How to dig a well

how to drill your own water well. If you try this, please report back whether it's a success or fail or in between

http://drillyourownwell.com/index.htm

If you have 36" casings, drilling isn't going to work. The way I saw this done in more 'primitive' countries was this:

Lay one of the casings where you want the well (hopefully you have checked for the presence of water at a reasonable level??) Step inside the casing, and start digging out the earth. As you get deeper, start to undercut the edges of the casing, so that it drops into the hole, but makes a fairly tight fit around the outside circumference.

As each casing gets lower in the ground, once it reaches ground level, place another casing on top of the first. (Presumably they have 'lips' allowing one to slot into another?)

Repeat as necessary, until you hit water. Dig another casing depth into the water, to allow for the water table to rise or fall.

Tips: make sure you have AT LEAST one other person helping. While only one person can dig inside a 36" casing, you will need to spell each other, and one can lift the buckets of soil out of the well while the other digs. If you are unfortunate enough to bury yourself (unlikely if you're digging inside concrete casings), then your helper can either get you out, or call for help.

Once you finish, tamp earth down into the gap around the edges, to hold the well casings in place.

Take it slow and steady. It's a LOT of hard work. You'll have calluses on your calluses by the time you get to water!

Rant a miniexcavator..