Repair Design Furniture

Is the well needle reliable? We analyze the reliability of the structure in terms of the main components of the concept. Abyssinian well: DIY needle well device Needle well without equipment

The needle hole got its exotic name after it began to be used by English subjects in Abyssinia. Arrangement of an Abyssinian well is one of the simple and inexpensive ways to provide a suburban area with water.

The equipment used in the construction of the well is so small that it can be successfully used when building a well in a basement or garage.

The most important requirement for arranging an Abyssinian well is the presence of a layer containing water at a depth of no more than 8 meters. This is due to the fact that lifting water from a greater distance using a surface pump is difficult. When the aquifer is lower, it is recommended to drill a larger borehole in the sand or to deepen the pump.

Also, when arranging a well with your own hands, you should pay attention to what kind of soil the aquifer consists of. It is good if it is coarse sand or sand and crushed stone mixture. Water passes through the soil of this composition without hindrance and therefore it will be easily pumped out.

The principle of the device

The basic principle of arranging a needle well with your own hands is to break through the soil to the first aquifer using a 1 inch pipe. To do this, a sharp tip resembling a needle is attached to its end.

After the pipe is clogged, a vacuum pump is installed.

Among the main elements of the well, the following can be distinguished:

  • Tip made of steel;
  • A pipe designed to pump out water;
  • Fine mesh filter;
  • Check valve.

Advantages

Among the indisputable advantages of the well, it is especially worth highlighting:

  1. Simplicity and speed of installation. Under favorable conditions, arranging the well with your own hands will take no more than 10 hours, and 1-2 people will cope with the entire volume of work.
  2. Compactness, which makes it possible to place in confined spaces. For example, in the basement of a house, garage or sauna.
  3. Quite high performance indicators. The volume of pumped out water can be up to 50 liters per minute.
  4. High quality water characteristics. Due to the shallow depth of the well, there are no iron compounds and other harmful impurities, which are characteristic of the aquifers located below.
  5. Long operational life. In some cases, it can reach 50 years.

Abyssinian well construction technologies

Arrangement of the Abyssinian well is possible with your own hands without the involvement of expensive hired forces. To do this, it is enough to stock up on a minimum of tools, most of which are in almost every home. And consumables in the form of pipes, nuts and bolts can be purchased in a specialized store or in the construction market.

Well construction should begin with the manufacture of the needle itself and the filter. To do this, you need a pipe of about a meter in length and a tapered tip that is welded to the pipe.

The filter itself is manufactured as follows. Small holes are drilled in the pipe, preferably staggered. After that, a stainless mesh is attached on top with clamps or soldered.

Attention! It is very important not to use lead-based solder. Since they can cause severe poisoning if they get into water.

There are several main technologies for drilling a well with your own hands:

  1. Barbell hammering.
  2. Hammering with a grandmother.
  3. Drilling with a screw.

Barbell hammering

To install a well using this technology, a rod will be required, which is a metal rod with a length of 6 to 20 m. It usually lengthens as it goes deeper.

The hammering technology itself is simple. A metal rod is used to hit the top of the pipe. As a result, the tip, made in the form of a cone, is immersed in the ground.

Hammering

The headstock is a special device in the form of a heavy load, the average weight of which is 25-30 kg. In the process of hammering, it rises up using special handles or, depending on the design, with the help of ropes. Then it is released and falls onto a special cap (fig. 3). As it is pierced, it is moved up the pipe. And if necessary, this pipe is extended.

Advice! If it is not known at what depth the aquifer is located, then after the pipe has passed the first 5 meters, you need to check for the presence of water. This technique allows you not to slip through the aquifer.


Usually the first indication that a pipe has reached an aquifer is a high water absorption, which is easy to check. To do this, take a watering can with water, and its contents are poured into the pipe. If the water leaves very quickly, then you should try to pump the well with a pump.

Auger drilling

Compared to others, this do-it-yourself well construction method has one significant drawback. It is only suitable for soft to medium hard soils. If hard rocky layers hit, the auger will not be able to drill them.

In order to facilitate the process of drilling with auger, there is a special device consisting of a tripod with a collar supplemented with a block on top. Fig 4.


The whole principle of drilling with a screw is as follows, with the help of a garden drill or a special installation, a hole with a diameter of 5 cm and a depth of about 8 meters is created. In the process of drilling, the rod going to the auger is extended as necessary.

Completion of a finished well

After completing the work on the arrangement of the well with your own hands, you can start pumping. To do this, you need to install a check valve, and then proceed with the installation of a vacuum pumping station. At this stage, it is very important to monitor the tightness of the structure, otherwise air will be constantly sucked into the system and it will not be able to function normally.

For the first start of the pumping station, you need to fill in water. First, air will come out of the well, and only then dirty water. This is a normal process, it should be so. After a short pumping, clear water will flow.

A self-made igla well is a quick and economical option for providing water to a summer cottage or a personal plot.

The presence of water at the summer cottage is a necessary condition for its existence. If the owner has a limited budget, then you can use the construction of a low-cost technical structure, which is available to most summer residents.
The technology for installing an Abyssinian well with your own hands is quite simple. Such a well or a needle for a well was invented by the Americans back in the 19th century. The article suggests that you familiarize yourself with the basic rules of its structure.

What geological conditions are needed for the construction of a well

- a shallow well into which a hand pump is installed. With its help, water is pumped out of the aquifer sandy layer.
Such a structure differs from an ordinary well in the presence of very clean water. It is not clogged by dust, dirt, drains and overhead water.
Before you start implementing your plans, you need to get acquainted with the geology of your area. Usually, neighbors who have long owned plots nearby can tell about this.
They are aware of where the soil layers are located and what the depth of the aquifers is.

Tip: An Abyssinian well can only be built if the upper aquifer is located no deeper than 8 m from the ground surface. At greater depths, lifting water with a surface pump can be problematic. If the aquifer is lower, a hole in the sand should be drilled with a larger diameter or the pump should be buried, rather than using a surface pump.

Soil requirements for a well device:

  • The aquifer for which the well will be built must contain medium-grained sand or a mixture of gravel and sand. Such soil passes water well, it will be easy to pump out.
  • The condition for the layers located above is only their permeability. Otherwise, you will need special equipment.

What are the advantages of such water supply

Advice: If neighbors in the country already have such wells, then there will be no special problems for its construction on the site.

The advantages of the Abyssinian well:

  • Simplicity and low cost of construction.
  • It does not require a lot of space for its arrangement: the structure does not violate the composition of the landscape.
  • There is no need to use machinery, no driveways are needed to deliver it to the site.
  • The pump can be installed on site or indoors.
  • It will take no more than 10 hours to carry out the work, which depends on the hardness of the soil and the depth of the water carrier.
  • Silting prevents high-quality, which allows you to operate the structure for a long time.
  • No dirt gets into the device from the ground.
  • The quality of water from such a well is similar to that of spring water.
  • The well water needle provides a constant volume of water supply. It is enough for watering the plot, for household needs: for an average well, the debit is from 0.5 to 3 cubic meters / hour.
  • The device can be easily dismantled and installed in another place.
  • Such wells are shallower than traditional sand wells, which reduces the likelihood of dissolved iron entering the structure. This eliminates the need to install filters, the price of which is not small.

Features of the device equipment

The functioning of any well and Abyssinian well depends on the quality of the pipe and its dimensions:

  • For the construction, it is best to use inch or one and a half inch pipes made of metal or plastic, cut into pieces from one to two meters long.
  • As the immersion proceeds, the pipe is built up to the required length. Their connection is made with threaded connections.
  • Silicone, sanitary linen, oil paint are used for sealing.
  • For connection, special couplings are also used.

Tip: Make sure that the pipes are connected securely enough. Loss of tightness can damage the entire structure.

  • To move the device through the soil, the diameter of the tip must be slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe.
  • The end of the pipe ends with a special needle filter. This facilitates the passage of the pipe in the ground, protects the structure of the well from siltation, and ensures the purity of the incoming water.

Tip: It is best for the Abyssinian well needle to be made of the same material as the main pipe to prevent galvanic corrosion.

To make a filter needle from a galvanized metal pipe, you must:

  • Holes with a diameter of 5 to 8 mm are drilled in the pipe, they must be staggered.
  • A stainless steel mesh is soldered on top. In the absence of a mesh, wire can be used, it is wound on the perforated end of the pipe, a gap must be left between the turns.
  • The wire is also soldered.
  • A lance-shaped tip is welded to the end of the pipe, the diameter of which is slightly larger than the pipe. This is necessary for the free movement of the structure following the needle.

Tip: Only pure tin should be used for the solder. The presence of lead impurities in it for the Abyssinian well is unacceptable, this can cause severe water poisoning.

Reinforced polypropylene pipe is suitable for such a well.
To make a filter needle from a PVC pipe you need:

  • Insert the filter mesh inside the pipe.
  • Fasten it using the fusion method.
  • Perforate the pipe. For this, slots are made on its surface with a hacksaw for metal.

How to build an Abyssinian well

To manufacture a structure, you can use one of two methods:

  • Hammer. For hammering structures into the ground, they usually use a “hammer-in”. In this case, you need to constantly add water to the pipe. After a sharp departure of water into the soil, the structure deepens another half a meter, then installation can begin.

The hammer-in method for creating an Abyssinian well is great, but there are a number of dangers. The main one is the probability of passing by the aquifer.
In addition, if a stone meets at a great depth, the structure can be completely damaged.

  • Small diameter drilling. This method guarantees the presence of water in the well, but when using it, you need special equipment.

Tip: It is better to pour one or two bags of marble chips into the well to create an additional filtration circuit and prevent silting of the structure.

To build a well, you must purchase:

  • Drill and grinder.
  • Hammer and sledgehammer.
  • A couple of gas keys.
  • Pancakes from the bar from 20 to 40 kg, for blocking the pipe.
  • Welding machine.
  • Garden drill with a diameter of 15 cm.
  • Pipes: 3 to 10 meters - ½ ", 1 meter - ¾".
  • 1 inch pipe for a well, in pieces of 1-1.5 m with a short thread on each side.
  • Bolts and nuts 10.
  • Mesh made of stainless steel galloon weaving P48 1 m long and 16 cm wide.
  • Automotive clamps of 32 standard sizes.
  • Couplings: steel, for connecting pipes and cast iron 3 - 4 pieces, for driving a pipe.
  • Wire two meters with a diameter of 0.2 - 0.3 mm.
  • Pumping station, HDPE pipes, check valve and couplings.

How to make a filter

To make the filter, an inch pipe is needed, which is about 110 cm long, a tip is welded to it in the form of a cone - a needle for an Abyssinian well. In its absence, you can simply flatten the end of the pipe with a sledgehammer.
Next, you need to do:

  • The grinder cuts slots on both sides of the pipe at a length of 80 cm after 1.5 - 2 cm, the size of the slot is from 2 to 2.5 cm. In this case, the overall strength of the pipe should not be disturbed.
  • A wire is wound around the pipe.
  • After that, a mesh is applied to it and fixed with clamps every 8 - 10 cm. The photo shows ready-made filters for the Abyssinian well.

In America, unlike the Russian Federation, for example, a filter for such a well is made with an internal mesh and a wire located above and below the mesh.

Drilling technology

The instruction indicates that the drilling process is as follows:

  • With the help of a garden drill, the soil is drilled.
  • The structure is built up from pipes: meter ½ "pipes are connected with the help of couplings from pipes with a diameter of ¾" and 10 bolts are connected to each other. Holes must be pre-drilled in the fixation points.
  • The process continues until the appearance of wet sand flowing down from the surface of the drill. Further drilling does not make sense - wet sand will return back to the well.
  • The pipe with the filter is clogged.
  • The pipe sections are connected to the filter using couplings. The FUM tape is screwed onto the thread.
  • Then such a structure with a filter made of pipes is lowered to the sand, a cast-iron coupling is screwed onto it from above.
  • Pancakes are placed on this coupling from the bar. An axis is passed through their center, along which the pancakes will slide and clog the pipe. The axle is made from a piece of pipe 1.5 meters long and ½ inch in diameter with a bolt at the end.

  • From each blow of the pancake, the pipe sinks a few centimeters.
  • After passing half a meter from the sand level, you need to pour some water into the pipe. If she disappears, the sand has accepted her.

How to pump a finished well

The well pumping process is as follows:

  • A check valve is installed.
  • A pumping station is being installed. It is necessary to monitor the tightness of the entire structure.
  • Water is poured into the alluvial station.
  • A piece of hose is connected to the outlet.
  • The pump starts up. Initially, air will come from the well, and then turbid water.
  • After that, clear water will appear. Its quality can be seen after analysis (see) or simple boiling.

How water is extracted in the country using a borehole needle can be seen in detail in the video. This article provides a summary of the steps involved in constructing a device.

The Abyssinian well belongs to sand wells; water is taken in it from the first sandy aquifer. The main feature is shallow depth, simple device and low cost price.

They feed from the upper groundwater - the so-called verkhovodka. Groundwater is not separated from the surface by an impermeable layer, therefore, dissolved organic matter from septic tanks and cesspools, pesticides, and salts of heavy metals may be present in them.

Artesian wells draw water from deeply located pressure head sandy or limestone horizons. The water there contains a lot of dissolved mineral salts, there are artesian waters with a high content of dissolved ferrous iron. To purify it to the quality of drinking water, a sophisticated filtering unit is required.

The water in the Abyssinian well is of high quality. Waterproof clay layers reliably protect the first sandy aquifer from the penetration of contaminants from the upper soil layers, while the water does not contain excess mineral salts.

The waters of the first sandy horizon are unpressurized, so a pump is needed to pump out the water. For Abyssinian wells, surface hand or electric pumps are used, the principle of which is based on a vacuum pumping method. This limits the maximum depth to the surface of the aquifer, which does not exceed 8 m. In this case, the depth of the well can reach 14-15 m.

An electric pump or with a hydraulic accumulator is installed in a caisson directly next to the well or in a warm room at some distance. The permissible distance to the room, as well as the installation diagram of the pumping station are shown in the figure.

The hand pump is installed directly above the well. For year-round use, it is placed in an insulated caisson or room. The well can be drilled inside the house, in the underground - in this case, insulation is not needed.

The service life of an Abyssinian well is limited by the life of pipes, a pump and averages 10-30 years with regular use. Galvanized, or even better - stainless steel pipes, will not only last much longer, but also will not degrade the quality of the water.

Note! It is possible to make an Abyssinian well in one day with the presence of components and clogging devices.

Preparation of the necessary materials

The design of the Abyssinian well is extremely simple and consists of a set of metal pipes 1-2 m long, interconnected by means of couplings, a filter pipe in the lower part for water intake and a pump on the ground surface.

Step 1. Pipes are preferably galvanized or stainless steel for corrosion protection, pipe diameters 1-1½ "(approximately 2.5-3.8 cm). Copper pipes are not suitable due to the softness of the metal, besides, copper is capable of giving free ions to water, poisoning it. On pipes, except for the lowest one, an external thread is cut on both sides.

Step 2. Perforation is performed in the lower pipe, which is a water intake with a filter. The length of the perforated part is 700-1000 mm. The diameter of the holes is 8-10 mm, the center-to-center distance between the holes is 50 mm. The holes are staggered. Over the perforated part, stainless wire is wound according to the scheme.

Instead of wire, a fine mesh stainless steel harpoon or plain weave can be used. The mesh is tightly wrapped around the perforated part of the pipe and soldered at all joints.

Note! Soldering is performed with food grade solder, lead-free or with a minimum lead content. Suitable grades of solders: POSu 95-5, POM-1, POM-3.

A thread is cut at the upper end of the pipe to connect to the coupling.

Step 3. A lance-shaped tip made of hardened steel is welded to the lower end of the pipe, which facilitates clogging the well. The diameter of the tip at the point of connection with the pipe should be 15-20 mm larger than the diameter of the pipe - this makes it easier to pass through the soil when driving.

Step 4. The number of pipes included in the kit depends on the estimated depth of the well. They are connected using a threaded sleeve, flax or fluoroplastic thread is wound on the thread for strength. It is preferable to take thick-walled couplings, with a wall thickness of 5 mm - such products are stronger.

Step 5. To drive pipes into the ground, a hard-alloy driven tip is made. The tip has an internal thread and is screwed onto the next section of the pipe.

Step 6. Pipes are clogged with a sledgehammer or headstock. The headstock is a steel cylinder in which a hole is drilled slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe used. The impact surface within the cylinder conforms to the conical shape of the impact tip in order to center the impact. A removable ring along the pipe diameter is attached to the bottom of the headstock in order to avoid distortions during hammering. The headstock is equipped with lifting handles on both sides.

Step 7. Sometimes the headstock is made with a through hole, in this case, instead of the impact tip, a cap is used, which is attached to the pipe at a convenient height. In this case, the blow does not fall on the end of the pipe, which reduces the chances of bending it when passing through dense layers of soil.

To facilitate the lifting of the headstock, a clamp with blocks is made. In this case, the headstock is lifted by two people from both sides through the blocks, it is lowered under its own weight.

Step 8. For the initial pumping of the well and cleaning it from sand, it is recommended to use a hand pump. If in the future you plan to install a pumping station, you can rent a hand pump instead of buying it.

Step 9. When placing pumping equipment in the caisson, after installing the well, it is necessary to dig a pit under its (caisson) installation. The depth of the uninsulated caisson should be greater than the level of soil freezing.

Note! The caisson can be made with your own hands from concrete rings.

Prices for filters for the Abyssinian well

abyssinian well filter

Choosing a place for an Abyssinian well

The operability of the Abyssinian well is possible only if the distance to the aquifer is no more than 8 m. Otherwise, surface pumps will be ineffective, and a submersible pump will require a larger diameter pipe and other drilling technology.

To prepare a set of pipes, you also need to know the approximate depth of the well. Excessive deepening of the suction pipe with a filter can lead to its falling into dense layers of soil, lying below the level of the core.

How to find a suitable location for the well and determine its estimated depth?

  1. The surest sign of the possibility of arranging the Abyssinian well is the presence of the same wells in the nearest neighbors. You can ask them not only about the depth, but also the flow rate of the well in order to determine the required performance of the pumping equipment. It is quite simple to measure the flow rate of a well: you need to detect 1 minute and determine how much water the well is capable of producing during this time.

Table 1. Required pump capacity depending on the well flow rate.

  1. If there are wells nearby, you can also find out the depth of the passage of the aquifer. Measure with a rope with a weight the depth of the well to the bottom and to the water mirror, and find out the approximate thickness of the aquifer.
  2. A sign of the close occurrence of interstratal aquifers can be the outcrops of springs and streams to the surface. If in your area there are springs with good tasty water, then with a high degree of probability the same water will be in the drilled Abyssinian well, and the depth of the latter will be small.
  3. An indirect sign of the close passage of the aquifer are some plants with a deep root system: coltsfoot, burdock, horse sorrel, celandine and many others. Taproot trees also thrive in areas with close aquifers.

  4. Fog after sunrise, as well as swarming midges over certain areas are also clear signs indicating the proximity of an aquifer.
  5. Well diggers are looking for a place with metal frames. It is believed that this requires experience, but you can try to do everything yourself. Take two pieces of copper wire 35 cm long, bend the frames from them at an angle of 90 degrees with an aspect ratio of 10/25 cm. Take the frames in your hands by the short sides and place them parallel to each other, without squeezing too much. Walk slowly across the site. In the place where the aquifer passes, the free ends of the frames should converge.

    Folk method on the site

Note! Several signs indicating the proximity of water indicate a high likelihood of finding a water-bearing vein with a high flow rate.

Abyssinian - step by step instructions

Equipment for driving an Abyssinian well can be rented from drilling firms, bought or made independently according to the ready-made drawings given above.

Step 1. Sod is removed at the site for the well to a depth of 20-30 cm. When the well is plugged into the subfield, the sod can be left on. The first 0.5-1.0 m is drilled with an ordinary garden drill to pass through the fertile soil layers. In too dry or frozen ground, it will not be affected, but it will facilitate the drilling process.

Step 2. A pipe with a punching tip is installed in the drilled well, it is aligned strictly vertically and fixed in this position. This can be done using a tripod or board with a hole, as shown in the picture.

Step 3. The lower ring is put on the pipe to fix the headstock. A carbide tip is screwed onto the upper end of the pipe so as not to damage the thread when hammering.

Step 4. A headstock is put on the tip, a fixing ring is screwed to it from below. Raise the headstock by the handles until it stops, then release it. The headstock hits the tip, under the influence of a weight of about 25 kg, the pipe goes into the ground to a certain depth. The clogging speed is highly dependent on the density of the soil. A meter-long pipe goes into sand with 5-8 blows, in clay it moves much slower.

Step 5. After the pipe has gone to a sufficient depth, the headstock, the tip and the fixing ring are removed, the coupling is screwed on with linen or Tangit UNI-LOCK thread winding. The connection should be as tight as possible, otherwise, during operation, air or water from the top water will be sucked in through it.

Step 6. Install the next pipe and repeat steps 3, 4 and 5. When the expected depth of the well is reached, water is poured into the pipe every half a meter. The sandy aquifer is free-flowing, it is capable of not only giving well, but also absorbing water. If the filter tip is in the aquifer, the water poured into the pipe will go away quickly, almost instantly. If there is no information about the depth of the aquifer, the check is performed starting from 3-4 m.

Step 7. After reaching the aquifer, the pipe is clogged another 0.5-0.7 m and a permanent or temporary pump is attached to it. Well pumping is started. At first, the water will go muddy, with admixtures of sand.

Step 8. After pumping out several hundred liters, the water will become clean, a lens is formed around the intake end with a filter - an area of ​​clean water without foreign inclusions.

Step 9. Around the well, a concrete blind area is made: soil is removed to a depth of 20-30 cm, sand is filled with a thickness of 5-10 cm, then a reinforcing mesh is laid and poured with concrete. From the center of the blind area to the edges, a slope of 2-3 degrees is made for water drainage. You can also perform drainage to drain water, in this case, the slope is made towards the drainage hole.

Step 10. A permanent pump is installed or a pumping station is connected according to the diagram.

Note! A check valve must be present in the circuit, otherwise, before turning on the pump, you will have to fill the pumping station with water every time.

Installing the caisson

The well is equipped with a caisson when its depth does not allow the pumping equipment to be brought into an insulated room using a horizontally laid and insulated pipe. TO You can read in our article.

Step 1. When installing the caisson, a pit is dug around the clogged well. In order not to damage the pipe, it is better to do it manually. Before starting work, the top of the pipe is wrapped in a bag or dense cloth to avoid the ingress of soil particles. The depth of the pit is 20-30 cm below the level of soil freezing, the diameter is 20-30 cm more than the outer diameter of the rings. At the same time, a trench is being dug for laying pipes. The bottom of the pit and trenches are leveled and backfilled with sand (layer thickness - 10 cm).

Step 2. Reinforced concrete rings are installed in the prepared foundation pit. A hole is made in the wall for the water pipe at the level of the trench. A reinforcing mesh is laid on the bottom, the bottom is poured with concrete with a layer of 10-15 cm. It is left to harden and gain minimum strength for 5-7 days.

Step 3. A cover with a hatch is mounted on the well. The hatch must be positioned so that the well pipe is exactly opposite it - in this case, if necessary, you will not have to disassemble the caisson if necessary to get and replace the pipes. All seams are coated with cement mortar.

Step 4. A pump and a hydraulic accumulator are mounted in a caisson. They lead the water pipe through the hole in the ring, having previously wrapped it with foamed polyethylene to avoid damage. The hole is covered with cement mortar. Connect the pipe to the pump and check the performance of the system.

Step 5. Backfill the pit. A mixture of sand and cement is poured around the walls - gradually gaining moisture from the ground, the latter will grab and securely fix the caisson. The lid is insulated with polystyrene from the outside and covered with a layer of sand 0.3-0.5 m. Reinforcement mesh is laid and poured with concrete. After it has solidified, the manhole cover is mounted.

Abyssinian well service

An Abyssinian well will last longer if used regularly. At the same time, the lens around the filter retains its size, the water in it remains clean, and the flow rate of the well does not change. If you plan to use the Abyssinian well seasonally, it is necessary to preserve it: drain the water from the supply pipe so that it does not freeze, cover the pump with a waterproof material to protect it from snow and melt water. In the spring, before the start of the season, it is necessary to pump the well as before the first commissioning.

Video - do-it-yourself Abyssinian well

The Abyssinian well does not require a passport, while it can provide your family with clean drinking water. With regular use and maintenance of the well, the problem of water supply at home will be solved for several decades to come. "TO , you can read in our article. "

The cheapest way and with the least labor costs you can get water for domestic needs, in an amount sufficient to supply water to a summer cottage or a small private house, if you equip an Abyssinian well with your own hands. The device of such a hydraulic structure has its own which should be taken into account when determining the admissibility of the well arrangement and, if possible, then proceed directly to the performance of work.

How to make a needle well

The most suitable type of soil for arranging such wells is sandy or sandy-gravel soil, usually located below the clay layer, which can be of considerable thickness. If the soil in the place where the "needle" should be driven contains large boulders, then the idea should be abandoned before the start of work, which not only will not give the desired effect, but will also cause a loss of time, effort and money.

Layers of earth when drilling to the first water-bearing sand

We start driving

If the structure of the layers of the lithosphere allows you to perform a well-needle with your own hands in a percussion way, without using drilling, then you will need to perform the following sequence of actions:

  1. Remove loose soil until loam.
  2. If the well will be used all year round, it will be necessary to make a caisson, which must be buried below the freezing point of the soil in order to avoid the possibility of ice formation in the pipes. If the "needle" will be used seasonally or placed in the basement of the house, the item can be skipped.
  3. Driving should be started with a scrap or a spiral drill, the diameter of which is 5-10 mm less than the harvested thick-walled gas pipes. This will allow you to make a hole in the ground with a depth of 1-1.5 m, so that the first section will easily enter up to half its length and will be rigidly fixed. Particular attention should be paid to the verticality of the initial penetration, since it is she who will set the direction of movement of the water conduit and determine the quality of the Abyssinian well, made by hand.

Features of the design of the "needle" and the filter element

The first plugged segment of the water supply system is the very "needle" thanks to which the well got its name.


Finished “needle”. From preform with holes to winding of the filter element.

The following requirements are imposed on its device:

  • the whip must have a steel tip made of solid material and attached by thread or welding;
  • the base of the cone to be connected to the pipe must be larger than the outer dimension of the pipe by the thickness of the filter + 10 mm in order to guarantee the preservation of its integrity;

At a distance of 2 cm from the tip, perforation is made, which can be obtained in two ways:

  • drilling staggered holes with a diameter of 8-12 mm, to a height of 2-3 cm with a step of about 50 mm;
  • making through cuts in the body of the pipe, to the same height with a step of 1 cm along the circumference.

To increase the degree of water purification from solid inclusions, the size of which is otherwise assumed to be equal to twice the value of the cross-section of the perforation, it is required to make a filter element.

The filter can be a fixed stainless mesh with a mesh of 2 mm (a smaller cross-section can quickly silt up) and / or a wound wire with an anti-corrosion coating or design, with an appropriate pitch of turns;

The filter element is fastened with wire twists or soldering using tin solder that does not contain lead, which can poison the water.


The mesh or wire on the “needle” filter retains the sand and the already purified water enters the pipe.

Going deeper

Further, the "needle" should be deepened to the aquiferous sandy layer, by building up the lash with new segments and hammering the metal structure into the soil. Impact action can be realized with a sledgehammer or "headstock".


The device "grandma" for deepening the Abyssinian well

In this case, to use the latter, you should do the following:

  1. Having passed the protruding end of the water conduit through the central hole, set the "headstock" on the ground. To which the following requirements are imposed: the mass must be at least 30 kg; the central hole exceeds the outer size of the connecting sleeve by 5 - 10 mm; on the sides there are lugs or holes for eye-bolts for fastening the ropes, located above and in the center of the ribs.
  2. build up the water conduit with the next section using a threaded steel sleeve. To which special requirements are imposed: the wall thickness should be no less than that of the stitches to be connected; the length of the cut part is three times the diameter of the pipe; at the ends, cylindrical grooves are made, which must be made for a tight entry of a section of lashes without a thread to a depth of at least 5 mm, which means that their caliber must coincide with the outer size of the pipes.
  3. each of the sections is screwed into a sleeve with hemp sealing of surfaces to a depth of at least 1.5 cross-sections;
  4. at the top of the mounted lash, a knot with two blocks for raising / lowering the "headstock" is attached, through which ropes are passed, attached to the lugs or eyebolts of the percussion tool. If the height is too high, then the block should be fastened before the sections are connected to each other;
  5. The "headstock" rises up to the stop and is fixed in this position;
  6. at a distance of 1 - 1.5 m from the surface of the earth, but not less than 0.2 m from the coupling, a "chuck" is attached, which is a massive cylindrical part with protrusions and a split insert made of metal, the hardness of which is greater than that of the pipe material.

When everything is ready, the "grandma" is released and falls on the "chuck", which is fixed even more strongly by the conical liners, and the water conduit is immersed in the ground.

After a certain number of rises and drops of the percussion tool, depending on the nature of the soil, the water conduit becomes clogged to a level when it becomes inconvenient to work as a "grandma". After that, the installed elements of the shock pair should be removed and the operation repeated with the extension of the lash with new segments, until the required mark is reached.

The depth of the first aquifer can be determined by periodically filling the conduit, if the water does not leave, then the clay layer has not been passed, and when it leaves, the “needle” must be clogged by another 1 meter. The pump can then be installed and pumping can begin.

Plastic pipe instead of a water conduit

The emergence of new materials and components for the installation of water pipes made the craftsmen want to make a well to raise water from a depth, using plastic pipes that, unlike metal, are not subject to corrosion and are not a source of iron oxide, which increases rigidity. However, the properties of plastic do not allow it to be driven into the ground without losing its shape and tightness, which necessitates drilling for the construction of such Abyssinian wells.

Since the Abyssinian is a well with a plugged bottom, due to which water does not flow as a result of inflow, but through a perforated wall, before driving plastic pipes into a hole obtained as a result of auger or spiral-screw drilling, it is necessary to drill to the full depth. After that, a string consisting of plastic pipes is plugged, starting from the end section, which has a perforated surface with a filter and a plugged bottom. The plug is preferably tapered to facilitate penetration.

The variety of plumbing communications on the market allows you to choose one of the following options for plastic pipes as a material for making an Abyssinian well with your own hands:

  1. Metapol, 1 inch or more in diameter, is lowered without breaking the section into a hole drilled with a spiral drill.
  2. PVC pipes, at least 1 inch in diameter, lowered one section at a time, which are welded together until the desired length is obtained.
  3. Sewer plastic pipe, the diameter of which is from 57 mm, lowered into the well and extended by means of standard joints with rubber seals.

Needle borehole with casing

If, in the process of drilling a pit for an Abyssinian well, it turned out that the soil is too loose and without parallel reinforcement of the walls of the penetration cannot maintain its shape, do not get upset and instead of making an Abyssinian well with a water conduit made of plastic pipes, use it as a casing ... In this case, drilling should be performed with an eccentric tool, for example, a drilling spoon, which is just designed for sandy soil, and the walls are strengthened in parallel, as the rod is lowered from the gas pipes.

The pipe structure transmitting the rotation from the gate to the drilling tool in this case, will subsequently be used as a hand-made Abyssinian well, therefore, it has requirements similar to those listed in the description of the string equipment - "needles".

After the borehole has been drilled to the full depth and the walls are reinforced, the rod is gradually removed from the borehole and disassembled into separate sections. The drilling tool is replaced with an end section with a plugged end and a perforated wall equipped with a filter element.

Starting from the end link, the sections are assembled, with the sealing of the threaded couplings with the help of tow, and the gradual lowering into the pit until the bottom is reached. The cavities between the water conduit and the casing are completely or partially filled with fine stone chips for additional filtration.

Hello dear readers. Let's start a story about the organization of water supply to a suburban area using a needle-well device or an Abyssinian well. Wells of this kind are usually made by hand, since special equipment is not required for the well construction.

This article is the quintessence of the author's personal experience and hundreds of pages studied on specialized forums and is not theoretical material, but a practical guide. As they say, an intelligent person is able to learn from other people's mistakes.

What is needed for the device of the Abyssinian well

So, let's begin. We will talk about the classic scheme of installing a needle well: driving into the ground.

To clog the Abyssinian well, we will definitely need:

  • needle filter
  • threaded pipe kit
  • pipe couplings
  • sanitary linen and paste for use in threaded connections
  • two pipe plumbing wrenches
  • well pumping pump
  • the tool with which the hammering will be carried out (we will talk about the options below)

Additional equipment that you may need:

  • Pipe die or threading die (if the thread deteriorates during hammering)
  • Two hydraulic jacks if you need to raise the well pipe string

Before proceeding with the presentation of personal experience, let us recall the basic principles of the Abyssinian well.

The borehole diameter is small - usually from one to two inches. This diameter does not allow the pump to be lowered into the well, and water is pumped out by surface pumps - first, when pumping with a manual column, then, after pumping the well, you can switch to an electric pump, which is necessarily self-priming.

It is possible to raise water from an Abyssinian well only if the water mirror is no deeper than 9 meters. If the dynamic level of the well is below eight to nine meters from the pump level, it will be possible to raise such water only by placing the pump in a caisson (pit), thus reducing the suction depth to the required value. It should be borne in mind that only the highest quality self-priming pump can show the passport 9 meters of suction.

It is important to ensure the complete tightness of the line from the filter sucking water through the pump - if a fistula forms in at least one coupling during clogging, water will not be sucked in from the depth.

A needle borehole is a small-diameter pipe, usually with an outer diameter of 1 inch (in construction markets and metal warehouses, it is marked as 25 pipe - in internal diameter) and 1? inch. The fact is that a well string will be driven into the ground without any drilling, and it can be extremely difficult to hammer a pipe of a large diameter.

How the needle-well filter works

The very first and most important element of a needle well is a filter. It is made as follows: a piece of pancake pipe is taken 1.2-2 meters, a meter section is marked for the future filter. On this segment, holes with a diameter of about 8-10 mm are drilled in a staggered manner so as not to weaken the pipe. A steel cone is welded at the end of the pipe near the filter, which will facilitate the passage of the pipe in the ground according to the lance principle.

The next step is to roll under the filter. The task of the reel is to create a gap between the pipe and the filter mesh, which is mounted on top of the reel. Without winding, water would be sucked into each hole of the filter pipe only through the section of the mesh directly above the hole. With rewinding, water will be sucked from a much larger surface of the mesh into the created gap, and then into the holes in the pipe. Thus, having completed the rewinding, we significantly increase the well production rate. The winding is usually done from wire of the same material as the filter mesh - for example, stainless steel to stainless steel, in order to avoid the formation of a galvanic pair. To help you with the choice - the table of metal compatibility:

When assembling the filter, pay special attention to the compatibility of metals: some of them create a galvanic pair, and when they come into contact as a result of a chemical reaction, they are quickly destroyed. For example, having made a winding on a pipe with aluminum wire, and fixing a brass mesh on top, after a few months you will get holes in the places where these incompatible metals touch. Therefore, in most cases, the wire and mesh are taken from stainless steel, because these materials are easy to obtain.

How to choose a mesh for an Abyssinian well filter

A special mesh for the well of the needle is needed - galloon weaving. In appearance, such a mesh is like a metal fabric. Galloon weaving implies diamond-shaped cells - they are not clogged with grains of sand, which are mainly in the shape of a cube. There are different types of filter nets, with different mesh sizes - for different sands. Ideally, the mesh should be selected knowing the fraction of sand in the aquifer. The filter should allow about 30-40% of the sand to pass through. Then, when pumping the well, small fractions of sand will come out with water, while larger ones will form a natural filter around our needle.

Filtration nets are made of metal and synthetic. The finest-grained metal meshes are marked P60 and are designed for dusty sand. Synthetic nets are of even finer weaving - up to P200. At the same time, it is not recommended to take the finest grid "with a margin" - the finer the grid, the worse the well production rate will be. The finest sand under the pressure of water is compressed around the needle filter, preventing the movement of water.

The pipe is cut into pieces of 1-1.5 meters, an external thread is cut at the ends. The pipes will be connected with couplings of the corresponding diameter. Short pieces of pipe are needed to make it easier to drive it into the ground.

What tool is used to drive the needle in an Abyssinian well?

Sledgehammer

The easiest and most barbaric way to hammer a needle is with a sledgehammer. If you have experience with careful handling of this powerful tool, it may even end well and no threaded connection will crack under the ground. The advantages of this method - the sledgehammer is easy to find, you do not need to bother with special equipment for hammering. Cons - when hitting with a sledgehammer, it is impossible to direct all the impact energy down, strictly along the axis of the borehole needle. This means that the pipe will bend to one side, flatten. The load on the threaded connections increases. If you decide to hammer the needle with a sledgehammer, do not hit the piece of pipe that you plant in the ground. Screw the steel sleeve onto the pipe and use a threaded piece of pipe to screw it into the sleeve. These pipe ends are sold in hardware stores under the name "thread" and cost a penny. We flattened one, replaced it and continued to score further.

Grandma and chick

Pull-in is the preferred method. The headstock design can be different. Most often it is a thick-walled pipe, one of the ends of which is welded. Handles are welded to it on the side; any iron can be welded to make it heavier. The weight of the headstock is usually 20-50 kg. On the upper end of the pipe to be driven in, a "chuck" is also attached through the coupling - a piece of threaded pipe, on which the blow will fall. The headstock in this design is put on the pipe being driven in, and then rises by 40-60 cm and rushes down. Since the headstock is fully clad on the pipe being driven, it moves almost perfectly up and down, and all the impact energy propels the needle towards the target.

There is another option for the design of the headstock. This is a heavy cylinder with a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the needle being driven. A coupling is screwed onto the pipe to be driven into, the next pipe of the same kind is screwed into it. This pipe, when driven in, will guide the up and down movement of the headstock. And it will hit the chimney - a steel cylinder, tightly clad on the needle tube, and resting on the sleeve, which has a diameter several mm larger than the needle. The grandmother rises and throws herself down onto the chuck. He, in turn, pushes the pipe string down.

Note a very important fact - in order not to damage the threads on pipes and couplings, you need to choose the length of the thread on the pipes in such a way that the pipes, being screwed into the coupling, dock inside it. Thus, the load from the blows by the headstock will not be on the thread, but on the ends of the pipes.

Rod

Plugging the needle with a rod is also very common. The rod is needed of such a thickness that it freely goes inside the pipe of the Abyssinian well. We will hit with a rod on the lower part of the lowered pipe string - in the opposite part of the cone that crowns the filter. The cone must be firmly welded to the filter pipe. Gradually, in the course of lowering the column, you can lengthen the bar (by welding, or by foreseeing the connection of the bars on the thread). If the mass of the bar is sufficient for impacts, and its length is already less than the lowered column, you can tie a steel cable to it and hammer the needle, lifting the bar inside the pipe column by this cable and throwing it from a height. Plugging with a bar is considered more preferable from the point of view of the safety of threaded pipe connections.

Plugging the borehole of the needle with a perforator or jackhammer

Unfortunately, you cannot simplify your task by using a power tool. This is due to the large mass of the lowered column of pipes. The hammer drill and hammer will simply bounce off the heavier structure. This fact has been verified more than once, so there is no need to waste time.

To what level should the needle be hammered?

The needle is driven down until the filter is in the aquifer. Ideally, this is coarse sand or pebbles, but usually the aquifer is fine sand. As we mentioned earlier, water from a well can only be raised from a depth of 8-9 meters. Does this mean that it is pointless to drill a well deeper than 9 meters? Of course not. It is not the depth of the well that is important, but the water level in it. Experienced drillers know that the water in the second aquifer often rises to the GWL (groundwater table). It even happens that water flows spontaneously from a depth of a well of 15-30 meters.

The second question when plugging a needle is how not to miss the aquifer? There is an easy way. Every half a meter, when the needles are driven into the pipe, water is poured. If the filter is in the aquifer, water will quickly go into the pipe. The main thing here is that when passing through a layer of clay, the mesh does not get clogged with it. Otherwise, you simply will not understand that you are in the aquifer. Through the mesh clogged with clay, water will not leave in any case.

There is another way to determine which layer the needle filter is in. When you hammer in the needle, the upper pipe must be twisted clockwise every 10-20 strokes with a pipe wrench. With this we compensate for the self-unscrewing of the threaded connections of the column. If it is possible to rotate the column completely so that the filter moves in the ground, it is easy to hear the friction of the ground against the filter cone.

So, when turning the filter, clay practically does not make a sound, coarse sand clearly squeaks, pebbles - grinds.

What to do if the filter mesh is clogged with clay or the pipe becomes clogged with sand during clogging

If the filter mesh of the Abyssinian well is clogged with clay, you can clean the filter mesh by feeding pressurized water into the pipe. She will wash out the clay. If flushing does not help, you will have to take out the entire column and clean it. Then a clean needle can be lowered into the finished hole without the risk of contamination of the filter.

It also often happens that if the filter mesh is selected too coarse, or the pipe is used without a filter at all (some soils allow the use of Abyssinian without a filter mesh, if the aquifer is pebbles or very coarse sand). If the pipe is clogged from the inside with sand, it should be flushed by lowering a narrow hose into the pipe, supplying water to it from the outside of the well and moving it so as to raise the mud from the sand in the pipe. This mud will come out of the pipe around the hose to the outside, washing out the sand.

How to prevent clogging of the pipe with sand and clay when plugging an Abyssinian well

There are a couple of ways to avoid filling the needle with sand and clay. The needle can be filled with salt or tightly packed with rope while hammering. The end of the rope should be constantly passed through all pipes, so that after driving to the desired depth, it is easy to reach it. Naturally, these two methods are suitable only when there are several Abyssinian wells nearby and the depth to which the needle needs to be driven is known in advance.

How to pump a well with a needle?

A hand pump column is best suited for pumping. Such pumps are not afraid of the content of sand in the water, and there will be a lot of inclusions from sand in the water at first. Depending on how the mesh used matches the fraction of sand in the aquifer, the well pumping time can be from half an hour to several months. At the same time, we repeat once again, a grid that is too fine will clog faster and reduce the flow rate.

In principle, when using a fairly fine mesh of galloon (twill) weaving, it is quite possible to use a self-priming surface pump for pumping. It is desirable that the impeller be made of metal, because plastic quickly grinds off with sand.

The hand pump is also good because it easily handles the initial low flow rate of the well. The electric pump, on the other hand, cannot work with poor water supply, the water column in the Abyssinian well breaks, and the pump stops working. The situation can be partially corrected by placing a tap at the outlet of the pump, and strangling the water outlet.

For an easy start of the pump, a check valve is installed in front of it. Under no circumstances place a check valve at the bottom of the string, it quickly clogs up, and it will be impossible to replace it without lifting the well string. In this case, the "extra" check valve will create additional resistance when the fluid moves and "conceal" the meter of the potential pump suction head.

What to do if the connections poison the air, i.e. there is no tightness of the column?

It not so rarely happens that after the column is clogged, it turns out that the water is not pumped out, despite the fact that it is not far from the water mirror. If a working self-priming pump is used, this means that air is leaking in the line, which does not allow creating a vacuum inside the pipe and raising water. In this case, it is recommended to lift the pipe string (the method is described below) and seal the connections. If this is not possible, the construction of an "imperfect well" can also be used. A pipe of a smaller diameter is lowered inside the Abyssinian well, and water is sucked through it. The problem is that since no vacuum is created in the pipe when pumping out water, water enters the filter by gravity, and is not sucked in. Because of this, the flow rate of the well drops sharply.

How to raise the pipes of an Abyssinian well from the ground

It happens that you need to lift the string from the pipes if you have slipped through the aquifer, or you need to completely extract the well. This can be difficult to do because the soil tightly wraps around the pipes. To fix the pipe, you can use a specially made vice, which consists of two strong steel plates tightened with bolts. You can simply put a chuck or a washer of a suitable size on a pipe sticking out of the ground, fix its movement upward with a threaded sleeve, and evenly pull it up with two jacks installed on both sides of the well. In clayey soils, you can use the following technique: tighten up the pipe string strongly, even if it does not move, and leave it there overnight: under tension, the clay gradually parses and releases the pipes.

If it is possible to apply good water pressure to the well, this can also help, up to the point that the water will wash out the soil around the well pipe and flow out to the surface outside the pipe.

This article will be developed and supplemented. Please write your ideas and suggestions in the comments.