is it cheaper to relocate on high ground, pump which could cost $100000 which isn’t a permanent solution, dig a deep ditch, or bore?

Drill through the hill and plow anything less than 2m.

[Klause]

I am assuming that the drill is only to get through the high ground to avoid a deep cut through the hill that is blocking the water. Draining within the wet area to get the water to the pipe entrance would be by landscaping, or just plowed in drain tile, or likely just a sump of drain tile to collect the water at the lowest point, then plow it until the ground cover gets too deep, bore from there.

Asking for a friend, could you do this at night, and drain you water under your neighbors property?
Kidding of course, don't have any issues with neighbors here, but I can imagine situations where it could happen.

I have a lot of respect for the operators, and the technology behind this. I can't even keep a drill bit lined up inside a broken off bolt 1/2" long, or drill from both sides of a wooden beam and hit the opposite hole when the bit isn't long enough.

We have different ways of steering... Walkover with an F5 falcon and manually calculating the pitch to maintain depth is common in smaller stuff. On big things we have access to high precision gyros.

The Brownline system (pics below)is accurate to +/- 0.01 degrees pitch (up/down) and 0.03 degrees Azymuth (right/left) and updates in real time.

The atomic gyro in this steering tool is so precise, the US military keeps track of them.






There's something about walking 600m away from the drill, putting a red paint dot on the ground, then punching through the ground with the drill head on that exact dot.

[Misterjade9]

20 years ago after we had sent all our truck divers home for the spring, I ended up having to haul water to a bore for a couple days. I found the job and technology fascinating then and can only imagine how much it has improved with new technology.

[poorboy]

Well, often times don't have to pay for the HDPE since it comes with. Just pay for the 4" or 6" drain tile.

DR17 8" is about $25 a meter if you bought it. If you did 2 or 5 bores you'd just re-use it... In this case you could get away with DR26 or DR 32.5 which is quite a bit cheaper.

Get a drill crew with a guy with a fusing ticket, and they can assemble it all for you too.


We did some 10" work were we drilled and supplied pipe for $100 all in for the government.

So the boring crew brings their HDPE pipe to site and fuses it, then pulls it out when done and chops it up and takes it away with them?

Can drain tile be fused to the HDPE pipe? It can probably be used as the drain pipe if the 2 can be attached somehow. As long as the drain tile can be hooked on each end, should the boring unit be used on the hill part and a plow or hoe used for the shallow section.

[Rareearth]

The max depth a surface drainage plow (big tractor or Cat) can put tile down is about 7 feet deep. You need a minimum of 2 feet of soil above the tile.
7 - 2 = 5 foot hill is the max depth a surface installation can go

I like the idea of subsurface drilling, otherwise it takes a lot of time, money, etc to install lift stations

[bucket]

The max depth a surface drainage plow (big tractor or Cat) can put tile down is about 7 feet deep. You need a minimum of 2 feet of soil above the tile.
7 - 2 = 5 foot hill is the max depth a surface installation can go

I like the idea of subsurface drilling, otherwise it takes a lot of time, money, etc to install lift stations

Maybe you have never seen a trackhoe work for days building a canal so the trencher can do as you describe.

[Rareearth]

Buy a track hoe vs buy a drill?

Sell them when your done.

[Klause]

Buy a track hoe vs buy a drill?

Sell them when your done.

Anyone can run a hoe.


Drill, not so much.

[Tucker]

Not everyone can run a hoe properly. Don't underestimate the farmers on here. I'm sure there are many who could run a drill.