Drilling a DIY Well Using Air

This is a demonstration of airlift well drilling, a DIY method to create your own borehole. Airlift drilling is special compared to other methods because it uses an air pump (in this case a pump from an old air conditioner) to move dirt from the bottom of the well to the surface.
If you have questions you can post them below or contact us via our website: www.wot.utwente.nl/en/about-t...

[@armagedon3on3]

He returned when we needed him the most!

[@fade987]

Just finished drilling my well using this method, hit compressed gravel/sand layer at 5.5 meters, after 2 hours i progressed maybe 20cm, my drilling bit was all dulled from scraping, so decided to finish it there, even though i've had 10m of pipes prepared. Doubt it will have water, but it was a fun thing to try. I've used even smaller compressor, around 150W, from a broken up air dehumidifier (theirs should be 400W). Size of pipe was 3/4 (same they use in the video) For drilling fluid i used Xanthan gum instead, you really don't need much, it's readily available, and not expensive. One big thing not mentioned in the videos (but it is shown), you need to top up the bore hole, meaning, fill it up all the way with water. First time i tried, i've only filled up 1/3, and it would not work, after contacting WOT, they confirmed you need to top up the bore hole. I thought doing this would dilute the drilling fluid too much, and it would not work, but worked out fine, the thing spat out big pieces of rock and sand easily. After everything was setup properly, it was rather fast to drill, shame a hit a very hard layer so i had to quit.

[@erikarts6039]

Such an interesting technique, would love to see more of this content

[@marcosscheneider2586]

Amazing that you guys are still posting these nice videos. Thank you!

[@Mothernatura]

Excellent technique. I have a 75m deep well drilled on rock, most of it got full of sand because the contractor didn't sealed with bentonite the upper part. No one wants to clean it. I'll give this method a try, it may solve my problem temporarily.

[@AJTarnas]

amazing. an EMAS drill stem but with air instead of water. very cool. transparent pipe demonstration with sand and marbles is great. hard to believe it works without seeing it.

[@yeetyeet7070]

love what you do

[@AdamBechtol]

Nice setup. Good job. And so cool to use the upward force of air and suction to get the sand up like that.

[@jankemaat]

Amazing video! Love the marble demo 😁

[@Tarbard]

Great video, thanks for sharing.

[@Soup_cant_play]

Well done!

[@pressurechangerecord]

Wonderful to see.

[@goldenratiorob4907]

What a great design I used to use the same air pump process to clean out my Aquarium

[@noahautumn7611]

Nice idea 💡

[@cerial0411]

My well is at 10 meters. When it needs to be replaced I will use this methoud. Only thing I would add is maybe a tower with a electric motor on the top could turn then lift the pipe via a cam before a spring pulls it back to 0. Gravity would lower the pipe but you would need a exposed 1 meter section for the cam to hit. The 1 meter section would drop down through the tower until it was no longer hitting the pulley. You then get up from your chair and add a new 1 meter section, check the temps and let the thing dig another meter while you relax.

[@cambodianexpress8557]

Thanks for all the effort you put into this video. Your instruction and demonstrations were fantastic. I'm going to go a little deeper with my old well to improve its recharge rate and this is perfect as I have a large air compressor and enough hose to reach it. Since there's water already in it, I'll just use a catchment without needing a return. I'm assuming this is what you do when you finally enter a water bearing layer anyway. Again, thanks.

[@danielson101]

Nice!

[@andreyl4277]

Молодець . Дякую за ідею.

[@AdityaMehendale]

Have you experience with drilling with a "regular" vacuum-cleaner? I tried this with a regular "bouwstofzuiger" attached to a 20mm ID steel pipe - managed to go to 2m deep, could have likely gone further, but my tube-length ran out. The moving pipe makes a larger hole (say 50mm diameter) such that fresh air enters around the pipe, downwards, and then gets sucked back up into the pipe. Not as elegant for deep holes as the water, granted, but for small holes, works surprisingly well. Try it with a 19mm PVC "elektrabuis' to get an idea :)

[@kbsmd0]

아주 좋습니다.

[@phorgery]

Can you guys make a video on your drilling tools? Like the connectors between the pipes and that stand on the ground.

[@MinSziHo]

You can put compressor in the shade to protect it from infrared sun radiation and cool it by the small electrical air fan (at the same time). Without any risks. Or/additionally put compressor into the typical commercial plastic bag to isolate it form water. However, I'm afraid that cooling compressors are designed for the continuous operation (S1 class engines) although, in practise, they work in 50/50 cycles - like in typical fridges. Without any cooling system (not to confuse with cooling of refrigerant in condenser) 🙂

[@shamanking5195]

Hello what is the maximum depth you can drill using this system ??? great video. Thanks.

[@rafaelperez-ep7wi]

Solo una idea, puedes hacer un caballete con poleas para subir el drill y dejarlo caer con fuerza?. Necesitarias una cabeza de drill, una seccion de tuberia unida a mangueras y mucha cuerda.

[@99robycool]

I have a interesting question,could you use this type of drilling combined with the cord drill?

[@dasfahrer8187]

Wonder how well that would work in heavy clay and rock?

[@user-fp4pb6wt3b]

🤩

[@suryanova]

mantap bagus

[@DuniaKucingIndonesia]

I want to try using pcc pipe

[@christophersherratt7299]

I think the one you did with the drill looked a lot easier to do than this one who doesn't have a drill today THE BARASOL IS THAT LIKE WALL PAPER PASTE OR PVA GLUE AND WOULD ONE OF THEM DO THE SAME THING MAKING THE WATER THICKER ??

[@davidfps18]

How do you analyse the soil to know you wont hit a big rock?

[@sujoms]

Any idea on how I could drill a geothermal well? I live in Hungary. Thank you.

[@Kveets]

To make it easier to lift long metal pipe you can attach enclosed pipe with air to it.

[@Kveets]

Or may be just use thicker pipe to pump air

[@andrewallason4530]

Have a valve on the outlet near the handles. Just close the valve and air will build up in the pipe, lifting it up.

[@alirezayeganeh3341]

Hello. How I can make the cross section of the water pipe and the rotating part attached to the drill

[@kasparsburbeckis6241]

How well it goes through clay?

[@mphutlanentsane7298]

At what point do you attach the air pipe? At the bottom of the drilling pipe?

[@nl3kevin]

May I ask if this is filmed at universiteit van twente

[@dedecus7111]

I tried drilling with this method but had no success 😢. My setup is 1inch pipes with the air inlet at the drill head about 35cm from the bottom. My issue that I'm having is that instead of the air pumping out it seems to be venting from below and having the water bubble around my drill but. I'm using a shop compressor and inputting the air with a airblow gun attachment. My drilling fluid is using bentonite. Any advice would be appreciated

[@kakodane7126]

air inlet should be 2-3 cm from the bottom of uplifting 1" pipe

[@galoshel]

Up to which depth we can do this, maybe someone did this... I am more interested to take out the sand...

[@wechselrichterschaltungen]

funktioniert aber auch nur bei sandigen böden.......was ist wenn ein stein/ fels unter dem bohrer liegt?

[@Impermeabilizacionesinc]

Just put air and water true pipe and come out the sides

[@samkom33]

😏? that is how we do it in the north sea, drillin say 3000 meter down and 10.000 meter horisontal following the oil sand layers! sending all the drilling fluid, (drill mud) with no air in it through the drill string and pushing it up on the outside, back to the drill rigs mud settling pond. most people dont realise it, but to drill such a deep-long hole, there is a lot of different drill diameters and CASINGS involved. We usually start with a 36 inch drill down from the rig, through say 300 meter ocean through bottom sand and 100 meter further through BEDROCK, Just using sea water as cooling and washing out hte sand-stone from the hole Then we pull out the drill and lover a big steel pipe around 35 inch outside diameter and say 25 inch inside diameter in to the hole, All the way from the rig and down to the bottom of the hole. Then we pump down concrete gluing the casing to the bedrock After that we continue drilling with say a 25 inch drill using DRILL MUD that we are able to recycle becouse its trapd inside the casing. That diameter is kept and we drill to say 1200 meter where we hit say a layer of water, which is a little problem becouse of we loose some mud. So we drill maybe 5 meter more and put in another casing,, again concreting the smaller casing all the way up to the rig. at say 3000 meter we usually are down to say 8, sometimes 4 inches having gone through several water-oil-gas layers we dont want to produce from, Reason for all the casing layers beeing glued all the way up, is that IF and WHEN you hit oil and gas at say 3000 meter its under PRESSURE Becouse of the weight of the rock-water over it. So withouth the SOLID CASINGS ALL THE WAY UP TO THE SAFETY VALVES YOU WOULD GET AN UNCONTROLLABLE BLOWOUT! 😎 Here is an example drawing::: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Production_Liner.jpg/220px-Production_Liner.jpg Point is that without the casings the mud wouldnt be able to bring up the stone and sand all the way and the drill would get STUCK!

[@ahimahi4934]

Hoi! Bedank hoor. Waar kan ik barasol vinden? Mvg

[@cdub10090]

Would this method work on an existing well that has sediment build up?

[@kakodane7126]

yes

[@kakodane7126]

but you can use Alcatan/plastic flexible ridged pipe/hose for underground water; make air insertion 25 mm from the bottom. Start compressor, slowly approach sediment layer and gently push up and down. Dont push into the sediment, will plug the hose

[@na2ngofficial990]

How long?

[@shubhammajumdar8762]

Sir u can able to give me any drill machine,i will be so thankful for your kindness 😢 Please 🙏

[@lynnwilliam]

Can you do a video on fracking? Or is this mini fracking? Love your videos

[@mytube7473]

Can you combine this with your drill design?

[@jeanmariemasumbuko6639]

Hi brother how can I contact you for some income generating project