We need to know that you do have a failure at times that are not your fault. It is just that you never know what is hidden deep in the earth. Better luck on the next hole.
Also gotta remember that to him filming is secondary. Making sure the job goes right will always be his priority so he won’t always be able to film everything
I commend you for posting your failures. Sometimes we do our best and fail and that’s ok! That’s how we learn, that’s how we grow, and that’s how we gain experience. I watch your videos to learn, and I can learn just as much from failure as from success - so I say post’m all if you’ve got it in you. 🤓
All kinds of people were thinking, "Heck, well drilling is easy, I should buy a rig and rake in the cash". They just got to see what it is really like sometimes. We don't learn as much from success as we do from failures, it is just the way it is.
We had a drill rig for our geotechnical drilling. i tried to talk the bosses out of it, between break downs, regular maintenance, and being a trucking company, the are a huge headache. Been in this place with deep core holes. long days and lots of swearing.
When I subscribed to H2O Mechanic it had under 50k subscribers. I have watched every single video and so far this ones the best! Some day I would love to see a video where you give a tutorial on how you use all of the levers & gauges while drilling!!! Thank you so much for your efforts in putting out one of the best RUclips channels!
Phillip, show us the bad also. I learned a bunch from this one. The easy ones don't teach as much. Black granite is that way for a reason. It has to be bad when your costly equipment is just a few feet away and you can't get it up. Have been on site when a cable rig was trying to retrieve a drill string. Also, I tried to get a good pump out of a hole. Never did get it. As for the haters, if they know so much better, go out with your rig and SHOW us how to do it. Talk's cheap. Especially when you don't own a nut or bolt in it.
One of your best videos! I was an announcer for a demolition derby and quickly learned that people come to see the bad things. When things blow up, drivers are taken away in ambulances and fist fights break out I have people telling me that it is the "best damn derby they have ever seen". It seems so wrong but it is human nature.
I concur with the other commenters - you should absolutely film the "bad" ones. It's doing your industry a great service, educating your customers and others in the field with regards to what can go wrong and why it can cost so much. Let's face it: most people just assume that they can buy a piece of property anywhere and wham/bam pop a hole in the ground and out comes their water supply. Your other recent video about the builder who got ahead of himself and put an entire house on a lot without there being any guaranteed water available was a very good example of this. This is why it's so important to show what you would call failures - it's reality, it's life, it's not knowing what's down there and that's how it is. When customers get angry and think that you are a magician and can make water appear anywhere, that's not doing anyone any favors. These types of videos are very valuable to show what can happen and why it's going to cost them more money to try again in a different spot. I appreciate so much, and subscribe to and watch channels that show REAL people dealing with real-life situations, and being 100% honest about it, good/bad/ugly and all. That's why I watch your channel, several about tree services, a bunch of farming channels, and one from Australia about drain cleaning. It's not so much the work that is being done, which is fascinating in it's own right, it's all about being able to step into someone else's shows and see how life is like for them and how they deal with it. So just from me, thank you for posting this one, and please do a follow-up video for this job!
I've been drilling for 44 years now. Watching you operate can humble a man. Been there done that. I've used underreamer bits for steel casing to follow hammer down hole. It works if you can make cuttings come up thru casing. That's another story. Good luck
I m a house mechanic for 39 years .Is it strange that we do and see all these aspects of home construction all day and can't help but watch videos of the same things on the down time.
Film them all.. The good, the bad and the ugly. That is life. I found it interesting. Comments be dammed, It amazes me the level of your knowledge and competence. I'm 62 and was a professional in my field and it is a special thing to see a craftsman at work. sure lots of tradesmen but a craftsman is rare. You may not see it but you are a rockstar in your field. (Pardon the punn). Ps with out the bad days how would you recognize the good day?
I work at a local health department that regulates water wells - Your videos are extremely helpful and insightful on what well drillers go through. To be honest, it is more helpful to me to see how/when things go wrong than when everything goes right. Keep them coming and don't be afraid to share your mishaps and struggles. You do great work in your community, that much is for sure.
I'm in Yakima Washington. I had a replacement well punched a year ago. They went down 312 feet and got me into a real nice water source. The driller said if I had the pump, it would do 100 gallons a minute. They installed a 25 gallon per minute pump and it works well for the house and watering my property (four acres). One acre is lawn and some fruit trees. Fortunately I didn't have to pull a building permit. That would have triggered a meter that monitored my water use by satellite. I have first water rights from 1855, but I'd still have to pay for water usage and pay a penalty it I exceeded my allotted water right. Because of demand, some water districts won't allow a new well for new construction. The general public doesn't know about water well usage compared to public water supplies. Thank you for taking the time to inform the public about what well drilling is about. There are 5,000 wells in Yakima County.
I know absolutely nothing about your line of work and I do appreciate the talk throughs of how you're doing a task and why you're doing it. I find it very interesting. I'm sorry that this did not go well. I feel bad for all people on both sides of the contract. Your demeanor is pretty calm. I think I would be out of my mind with frustration and aggravation but that's because I let things get to me. You are the "right stuff" for this vocation. I am sorry this bad day .
Phillip, This video is worth it! We get to see the real you and in a real situation. Like others said, people can say what they want but they are not there and it's not their rig. I can say I learned almost all of the real lessons of my life from the bad stuff. I can tell you down to the detail about those days but I can probably only recall a few of the very good days and their details. Good and bad show the real man! You sir are a real man with a great temperament. The world needs more like you.
These bad holes just prove that we all have problems. If we only see the perfect holes, we start to think you a only do the easy stuff. Seeing the ones that go bad, and go bad hard prove that we all have those bad times. Keep showing the good and the bad.
You win some, you lose some. Nobody enjoys failing but I have to say I have learned more from my failures than I have from my successes. Everything I know about drilling wells I've learned from watching this channel, it's fascinating just how much goes into something as seemingly mundane as a water well.
I personally think this was one of your best videos so far. I love all your content. But it’s also good to see the real life struggles of what can happen when drilling. I’m sorry this one kicked your ass. But we know you’ll conquer it in the end. You’re to good at what you do to give up. Great job! This video truly shows your knowledge of how to drill and how to keep your cool and do what has to be done. Even though the well didn’t get complete, you still succeeded because in the end you still have your drill. Well done sir!
Recently found your channel. I've lived in places that have always had a well, some good, some bad. I admire well service people. The guys I've used for the last 35 years actually let's me roll up my sleeves and help. I've learned a lot. The biggest lesson was it takes a special person to do well work... and I'm not that person. Please show us the bad along with the good.
Being able to visualize what’s happening down the hole and apply the correct solution is what this business is all about. This was an excellent video, thank you for sharing it.
Brother, some days just go like that. I'm amazed at just how calm and collected you were after. I know it was tought to post this one, but now we all are waiting to see how you overcome this. Those of us who have watched you for any amount of time know, if anyone can beat this beast, it's you and your dad. Keep up the great work!
I was on an oil drilling rig once where they were drilling surface hole through the conductor barrel. At about 35 feet everything came to a grinding halt. They could not go up or down. The engineer from the oil company decided to flow as much water down as they could to see if they could blow whatever was holding the string in place out of the way so they could pull out of the hole. Material did start to come up but it was not cuttings as expected. Instead it was river gravel from about 1/2" to 2 1/2" in size. There was so much of it coming up that I had to weld a coupling at an angle to the flow nipple to jet the material out and on to the shale shaker. It took about four hours before they could slowly start to pull out of the hole jetting the material the whole time. By the time they got out of the hole there was enough gravel to fill 2 to 3 dump trucks up. The engineer determined what had happened was they hit and old stream bed and as they drilled it was like a cavern and the loose rock just kept collapsing in on the string behind the bit until the bit was trapped under the load of the rock. The next day a well head cementer came in and cemented the hole off back to the surface and they drilled out once again. As soon as they drilled through the cement the same thing happened again about 10 feet below the cement and the whole process was repeated again. They drilled out a third time only for it to happen once more and they repeated the process one more time before they drilled successfully from that point onwards. The expense of this little exercise was hundreds of thousands of dollars. In conversation with the engineer he was not too happy about the whole affair. It seems the seismic reports that had been done did not show any sort of problem and definitely no voids like an underground stream bed. According to his calculations that old stream bed had to have been 35 to 40 feet deep in loose river gravel. When I asked about the cost he told me that they were not worrying about it since they had already contacted the seismic outfit and told them they were picking up the bill. It had already been determined that the seismic company had pulled a fast one and ran their string on a cut line about 500 feet from where they were supposed to be. To save money and cut costs the seismic outfit had used the existing seismic bores that had been done by another company and those were the reports they had submitted. The seismic companies contract was cancelled and all of their reports were now suspect. They went out of business a year or so later. The oil business is a small community and when word spread about what they had pulled their contracts were cancelled and they were taken off the bid list by virtually all of the oil companies so they could not get any further work from anyone. That's what happens to those who try to cheat their customers in the oil world.
Awe man. It's frustrating when things don't work out and you're a bigger man for sharing this versus not making a video. No criticism here. Hopefully the all-metal casing is what will allow you to complete this well.
When all is said and done, all you can do is your best. It was more interesting to see how you handled adversity than watching any number of straight forward jobs.
Definitely good to see the dramas as well as the triumphs, people who don't have an occasional bad day don't learn new things. I dont like drama either to be honest but I do like learning new things Thanksyou for sharing.
Always good to see the bad ones so people can see what kind of issues a person can run into. Might also end up educational for a newer driller, or somebody that has had the same issue might have found some trick or other that could work. I hope the next hole works much better for you.
I enjoyed this video. You showed what can happen and the challenges you face. Things happen that you don't forsee and that is all part of the life of a great well driller. I hope you will video Part 2, because I would like to see how this well turns out. Keep up the great work!!!
We need to see the good and the bad. You have viewers that are looking at having a well drilled. My well went good. But my neighbors well was a problem. First hole had problems and they lost the drill. Second time went OK. We need to see it all. Thanks for a great channel.
We hope you don't get any negative comments. So sorry you had a bad couple of days. We don't know anybody who puts as much into their job as you do. Keep showing up so good and bad. That is if your camera doesn't waylay you! There are no videos that we watch that we will respect more than you. Keep up the good work! Tom and Peggy.
Thanks for the video and for keeping things real and transparent. Things don't always go the way intended so don't get discouraged. You have way more successes than failures.
Never was much for anyone watch someone else work , but hell. A beer or two and a lawn chair after a hard day myself, the you book tube for a few minutes was a calling made just because the phone was in arms reach . Good luck man.
Well...... all things considered that hole kicked you in the pills. That truly sucks but, I want to say thanks for allowing us to see the other side of the coin when things go wrong. It was a learning experience for me as I have never seen a well go bad like that only heard horror stories. Most of the wells up here are sulphur bearing wells and the guys seem to concentrate on that. This was a a scene showing what can physically go wrong. Cheers....and Thanks.
Please film more of these! We don't get tired of having a chance to tell you what you already know about how it could have been done differently.... Ok, we can go east on that part of we get more of these...
A great video. Drilling has to be a challenge, it's not like you can see what's goin on. I live in Decatur, IL. There is a lake here that is Decatur's water supply. They needed to replace an old iron sewage pipe that runs under the lake. They hired a horizontal drilling co. to install a 12" plastic line. They've the biggest horizontal drill I've ever seen. The line is a couple of thou feet. They have had some kind of problem and the completion has been stretched to Nov 27 which is a month longer. Quite the show.
Keep it real. It's good to see some of the hardships you have to go through and drilling a well. Can't show the easy stuff all the time. Then people get the wrong idea it is always easy. Hoping for a part 2.
I don't like drama either I do like to see how people handle adversity. You didn't just give up,you didn't start throwing things you tried different solutions. I imagine you get that from how you were raised
It’s not always easy, just like life! Love seeing the trouble videos too. If anyone has watched your videos they know you do your best. It’s always easy to sit here and watch and say oh do this or that but it’s easy to not think about in the moment. We’ve all had ideas to fix problems come to us later
Philip, I think you've got an ancient alien space ship down there, like on Skinwalker Ranch, that won't let you drill it. It's time to use Dynomite! Philip, you have one of the most interesting channels on RUclips! Good job.
@transmitterguy478 I swear that's what there drilling in the Maisa! Actually I believe it's a meteorite of some unknown material. Love that show! & oak island
It's not a failure until you give up. You can move the rig a few feet and try again. I 100% agree metal is the way to go with rock. PVC may be fine for sand but would never survive what you're going through. Drilling is a lot more than spinning a hole in the ground. It takes the right equipment and a skilled operator. Looks like you have both. Good luck on the next one
I like the occasional bad to go along with the good...with that being said, you win some you lose some and with drilling through what you can't see it's a wonder technology ever caught up to where it is now...your the professional you keep doing what works best for you
This is what separates the Pros from the others. You keep at it until you finish. If it was easy anyone could do it . Appreciate your honesty and integrity.
This was a great video, I agree with other comments it looks easy money because of your expertise, but this shows the other side to your job. Thanks for posting.
Wow! that was intense; we all have bad days sometimes but I would hate to have a day like you had there. I never realized that black granite could case such problems. I sure hope it goes better next time and it is good that you shared this with us so we can see that it is not always so smooth.
Keep your head up! It happens! A good friend of mine stuck 145 feet of pipe in a strange hole in northern Michigan. He's a professional! We didn't have a contract, he moved over 50' and pounded a new well in. I paid the man and we moved on. Shit happens! Stay awesome! I enjoyed this documentary:)
Thanks to the RUclips algorithm for sending me to your channel. I am hooked. I have never seen anything like this as I am in the UK and find it fastenating. I love your work ethic and how you speak and treat your fellow workmates and employees, that in itself speaks volumes. Can I ask if an operation goes wrong as in this case and you loose some equipment/pipe down the drill hole, who pays? Do you bill the customer or do you ‘take it on the chin’ and chalk it up to experience? I am guessing that no part of your operation is cheap! I am currently working my way through your back catalogue. Thanks.
I agree with all of the comments below. Phil we all have though ones and there is no shame in that. The shame is when you give up. Ya some people will put you through the wringer with all the should of done this or that but they have the benefit of hind sight. Bottom line is no one can know what they are going to be drilling into down there. The fact is, in my option, this the best video you have made so far. Seeing you drill one uneventful well over and over again is boring! The difficult ones are were we learn something. Please keep ones like this coming. Don't be discouraged or embarrassed, you are a well seasoned professional, remember we all can see that from your many other videos, and even the best of professional's have bad ones. I am defiantly giving this one a thumbs up. Best wishes.
tnx fore sharing this part off the job...and sorry that i dident work out , it will be better with the next hole and this show that life is not always "sunshine" but struggels too.
like a couple of other comments, big pat on the back for recording this!! This work isn't always easy!! I just sat here watching and was shaking my head at. what you and Mike were going thru. Thanks for posting!! Keep up the good work!! Stay safe!!
Love the video. It’s crazy to see how much damage some rock can do. I know yall gave it everything you had but we all know we can’t win them all. Like you said, move a few feet and I’m sure you’ll get it! Don’t listen to the haters either. They probably don’t even run a rig lol
New subscriber on vacation here, Keep filming it makes the prospective customer understand why well drilling is so expensive. Will be watching for part 2 :)
You don't use drive shoes every well? I was a driller for 8 years in western washington and have drilled hundreds of wells in every geological form imaginable My helpers first job was to weld on the drive shoe while I drilled the surface seal. This is the first water well drilling video I've came across. It's nice to see someone making content. Keep roughing
On a previous video some customers were dropping rocks down the hole to see how deep it was. And the rocks caused malfunctions. Tell them in the future they should drop ice cubes. Makes the same plop sound and after an hour they turn into water.
You may not like filming these brother but it educates us as to what can happen on a drill site. We compare our drillers to your experiences good and bad.
Very informative video, I worked on an air rotary like yours. We hit a void at 130 ft. and it was an angled formation. Our driller could tell by the rotation bumps. The void was almost a foot of opening, he rotated with very little pressure and finally got a hole on the bottom slab. Only to hit another one that was flat and blew the retainer off the hammer bit. We kept drilling to around 225 feet and hit lots of good water, left the bit down the hole.
Don't just show us the easy stuff, people need to know the challenges of drilling a well. This was a great video!
We need to know that you do have a failure at times that are not your fault. It is just that you never know what is hidden deep in the earth.
Better luck on the next hole.
I totally agree! We always pray for everything to go smooth but that doesn’t always happen.
Also gotta remember that to him filming is secondary. Making sure the job goes right will always be his priority so he won’t always be able to film everything
Agree. People need to know it's not all fun and games. Sometimes things go south in a big way and everyone needs to know it happens occasionally.
Yes any injuries too!
I commend you for posting your failures. Sometimes we do our best and fail and that’s ok! That’s how we learn, that’s how we grow, and that’s how we gain experience. I watch your videos to learn, and I can learn just as much from failure as from success - so I say post’m all if you’ve got it in you. 🤓
All kinds of people were thinking, "Heck, well drilling is easy, I should buy a rig and rake in the cash". They just got to see what it is really like sometimes. We don't learn as much from success as we do from failures, it is just the way it is.
We had a drill rig for our geotechnical drilling. i tried to talk the bosses out of it, between break downs, regular maintenance, and being a trucking company, the are a huge headache. Been in this place with deep core holes. long days and lots of swearing.
This video shows your honesty and integrity , hopefully the ‘clever’ viewers will hold their tongue and appreciate the truth! Bravo young man!
Part 2 hope you film it
I'll try
Thanks for bringing us along for this one. Some days you're the windshield and some days your the bug. Today, you were the bug.
When I subscribed to H2O Mechanic it had under 50k subscribers. I have watched every single video and so far this ones the best! Some day I would love to see a video where you give a tutorial on how you use all of the levers & gauges while drilling!!! Thank you so much for your efforts in putting out one of the best RUclips channels!
Phillip, show us the bad also. I learned a bunch from this one. The easy ones don't teach as much. Black granite is that way for a reason. It has to be bad when your costly equipment is just a few feet away and you can't get it up. Have been on site when a cable rig was trying to retrieve a drill string. Also, I tried to get a good pump out of a hole. Never did get it. As for the haters, if they know so much better, go out with your rig and SHOW us how to do it. Talk's cheap. Especially when you don't own a nut or bolt in it.
One of your best videos! I was an announcer for a demolition derby and quickly learned that people come to see the bad things. When things blow up, drivers are taken away in ambulances and fist fights break out I have people telling me that it is the "best damn derby they have ever seen". It seems so wrong but it is human nature.
I concur with the other commenters - you should absolutely film the "bad" ones. It's doing your industry a great service, educating your customers and others in the field with regards to what can go wrong and why it can cost so much. Let's face it: most people just assume that they can buy a piece of property anywhere and wham/bam pop a hole in the ground and out comes their water supply.
Your other recent video about the builder who got ahead of himself and put an entire house on a lot without there being any guaranteed water available was a very good example of this. This is why it's so important to show what you would call failures - it's reality, it's life, it's not knowing what's down there and that's how it is. When customers get angry and think that you are a magician and can make water appear anywhere, that's not doing anyone any favors. These types of videos are very valuable to show what can happen and why it's going to cost them more money to try again in a different spot.
I appreciate so much, and subscribe to and watch channels that show REAL people dealing with real-life situations, and being 100% honest about it, good/bad/ugly and all. That's why I watch your channel, several about tree services, a bunch of farming channels, and one from Australia about drain cleaning. It's not so much the work that is being done, which is fascinating in it's own right, it's all about being able to step into someone else's shows and see how life is like for them and how they deal with it. So just from me, thank you for posting this one, and please do a follow-up video for this job!
the hard ones teach the most. its awsome to see the issues related to drilling hard wells
I've been drilling for 44 years now. Watching you operate can humble a man. Been there done that. I've used underreamer bits for steel casing to follow hammer down hole. It works if you can make cuttings come up thru casing. That's another story. Good luck
I m a house mechanic for 39 years .Is it strange that we do and see all these aspects of home construction all day and can't help but watch videos of the same things on the down time.
Film them all.. The good, the bad and the ugly. That is life. I found it interesting. Comments be dammed, It amazes me the level of your knowledge and competence. I'm 62 and was a professional in my field and it is a special thing to see a craftsman at work. sure lots of tradesmen but a craftsman is rare. You may not see it but you are a rockstar in your field. (Pardon the punn). Ps with out the bad days how would you recognize the good day?
I work at a local health department that regulates water wells - Your videos are extremely helpful and insightful on what well drillers go through. To be honest, it is more helpful to me to see how/when things go wrong than when everything goes right. Keep them coming and don't be afraid to share your mishaps and struggles. You do great work in your community, that much is for sure.
I'm in Yakima Washington. I had a replacement well punched a year ago. They went down 312 feet and got me into a real nice water source. The driller said if I had the pump, it would do 100 gallons a minute. They installed a 25 gallon per minute pump and it works well for the house and watering my property (four acres). One acre is lawn and some fruit trees. Fortunately I didn't have to pull a building permit. That would have triggered a meter that monitored my water use by satellite. I have first water rights from 1855, but I'd still have to pay for water usage and pay a penalty it I exceeded my allotted water right. Because of demand, some water districts won't allow a new well for new construction. The general public doesn't know about water well usage compared to public water supplies. Thank you for taking the time to inform the public about what well drilling is about. There are 5,000 wells in Yakima County.
It takes a successful man to admit to some failures along the way. Great job folks👌
Showing us the” BAD ONES” shows that you are keeping it real!!
Thanks for sharing the struggle. Tomorrow will be a better day!
I know absolutely nothing about your line of work and I do appreciate the talk throughs of how you're doing a task and why you're doing it. I find it very interesting. I'm sorry that this did not go well. I feel bad for all people on both sides of the contract. Your demeanor is pretty calm. I think I would be out of my mind with frustration and aggravation but that's because I let things get to me.
You are the "right stuff" for this vocation.
I am sorry this bad day .
Experience. What you get when you don’t get what you want. Most excellent video. Thank you.
Glad to see good , bad, ugly.. Learn more and did enjoy
Phillip,
This video is worth it! We get to see the real you and in a real situation. Like others said, people can say what they want but they are not there and it's not their rig. I can say I learned almost all of the real lessons of my life from the bad stuff. I can tell you down to the detail about those days but I can probably only recall a few of the very good days and their details. Good and bad show the real man! You sir are a real man with a great temperament. The world needs more like you.
These bad holes just prove that we all have problems. If we only see the perfect holes, we start to think you a only do the easy stuff. Seeing the ones that go bad, and go bad hard prove that we all have those bad times. Keep showing the good and the bad.
You got this. I'm not a driller, but as a geologist, I've worked with many and can recognize and appreciate your skills and effort. BTW, nice rig.
You win some, you lose some. Nobody enjoys failing but I have to say I have learned more from my failures than I have from my successes. Everything I know about drilling wells I've learned from watching this channel, it's fascinating just how much goes into something as seemingly mundane as a water well.
I personally think this was one of your best videos so far. I love all your content. But it’s also good to see the real life struggles of what can happen when drilling. I’m sorry this one kicked your ass. But we know you’ll conquer it in the end. You’re to good at what you do to give up. Great job! This video truly shows your knowledge of how to drill and how to keep your cool and do what has to be done. Even though the well didn’t get complete, you still succeeded because in the end you still have your drill. Well done sir!
One of my favorite songs has the line - "All of my wisdom came, from all of my suffering and pain, I never learned a thing from being happy"
Recently found your channel. I've lived in places that have always had a well, some good, some bad. I admire well service people. The guys I've used for the last 35 years actually let's me roll up my sleeves and help. I've learned a lot. The biggest lesson was it takes a special person to do well work... and I'm not that person. Please show us the bad along with the good.
Being able to visualize what’s happening down the hole and apply the correct solution is what this business is all about. This was an excellent video, thank you for sharing it.
You have to have a bad day to genuinely know what a good day is. If was easy any one could do it. Excellent work ethic. Thanks for sharing 👍
I learn way more from problems than from easy peasy success. Personally, I liked this.
I know how those days go. Get some good days, then BAM, wrench (or rock) gets tossed in. Keep up the great work and videos! Thanks!
You need to show the failures along with the wins. You're not human if you don't have something go wrong every once in awhile. I enjoyed it.
8:35 I love it! A freaking pipewrench built onto the rig. Insane.
Brother, some days just go like that. I'm amazed at just how calm and collected you were after. I know it was tought to post this one, but now we all are waiting to see how you overcome this. Those of us who have watched you for any amount of time know, if anyone can beat this beast, it's you and your dad. Keep up the great work!
I think your doing the right thing by showing the failures dude as this shows people that some times shit is difficult! Keep up the good work fella.
I was on an oil drilling rig once where they were drilling surface hole through the conductor barrel. At about 35 feet everything came to a grinding halt. They could not go up or down. The engineer from the oil company decided to flow as much water down as they could to see if they could blow whatever was holding the string in place out of the way so they could pull out of the hole. Material did start to come up but it was not cuttings as expected. Instead it was river gravel from about 1/2" to 2 1/2" in size. There was so much of it coming up that I had to weld a coupling at an angle to the flow nipple to jet the material out and on to the shale shaker. It took about four hours before they could slowly start to pull out of the hole jetting the material the whole time. By the time they got out of the hole there was enough gravel to fill 2 to 3 dump trucks up. The engineer determined what had happened was they hit and old stream bed and as they drilled it was like a cavern and the loose rock just kept collapsing in on the string behind the bit until the bit was trapped under the load of the rock. The next day a well head cementer came in and cemented the hole off back to the surface and they drilled out once again. As soon as they drilled through the cement the same thing happened again about 10 feet below the cement and the whole process was repeated again. They drilled out a third time only for it to happen once more and they repeated the process one more time before they drilled successfully from that point onwards. The expense of this little exercise was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In conversation with the engineer he was not too happy about the whole affair. It seems the seismic reports that had been done did not show any sort of problem and definitely no voids like an underground stream bed. According to his calculations that old stream bed had to have been 35 to 40 feet deep in loose river gravel. When I asked about the cost he told me that they were not worrying about it since they had already contacted the seismic outfit and told them they were picking up the bill. It had already been determined that the seismic company had pulled a fast one and ran their string on a cut line about 500 feet from where they were supposed to be. To save money and cut costs the seismic outfit had used the existing seismic bores that had been done by another company and those were the reports they had submitted. The seismic companies contract was cancelled and all of their reports were now suspect. They went out of business a year or so later.
The oil business is a small community and when word spread about what they had pulled their contracts were cancelled and they were taken off the bid list by virtually all of the oil companies so they could not get any further work from anyone. That's what happens to those who try to cheat their customers in the oil world.
Awe man. It's frustrating when things don't work out and you're a bigger man for sharing this versus not making a video. No criticism here. Hopefully the all-metal casing is what will allow you to complete this well.
Cool to see our favorite vintage fridge mechanic here!
@@MrBo-sg6hu Yep I love watching people who are dedicated to their trade; even if it is very different from mine!
I think you get the picture. We all want to see the difficult ones too. Love it all.
When all is said and done, all you can do is your best.
It was more interesting to see how you handled adversity than watching any number of straight forward jobs.
Definitely good to see the dramas as well as the triumphs, people who don't have an occasional bad day don't learn new things. I dont like drama either to be honest but I do like learning new things
Thanksyou for sharing.
Always good to see the bad ones so people can see what kind of issues a person can run into. Might also end up educational for a newer driller, or somebody that has had the same issue might have found some trick or other that could work. I hope the next hole works much better for you.
I enjoyed this video. You showed what can happen and the challenges you face. Things happen that you don't forsee and that is all part of the life of a great well driller. I hope you will video Part 2, because I would like to see how this well turns out. Keep up the great work!!!
We need to see the good and the bad. You have viewers that are looking at having a well drilled. My well went good. But my neighbors well was a problem. First hole had problems and they lost the drill. Second time went OK. We need to see it all. Thanks for a great channel.
We hope you don't get any negative comments. So sorry you had a bad couple of days. We don't know anybody who puts as much into their job as you do. Keep showing up so good and bad. That is if your camera doesn't waylay you! There are no videos that we watch that we will respect more than you. Keep up the good work! Tom and Peggy.
Thanks for the video and for keeping things real and transparent. Things don't always go the way intended so don't get discouraged. You have way more successes than failures.
Never was much for anyone watch someone else work , but hell.
A beer or two and a lawn chair after a hard day myself, the you book tube for a few minutes was a calling made just because the phone was in arms reach .
Good luck man.
Well...... all things considered that hole kicked you in the pills. That truly sucks but, I want to say thanks for allowing us to see the other side of the coin when things go wrong. It was a learning experience for me as I have never seen a well go bad like that only heard horror stories. Most of the wells up here are sulphur bearing wells and the guys seem to concentrate on that. This was a a scene showing what can physically go wrong. Cheers....and Thanks.
That segue from the fractured casing to you in a lawn chair had me rolling 😂. Hang in there man. Win some, lose some.
Please film more of these! We don't get tired of having a chance to tell you what you already know about how it could have been done differently.... Ok, we can go east on that part of we get more of these...
Full Credit for posting this one!!!! Sorry to see this/ a bad day/s for you.
Shows what things can go wrong when they do!!
A great video. Drilling has to be a challenge, it's not like you can see what's goin on. I live in Decatur, IL. There is a lake here that is Decatur's water supply.
They needed to replace an old iron sewage pipe that runs under the lake. They hired a horizontal drilling co. to install a 12" plastic line. They've the biggest horizontal drill I've ever seen. The line is a couple of thou feet. They have had some kind of problem and the completion has been stretched to Nov 27 which is a month longer. Quite the show.
This shows it takes a lot more than just screwy screwy and bang water, shows why it cost so much for wells . Educational for sure
Keep it real. It's good to see some of the hardships you have to go through and drilling a well. Can't show the easy stuff all the time. Then people get the wrong idea it is always easy. Hoping for a part 2.
I don't like drama either
I do like to see how people handle adversity. You didn't just give up,you didn't start throwing things you tried different solutions. I imagine you get that from how you were raised
It’s not always easy, just like life! Love seeing the trouble videos too. If anyone has watched your videos they know you do your best. It’s always easy to sit here and watch and say oh do this or that but it’s easy to not think about in the moment. We’ve all had ideas to fix problems come to us later
Keep filming all your work. Gives a great perspective.
As a builder, I often have bad days, but mostly great successful days. Mostly smiling 😅
Real life bro appreciate your honesty.
I felt your pain man. Don't mind watching the tough ones at all.
Well who ever said things always go right. How you deal with it is a mark of your character. Thanks for being real and sharing.
Never mind you keep on keeping on.
Philip, I think you've got an ancient alien space ship down there, like on Skinwalker Ranch, that won't let you drill it. It's time to use Dynomite! Philip, you have one of the most interesting channels on RUclips! Good job.
@transmitterguy478 I swear that's what there drilling in the Maisa! Actually I believe it's a meteorite of some unknown material. Love that show! & oak island
It's not a failure until you give up. You can move the rig a few feet and try again. I 100% agree metal is the way to go with rock. PVC may be fine for sand but would never survive what you're going through.
Drilling is a lot more than spinning a hole in the ground. It takes the right equipment and a skilled operator. Looks like you have both. Good luck on the next one
Great video. Well drillers in my area are blessed with limestone.
I like the occasional bad to go along with the good...with that being said, you win some you lose some and with drilling through what you can't see it's a wonder technology ever caught up to where it is now...your the professional you keep doing what works best for you
This is what separates the Pros from the others. You keep at it until you finish. If it was easy anyone could do it . Appreciate your honesty and integrity.
This was a great video, I agree with other comments it looks easy money because of your expertise, but this shows the other side to your job. Thanks for posting.
Kia Ora & Good Morning from Caribbean Drive, Unsworth Heights, North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand ... Another Great Video Bro.
Wow! that was intense; we all have bad days sometimes but I would hate to have a day like you had there. I never realized that black granite could case such problems. I sure hope it goes better next time and it is good that you shared this with us so we can see that it is not always so smooth.
Watching that bit bind up like that is crazy
Take the GOOD with the BAD with experience! Good job 2all 🥶 🐲
Love the hard well drilling video
Let’s us see the real life challenges of everyday well drilling
On days like this it’s good to just go for a walk with Mandy and poor your heart out to her. She won’t judge you just love you. 🐕🥰👍🏴
Thanks for sharing this one. Not every drill hole ends with rainbows and a pot of gold!!! 🙂
Sometimes things don’t go like we want. Thanks for bringing us along on this dig.
Keep your head up! It happens! A good friend of mine stuck 145 feet of pipe in a strange hole in northern Michigan. He's a professional! We didn't have a contract, he moved over 50' and pounded a new well in. I paid the man and we moved on. Shit happens! Stay awesome! I enjoyed this documentary:)
"Smooth seas never made for good sailors"
I heard that once and it changed the way I look at problems when they arise
I probably told you that.
Thanks to the RUclips algorithm for sending me to your channel. I am hooked. I have never seen anything like this as I am in the UK and find it fastenating. I love your work ethic and how you speak and treat your fellow workmates and employees, that in itself speaks volumes. Can I ask if an operation goes wrong as in this case and you loose some equipment/pipe down the drill hole, who pays? Do you bill the customer or do you ‘take it on the chin’ and chalk it up to experience? I am guessing that no part of your operation is cheap! I am currently working my way through your back catalogue. Thanks.
You NEED to film more of these difficult jobs, so don't stop!
Sh!t happens. Sometimes the variables get you. Keep posting these videos, please. It's the reality of the business.
I agree with all of the comments below. Phil we all have though ones and there is no shame in that. The shame is when you give up. Ya some people will put you through the wringer with all the should of done this or that but they have the benefit of hind sight. Bottom line is no one can know what they are going to be drilling into down there. The fact is, in my option, this the best video you have made so far. Seeing you drill one uneventful well over and over again is boring! The difficult ones are were we learn something. Please keep ones like this coming. Don't be discouraged or embarrassed, you are a well seasoned professional, remember we all can see that from your many other videos, and even the best of professional's have bad ones. I am defiantly giving this one a thumbs up. Best wishes.
tnx fore sharing this part off the job...and sorry that i dident work out , it will be better with the next hole and this show that life is not always "sunshine" but struggels too.
I enjoy watching the good and the bad.
Your bad days are our good days Great video
Hey man, these videos are great, win or lose, keep it up.
like a couple of other comments, big pat on the back for recording this!! This work isn't always easy!! I just sat here watching and was shaking my head at. what you and Mike were going thru. Thanks for posting!! Keep up the good work!! Stay safe!!
Much appreciated!
Great Video and you showed what really happens.🇦🇺🇦🇺
Love the video. It’s crazy to see how much damage some rock can do. I know yall gave it everything you had but we all know we can’t win them all. Like you said, move a few feet and I’m sure you’ll get it! Don’t listen to the haters either. They probably don’t even run a rig lol
Great video. Keep showing the tough ones. That damn Granite can be tough.
New subscriber on vacation here, Keep filming it makes the prospective customer understand why well drilling is so expensive. Will be watching for part 2 :)
You don't use drive shoes every well?
I was a driller for 8 years in western washington and have drilled hundreds of wells in every geological form imaginable
My helpers first job was to weld on the drive shoe while I drilled the surface seal.
This is the first water well drilling video I've came across. It's nice to see someone making content.
Keep roughing
On a previous video some customers were dropping rocks down the hole to see how deep it was. And the rocks caused malfunctions. Tell them in the future they should drop ice cubes. Makes the same plop sound and after an hour they turn into water.
You may not like filming these brother but it educates us as to what can happen on a drill site. We compare our drillers to your experiences good and bad.
Yup, some jobs are just plain UGLY! I hate those days, nice video showing just how hard it can be, thanks !
great effort, you're a good hand!!!
Great video. You have to have bad days to know what a good day is all about.
This was a very good video, it show us what happens when things go not so good. in well drilling. Need more of these videos.
imo these are the best videos
Everybody has bad days .. Don't give up It's heart warming that you tried. as far as I'm concerned i would like to see what you do good or Bad...
Very informative video, I worked on an air rotary like yours. We hit a void at 130 ft. and it was an angled formation. Our driller could tell by the rotation bumps. The void was almost a foot of opening, he rotated with very little pressure and finally got a hole on the bottom slab. Only to hit another one that was flat and blew the retainer off the hammer bit. We kept drilling to around 225 feet and hit lots of good water, left the bit down the hole.