A602 Rebuild Project

[tst]

I got back today to working on the well, I pulled out 20 11' 6 " and one 5 ft pump rods and a brass pump guts came out with it so I have a 3" deep well pump with replaceable leathers, if I had know this would have tried to fish out the lower check valve with it, so the pump is 235 ft deep in the 3 " pipe
The pump rods are all wood with 5/8 " ends, the last rod was split and almost ready to go and grabbed it just in time before it fell down the pipe
static water level is 3 ft below top of the well casing so no lack of water

I was able to unscrew every pump rod joint which I was surprised as they are over a 100 years old
at this point the 3 " galv pipe looks to be in nice shape for 100 year old pipe so I did not see any reason I could not reseal the pump and use new rod in the old pipe ??
would a "anchor/sinker rod" be a good thing to add to the pump rod ?
do they make pump rod guides for 3 " pipe ?
so best place to get replacement pump leathers for the 3" pump?
and will need new drop rod, what is being used now, fiberglass, galv ? good source for those ? we do not have good resources in the North for these items
so does just a well seal cap hold that 3" pipe in the well casing , just seems really heavy for it ?
would also like to have a hand pump on the side working separate from the mill, so would there be a special well cap to do both ?
sorry for all the beginner questions
pic of the pump jack with my buddy to scale the size of it

[mtblah]

Tim , that appears to be a "days " work , you will be a professional windmiller before you know it & the bug will have bitten hard .

[tst]

The good part is never had a windmill on this well but is setup to use one with the pipe and pump in place already, saves some grief

[windybob]

If the water is at 3 ft, I have no idea why it was plumbed so deep.I can see maybe 2 joints to start with, lower it later if needed. You could test pump it to see what it will make. if it makes 6 GPM without pulling down too far, then a windmill will work at 2 joints with a 3 inch cylinder if you want.

[tst]

this was a old turkey farm with 1,000 s of turkeys so they needed lots water

[windybob]

Going deeper does not mean more water. The pump/cylinder size/stroke/submersible means more water. A pumpjack may not have a lot of drawdown, but a submersible could. I've seen a submersible pull the water down 10-15 feet. If you have 200 ft of drawdown with a pumpjack, then Houston we have a problem. lol

I've heard old timers say, "better go to a couple feet off the bottom, that's where better water is". I consider that baloney. More expensive, and more labor, and more joints to cause issues. We plumb most windmmill and pumpjack wells 15 ft or so below the water line. a decent well will keep up with 6 GPM. If the mill pulls the water down that far, then the well is slow. Maybe 1 more joint (if that even helps) or a smaller stroke, or smaller cylinder should help a slow well. However, blowing it helps too sometimes.

However, if you wish to go that deep, no problem.

[tst]

I do appreciate your incite and experienced advise Bob, I was thinking about pulling some of the pipe out and "shorten" up the well
This place in its day had over a 1000ft of pipe in several directions, had a set of valves you had to turn to send it towards the area you wanted the water in , was quite the mess in its day, here the ground is lots of rock and I am still amazed that they could drill it all that deep back then 100 years plus
my house is 50 ft above this well and has its own well, in the past when I had to work on it the water was always within 10 ft from the top of the well casing
my place is the second highest in the county, to me I would think the lower levels would have all the water, not me
my neighbor about a 1000 ft away barely can find enough to drink, his place is about 100 ft shorter down than mine, has spent piles of $$$ with well drillers away has drilled 4 wells trying to get enough water and still does not have a good well

[tst]

any thoughts on what type of pump rods I should use ? I know they have a few types of material for these now, the wood ones are not going back in, now that they are drying out they are warping like crazy, guess being soft in the water and hanging all that weight on them has kept them straight when I pulled them up

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

Windy Bob up here in the northeast a deeper well is like a security blanket. I've had my well go dry a couple times and it's over 200 ft deep and usually the water level is about 15 ft below ground. All it takes is a dryer than normal year. I know of quite a few people who's wells have dried up over the years and had to go deeper or fractured.

[windybob]

All of that makes sense guys. Much food for thought for me. I do need to keep in mind different wells in different parts of the country act much different than in other parts. Thanks for the insight.