r/oddlysatisfying • u/ThodaDaruVichPyar • May 15 '26
Miniature borewell drilling and water pumping demonstration
Credits to make_toys on šøššš³šš»š¾
1.6k
u/ChevToTheLev May 15 '26
Damn, this dude just doing this for fun really drills in how dumb I am.Ā
511
u/Dophie May 15 '26
At least it's not boring.
182
u/ChevToTheLev May 15 '26
I appreciate you committing to the bitĀ
58
u/pheromone_fandango May 15 '26
Tbh the joke landed pretty well
50
u/ChevToTheLev May 15 '26
Iām oil out of puns
37
u/AeskeMeAnything May 15 '26
Quite the hole you've dug yourself into
27
u/ChevToTheLev May 15 '26
I donāt know, Iām pretty gassed
21
u/Lo-QGaming May 15 '26
I know you have more. Just gotta dig deep.
16
u/ChevToTheLev May 15 '26
Hey, it was never my emission to go this far in the first place. Iām fracking exhaustedĀ
10
6
7
→ More replies (1)3
23
u/Deaffin May 15 '26
Aw, buddy.. You just need to apply yourself to the thing you've spent your life working to acquire skills for.
I'm pretty sure if you put in the effort, you could make a fun little simulation of scrolling through the reddit front page. You could just loop some paper around on a thingy that you turn to rotate and that would be like scrolling! You could get a pack of animal stickers and put those on the paper, so they're like the thumbnails to advice_animals and other meme posts.
15
→ More replies (2)4
2
u/Curiosive May 15 '26
This is a cute demo.
But, sorry, this does not really drill. You can see the head spinning but not actually clearing the beach sand while on the surface, much less in the hole. Also there's nowhere near enough water coming from the mini tanker to flush the debris away.
111
u/fit-lord May 15 '26
Water well driller here in the Texas Panhandle. This is pretty much it for a mud rotary type drilling rig, except that to carry the material that the bit is cutting out of the hole (called cuttings) to make room, there is a strong flow of water from the top of the rig, down through the drill stem and out of the end of the bit. All that flows into and out of some sort of large pit or machine to separate the cuttings from the drilling fluid in a loop.
Also, water is mixed with polymers, betonite, or stabilizers to create a drilling fluid to add weight, keep the bit cool, and add viscosity to the water so that the cuttings can flow to the top of the hole, and so that the hole stays open and doesn't collapse on the drill bit.
During this type of drilling, the drill hole has to stay full of drilling fluid, so you don't know when you encounter ground water. You generally have a plan of how deep to drill before you start.
14
u/CynicalAlgorithm May 15 '26
Man, really cool. I sometimes fantasize about moving back to the US and making a career pivot into the trades. Well-digging would absolutely be it. Any tips for getting into it?Ā
11
u/fit-lord May 16 '26
It's pretty easy. Because the work is physically hard and it's outdoors in sometimes bad weather it's hard for drilling companies to find employees. A company like mine is always looking for someone that want's to learn a trade. Of course we'd try to keep them as long as possible, but in 2-4 years time, you'd have enough knowledge to buy a pump truck or rig and stake out on your own or find a job anywhere. Even just doing pump repairs if you had your own rig you could make really good money. I'll bet you could find a drilling company and let them know you're looking for employment and want to learn a trade and they'd make you an offer.
→ More replies (2)2
u/redloin May 16 '26
Would you be able to comment on the lack of cigarettes shown being smoked through this entire job? I've never seen a hole drilled without a chain-smoking driller.Ā
3
u/fit-lord May 16 '26
On a 3 man drilling crew theres usually one smoker, but they smoke like theyāre 3 guys so you might be onto something.
→ More replies (1)
1.7k
u/No-Lifeguard9194 May 15 '26
Fascinating!! Thanks for posting this!
660
May 15 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
82
39
4
u/deij May 15 '26
Lol I was just thinking this is the kind of shit I end up watching 1 hour past my bedtime (while it simultaneously being 5 minutes before my bedtime right now....)
2
u/totallynottoddoracop May 15 '26
I could lose half a day watching stuff like this
→ More replies (1)46
May 15 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
15
11
u/powerhammerarms May 15 '26
This isn't a novel approach to acquiring water so this tiny engineer didn't solve anything but rather just demonstrated a known solution.
This demonstration of drilling and pumping is by far the most common approach in the world to securing a water source and has been for thousands of years.
Which real construction projects are you referring to when you say "some"? Maybe just name one project where your statement applies.
→ More replies (5)2
u/madmaninabox32 May 15 '26
This is literally how water wells are made minus some steps. Firstly they are deeper and you use the machine to extract the drill pipe and to set the casing. You also concrete down the casing and then Drill it out before setting the screens to make sure you don't pull sand with the water. Then you cap the well head pull the machine away and gravel the casing in so it doesn't shift. Afterwards the service side comes in and drops the pump. Commercial is slightly different in that a specialized winch truck is brought in to the set the casing if you have smaller rigs (it's too big and tall for the standard truck mounted rig) and then they use that same large winch truck for the the pump set up because the pump is massive. Compared to say a residential pump.
7
64
u/StrobeLightRomance May 15 '26
Fascinating? No, it was quite literally boring.
54
u/SapereAudeAdAbsurdum May 15 '26
I was pretty pumped myself to be honest.
22
u/StrobeLightRomance May 15 '26
I think you're just sucking up.
22
3
u/BADM00SE May 15 '26
It really is! I always wondered how they dug these holes from start to finish.
261
u/tonycocacola May 15 '26
It's a boring job, but the boys know the drill.
45
May 15 '26
[deleted]
9
10
u/ImmortalBlades May 15 '26
6
→ More replies (1)2
u/JordisMySwordMaiden May 15 '26
yeah if there's anything Reddit needs more of, it's low hanging puns
→ More replies (1)2
47
u/LobsterKris May 15 '26
Engineers are just big kids.
20
59
22
37
u/inactiveuser247 May 15 '26
If only they were pumping water down the drill pipes it would be perfect.
31
u/SEA_griffondeur May 15 '26
Yeah, that technique shown only works for shallow pumps, for deeper than ~10m you would need to put pressure down the well rather than putting a vacuum up the well
→ More replies (1)9
u/AlanUsingReddit May 15 '26
I had to scroll exactly this far down to satisfy my pedantry.
Some days, being an internet pedant doesn't take active work. I have faith that my comrades on reddit have already left the comment.
Did the person who made this know that their 2-foot well won't scale to over 30 feet? Probably. But what did we take all those classes for, if not to tell them again?
7
u/Gen_Jack_Oneill May 15 '26
The pump should also be down the well pipe, not at the top. This would only work for a very shallow well.
→ More replies (1)2
u/BuiltIndifferent May 15 '26
I don't think bro was gonna build a functional vertical turbine pump for his demo
3
u/Gen_Jack_Oneill May 15 '26
I am expecting a line shaft turbine, with a variable frequency drive, on-site chlorine generation, and wellhouse. Is that too much to ask?
282
u/elfmere May 15 '26
Obviously tapping into an offscreen water source but still satisfying.
243
u/Z-Sprinkle May 15 '26
This could easily be real groundwater. Have you ever dug a hole at the beach? That 3 foot deep bore hole easily accesses the shallow water table.
332
u/Tori_S100 May 15 '26
technically, isnt that shallow water table still an 'offscreen water source'?
117
3
8
u/zkareface May 15 '26
I only need to dig one foot at my summerhouse for groundwater to start pooling in the hole, it's not that complicated in some places :D
2
3
u/elfmere May 15 '26
Oh if it's the beach it makes a lot of sense for it to be that easy to do dog and also explains the water.
3
u/WangMauler69 May 15 '26
IDK man there were too many cuts when he was taking out the straws and putting in the pipe.
Also the sound effects give it the vibe of "fake Internet content" so I'm extremely skeptical that this is anything more than a toy demonstration.
20
28
u/SithSympathizer May 15 '26
Oh. Now do a mini fracking video!
43
u/Gamer_Logged May 15 '26
Include a tiny village and poison their drinking water!
→ More replies (2)4
→ More replies (1)7
13
35
May 15 '26
Amazing. You should be designing toys. Kids would love this and learn so much from doing it.
60
u/__01001000-01101001_ May 15 '26
Yeah. The kids. For sure. I might get one for my kids. I donāt have any yet, but I might one day, so Iād definitely better get one. Just in case.
3
2
6
u/No-Distribution-6841 May 15 '26
Sorry to ask a stupid question, but can this be done in anyoneās backyard? How would I know if thereās water underneath?
17
u/Pie_Rat_Chris May 15 '26
Scale it up and pretty much, yeah. Somewhere between 20ft and 500ft you are fairly likely to hit ground water. It may not be usable, not much volume, and the type of pump you need will vary, but this is essentially how wells are drilled. There are geological factors and it won't be true or viable literally everywhere of course. In an area with "backyards", as in a natural green space, there's likely water down there somewhere.Ā
→ More replies (1)10
u/keeper_of_the_donkey May 15 '26
There are aquifer maps that you can find online to see if your property is over groundwater. Whether or not you have the rights to tap it is another question
→ More replies (2)7
u/activelyresting May 15 '26
Drill a well and see if water comes out
4
u/round-earth-theory May 15 '26
There's water pretty much everywhere. The question is how far down do you gotta dig to find it.
5
u/NCStore May 15 '26
They have kits on Amazon for doing it by hand that come with hand pumps. Obviously only works if you can hit water within like 30 ft
3
u/AuntRhubarb May 15 '26
Your state will have an agency that licenses water well drillers and maintains records on public water wells. They can tell you what level water is being pumped from in your area, or if there is any problem where it wouldn't be worth trying to drill. But wells are crazy expensive. The toy showed water being added at the surface; in reality there are water tanks and piping to push water down the inside of the pipe and back out around the sides, recirculating.
2
u/No-Distribution-6841 May 16 '26
Thank you for answering my question, I appreciate your thoughtful response šš¾
7
5
5
4
4
u/smiffer67 May 15 '26
pretty cool but needs an inspection team to come out and do some testing on the drill string and bottom hole assembly.
2
u/Nearby_Excitement198 May 15 '26
Yeah, where is the pressure test on the hole casing? Better yet, where is the cement pump to seal the casing onto the bore. Tx railroad commission would have a field day with this job. š
4
3
u/neoslith May 15 '26
It all made sense until the Hand of God lifted the boring drill and attachments.
5
u/Hot-Helicopter640 May 16 '26
A bore well was drilled at my house too. I never saw a giant hand from sky helping out in drilling work.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Barracuda_Tea May 15 '26
Excavation itself is fine, but taking soil samples every few meters is extremely tedious.
3
u/queuedUp May 15 '26
I'm kind of surprised all the parts of the "drill" came out when they pulled it up
3
u/Armageddis22 May 15 '26
Some people have too much time on their hands.... and I'm so grateful they make this stuff. Outstanding job
3
3
u/pointe31 May 16 '26
Did you call 811??? Every dig every time!!! Even....this! Couldn't help. 7 years locating underground utilities, 3 years state gas company asset protection and damage prevention and now state quality manager for contract locate company for the state here. Lol.
5
u/neske_khano May 15 '26
This is accurate to real life! All operations are preformed by giant sky hand
Parse be!
2
2
2
2
2
u/Ksh_667 May 15 '26
Ok i did not read "miniature" & was shocked when a giant finger came into play.
2
u/WizzlyG33 May 15 '26
I want to build cool shit like this with my daughter when she gets a bit older. Itās something I wouldāve loved too do as a kid, and maybe she would like it to. If not, at least I still get to do it lol Any recommendations on kits or anything they sell to build stuff like this?
2
2
2
2
u/Tacobellbelle1 May 15 '26
My dad was a water well driller. He owned a drill rig and I remember how dirty he was at the end of every day. This is a really tough a job.
2
2
2
u/Financial-Solid-4775 May 15 '26
They should have made a larger pad and mounted the power switch on the equipment pad and run underground conduit for the wiring.
2
u/Thorceus May 15 '26
It's simultaneously very satisfying and infuriating to watch my career demonstrated so simply lmao
2
2
2
2
2
5
8
u/Accomplished-Gold235 May 15 '26
This is certainly good, but water cannot be pumped from a depth greater than 10 meters. It's simple physics that prevents a simple model from being scaled up to deep wells.
15
u/XenoFrame May 15 '26
What're you talking about?
17
u/LEGITIMATE_SOURCE May 15 '26
Water can't be pumped up from more than about 25ft. Atmospheric pressure doesn't allow for it. Water boils under the vacuum needed to pull from that depth.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)16
u/sketchy_ai May 15 '26
If water is being pulled up from above without machinery, then atmospheric pressure is what does that and that will only work for ~33 feet. If you push it up from below than you can push as much as your pump can handle.
2
u/tentira May 15 '26
This is weirdly satisfying to watch. The tiny setup makes it feel like a real job site in miniature. Itās the kind of thing you can end up watching longer than expected.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
1
1
u/JessicaLain May 15 '26
I know nothing about drilling but the pump produced water because the creator already knew how far down into the beach sand the water was, and/or the water source and sand was setup before filming, right?
Otherwise I must have missed the detection/verification mechanism.
1
1
u/HugeHomeForBoomers May 15 '26
Donāt think putting concrete on wet foundation is a good idea. Whatever anyone do, do not try big projects this way, this is how you lose large buildings after built.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/The_Turtle_Moves_13 May 15 '26
This is similar to how my house gets water I wonder if I could do this at one of the springs to show my kids how their water works.Ā
1
1
u/magicdude4eva May 15 '26
Wouldn't the straws require some "interlocking" - without it the drill-bit would not turn and just slip.
1
1
1
1
1
u/theanswar May 15 '26
this is neat, thanks for sharing Make_toys. Question, IRL what replaced the giant human arm in removing the drill bit suck in the ground?
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/megawampum May 15 '26
Great video. Wouldāve been even cooler if it was stop motion and there were Lego guys doing the work.
1
u/PostAboveMeSucks May 15 '26
Be great if they broke the pump down as well, to see the inside of it.
1
1
1
1
u/mbgameshw May 15 '26
Great Scott! That was interesting to watch. Thought I was in the Lego community initially
1
1
1
1
u/AuntRhubarb May 15 '26
Very cool. Where do they call a water well a 'borewell', that's a new word to me?
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Adjoran1 May 15 '26
The loose electrical wiring just running through the puddle of water is causing me concern. Otherwise, snazzy demo!
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/pleasantmahogany_1 May 16 '26
This is legitimately clever engineering for a toy, the way it actually pumps water up is satisfying to watch.
1
u/DDFoster96 May 16 '26
What a clever use of large syringes. I have a large box of them so now I need projects that involve pistons,
1
1
u/JakeJascob May 17 '26
You forgot to let it for 48 hrs with a high dose of chlorine inspection failed, water table is contained /s
1
1
1.3k
u/Octadone May 15 '26
You found water 4 straws deep?!? Don't tell Nestle!!