Portable water well rig

[Vmaxxer]

I need to drill a well, and am considering having a trailer mounted rig shipped up. With that said, I was wondering if I could drum up enough business to pay for it. Do most people even want a well at their cabins? Thinking I could keep the cost pretty reasonable. I welcome thoughts and inputs.

[NRick]

We'd love a well at our cabin. But being off the road and the only reasonable access being in the winter over the snow, I don't think a rig on a trailer is going to do it. There are already outfits that could get in and drill us a well, but for more $ than we are willing to shell out.

[AKBEE]

I want a well drilled next summer. My neighbor wants one too. We are accessible now by pickup truck but don't know about a trailer rig. Any idea what you are thinking about charging per foot in the Susitna area.?

[Vmaxxer]

Still to early to offer a firm price, still waiting for more info myself, however we figure there should be enough semi accessible folks like yourself to make the purchase feasible. Like you, I can drive to our cabin also, but taking a full drill rig in there is another story. More to follow as it developes

[Big Bend]

The guys at Penn Jersy drilling up close to Big lake have a rig that they take in by snowmachine in the winter .They have drilled quite a few well out on the Yentna River area.

[Rockdoc]

I used to have a drillers license in WA State. Does Alaska require a license to drill wells commercially? After all there are safety and health concerns associated with the process.

Steve

[Yukoner]

Buddy of mine picked up an attachment for drilling wells with a BobCat/small skid stear. You need an air compressor as well, but the little set up worked really well for him. He used to drill water wells commercially, so he did have prior experience.
as I recall , it was worlds cheaper than getting someone else to drill with a conventional set up.
I believe he rented the air compressor which was the biggest expense. Well was in bedrock which worked well, apparently this set up does less well out of bed rock.

[4merguide]

I need to drill a well, and am considering having a trailer mounted rig shipped up. With that said, I was wondering if I could drum up enough business to pay for it. Do most people even want a well at their cabins? Thinking I could keep the cost pretty reasonable. I welcome thoughts and inputs.

If it's the kind of portable rig that I've seen advertised they seem pretty small. If they work well (and that might be a big if) then off the top of my head I would think you would at least do enough wells to pay for the thing....

[Rock_skipper]

If it's the kind of portable rig that I've seen advertised they seem pretty small. If they work well (and that might be a big if) then off the top of my head I would think you would at least do enough wells to pay for the thing....

If there are enough wells that are within a 50' depth then these smaller rigs would not only make money, but give some people that are disabled a little bit of comfornt. I thought about this before, but it never got off the ground because of my neck problem, but if somebody looks into this, they could make money and get a good rep, ( or a Bad one trying to con people)

Do a little research and you could be in bussiness with under $25.000 and that would include the boat.

[Ak Steve]

I've looked online at some of these portable rigs. I think Deeprock is the company? The only part of that setup that's hard to do is the swivel, but you can buy them for a few hundred dollars on eBay. I don't know if their drillpipe is superior to water pipe, or if it has to be. That rig rotataes with a small gas motor, not a top drive. The bits don't have to be fancy, either. A coupling with some teeth cut in it. A trash pump is more than adequate for circulation. You could rotate with a gas powered post hole digger, or maybe even with one of those Milwaukee super hole hawg drills. Put it all on a simple rig to raise and lower it and you're ready to rock.
If you do buy one, rent it. The tax benefits make sense, and one rental a month will make the payments.

[Bcy42]

Yes! I would certainly be interested. Has anyone had much luck trying other methods? I've tried pounding a sand point attached to 1 1/2" steel pipe... not so much.

[HikerDan]

I used to have a drillers license in WA State. Does Alaska require a license to drill wells commercially? After all there are safety and health concerns associated with the process.

Steve

No license required, nor is one available. There may be a voluntary state well driller certification eventually.

[HikerDan]

Yes! I would certainly be interested. Has anyone had much luck trying other methods? I've tried pounding a sand point attached to 1 1/2" steel pipe... not so much.

I've had some luck pounding sand points. You definitely want to have Schedule 80 pipe, and you are way better off with a tripod and drop weight than swinging a 16 lb sledge. A sand point with Sch. 80 pipe and a drop weight will break most any rock you run into, except bedrock. The couplings are the weak points. If I were to do it again I would weld my casing instead of using threaded couplings.

Also, be careful about any of the light weight rotary rigs. They work great in sand/silt/clay and if you get the water jet option they can cut soft bedrock but gravel stops them cold. I am talking about the auger style rigs, the hollow stem rigs might work great.

[Alaskanmutt]

No license required, nor is one available. There may be a voluntary state well driller certification eventually.

Actually there is a license
PLUS you will need a business license on top of that,

[HikerDan]

Actually there is a license
PLUS you will need a business license on top of that,

Help me out. What is the well driller license requirement? I am very confident that there is no requirement for a license to drill water wells, and for private wells there isn't any required permitting. I could be wrong, but would be very surprised. You are right that a business license is required.