Best Fishing Tool to pull pipe from a well

[Craigpump]

What you’ve never heard of the “California Stovepipe” method of drilling? It’s described in “Griundwater & Wells”. I just looked in my current 3rd edition. It’s not there any more. It’s in the 2nd edition, along with the “mud scow” method.

I remember an article years ago in the Water Well Journal about scow drilling.

 

[LLigetfa]

I found the following article on stovepipe and mud scow.
http://uair.library.arizona.edu/system/files/usain/download/azu_e9791_1924_14_w.pdf

A neighbor a mile down the road has a home-made drill rig with a mud scow. It bores a fairly large diameter hole. They used to use road culvert for casing. My closest neighbor has a well dug that way. The culvert eventually rusted through and so he replaced it with scrap stainless steel pipe he salvaged from the local paper mill.

 

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[Leaky Boot]

I'm a newbie here. I trolled the site after a broken drop pipe became a reality and I needed some fishing tool ideas. I recently got a lesson in fishing and the effects of frugality pertaining to this particular situation. We have 6 wells on our property ranging from 150'-480'. In early February, one of them had a problem. This particular well was in service when we bought an adjoining parcel to the land we had owned since 1964. We had no experience with or knowledge of the well. Anyhow, I went to pull the pump and the galvanized pipe at the surface broke at the coupler due to corrosion. Of course, this is our only well that didn't have a rope or cable attached to the pump. So, y'all know what happened next. I spent a considerable amount of time fabbing fishing tools and had zero success. I finally got fed up and bought a Fetch. After 45 minutes of fishing, the Fetch ended up snagging the pump wire and I was able to retrieve 120' of pipe and a Franklin 1.5hp motor and 15 stage jacuzzi pump. The drop pipe was schedule 80 pvc except for the top 6" where the galvanized started. What I'm getting at is, I recommend the Fetch and actually have a slightly used one up for sale!

The sticker the Jacuzzi pump is dated 12 April 1995! That's pretty good life in a silty well.

Jim

Still have your Fetch for sale?

 

[Rick Bullard]

What would be the tool of choice for catching a 1 inch Sch 80 PVC with no coupler, just a slick pipe? Had one last week where in this case the well house had burned and the PVC got hot and pulled out of the top T, falling down the hole. I was not set up to do the job so let a well service with a camera take over. I need to stock up on fishing equipment. LB

 

[Rick Bullard]

Get a coil spring from an automotive salvage yard & weld it to a length of pipe , heat & unwind it to a diameter that will just fit into casing ( tapering to the work pipe),twist it as you lower it . It will catch anything you can twist into it, wire, rope, drop pipe, whatever.