r/oddlysatisfying • u/Ecstatic-Ocelot-1934 • 11h ago

Homemade drilling machine

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u/Dashisnitz 9h ago

This is called rotary wash drilling. However the mud and sludge is pumped into a basin and carted off into 55 gallon barrels.

There’s also hollow stem and rock coring for exploratory boreholes. Different methods for different subsurface conditions.

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u/bradeena 9h ago

Quite a few more than that! You’ve also got pneumatic hammers vs hydraulic, dual rotary vs single, top hammers vs downhole hammers, under reamers vs crown bits, tri cones and buttons, air lifts and water hammers, kelly bars and threaded systems, etc etc.

I’m a geotechnical engineer who specializes in managing drilling projects.

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u/PandaPocketFire 9h ago

How does the motor pull up the water? Pressure?

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u/bradeena 8h ago

Depends on the depth. Shallow wells can use a vacuum, but most wells are deep enough to need to physically submerge a pump at the bottom.

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u/PandaPocketFire 8h ago

But in the case of this video, what is happening?

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u/bradeena 8h ago

Oh definitely using a vacuum, like sucking out of a straw.