I managed to get my hands on fairly small hydraulic drilling machine, and decided to drill my shallow well. I'm down about 13 feet (the same depth I ran into trouble with my sand point attempt) and seem to once again be runnning into trouble. The drill is chattering up and down and not making much progress. There is a fairly constant stream of small river rock (1/4" - 1/2" diameter) that is being lifted out of the hole by the bentonite mixture. I'm continuing to get this river rock evne though I'm not making any progress in depth.
I'm going to talk to the company that supplied the machine on tuesday. They have a heavy duty tri-cone bit that I can get; I'm thinking maybe this will cut through whatever is causing the trouble.
Any hint/tips in the meantime? I'm surprised that river rock is continuing to come out of the hole even though I'm not getting depth. It must be either enlarging the hole or creating a pocket down there. The overall feeling in the way the machine is chattering is almost like there are some large rocks that are getting churned up, yet fail to lift and fall back down to the bottom. Is my bentonite not thick enough? it's the consistency of a milkshake / thin pancake batter.
I'm going to talk to the company that supplied the machine on tuesday. They have a heavy duty tri-cone bit that I can get; I'm thinking maybe this will cut through whatever is causing the trouble.
Any hint/tips in the meantime? I'm surprised that river rock is continuing to come out of the hole even though I'm not getting depth. It must be either enlarging the hole or creating a pocket down there. The overall feeling in the way the machine is chattering is almost like there are some large rocks that are getting churned up, yet fail to lift and fall back down to the bottom. Is my bentonite not thick enough? it's the consistency of a milkshake / thin pancake batter.