[TheForge] OT: Spring tile question

[Jerry Frost]

Bob: I know about percussion drilling with a cathead and hammer, it's how I 
drilled for soils samples for 20 years. The cathead is a capstan, rotating 
drum like seen on a sail boat. There are a number of hammer types, we used 
"safety" hammers, basically a weight that fit over a solid steel rod with an 
anvil cap on it, the anvil cap was too small to fit through the throat of 
the hammer and was useful for beating steel back out of the hole when 
necessary. The hammer is lifted by 1" manila rope with NO nylon or other 
synthetic stress band. Lift is via the drill rope over a sheave hanging on a 
tri pod that has at least 3' clearance over the top of the hammer after 
attaching it to the drill rod. Here's where it gets interesting, once the 
hammer's made up the driller puts ONE rap of drill rope around the cathead 
with the free end (the end He's HOLDING) on the part of the cathead facing 
him. The working part of the rope goes up to the sheave and back down to the 
lift ring on the hammer. The rotating cathead MUST slip the rope without 
tension being applied by the driller or B-A-D things WILL happen. When the 
driller applies tension to the rope's free end it tightens on the cathead 
and multiplies his strength lifting the hammer. Lift it about 50" max and 
throw slack back towards the cathead and let the hammer fall free. Repeat 
till the drill rod joint is low enough to add another length of rod and 
repeat.

You can do a similar process by suspending the hammer from a spring pole 
with a stirup or two, the driller and helper draw the hammer down with the 
stirups, let it return and repeat till it's time for more drill rod. This is 
a lot more work but WAY safer.

About percusion drilling with a cathead, it's REALLY dangerous, if the rope 
catches on the cathead a person's natural response is to try and hold it 
back, it'll drag you into the cathead and wrap you around it for fatal 
injuries or at a minimum limb loss. If you decide to do this kind of 
drilling go slow.

Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Smolen" <boka at mwt.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT: Spring tile question


> On this subject, I live in a hilly limestone region of Wi. There is a 
> spring
> in the valley on my neighbors place that runs a few hundred yards and goes
> back in the ground about 50 feet from our fence line. My land slopes down 
> at
> least 30 to 50 ft from this point. The spring is in a "dry run" which 
> drains
> a few hundred acres of surrounding land. About a half mile further down on
> land purchased by the DNR for trout rearing, there is a very high 
> production
> spring off this same dry run. I would love to create a spring/ water 
> source
> on my place. (My house is on the ridge about 300 ft above and has a deep
> well. )Any techniques to do so? There is vegetation around the dry run on 
> my
> land that is water loving (I dont know the name but reeds that are used to
> polish wood by wood turners per Roy Underhill). The dry run has boulders,
> silty sand, gravel from erosion, etc. During spring run off, the dry run 
> is
> like a small river but otherwise dry.
> I saw a film years ago where a guy was using a tripod to raise and lower a
> drill bit. The power to operate came from a small gas motor and a shaft 
> onto
> which the guy would loop a rope around and pull the slack out to raise and
> let it run off the shaft and then repeat the process. Anyone know anything
> about this process?
>
>