You cannot do without your own source of drinking water on a private plot of land. Most often, the problem is solved by drilling a well, and the most expensive cost item will be the cost of driller services. Trying to reduce costs, many craftsmen tried to master the drilling technology on their own and many of them managed to provide the site with water. First you will need a DIY drilling rig. Making it is not very easy, but it is possible.

What types of drilling rigs are there?

The design of the device depends on the method chosen for drilling the well. When percussion-rope drilling, the soil is destroyed using a load that is simply thrown down. The loose soil is removed and then the cycle is repeated until the depth of the well reaches the required dimensions.

Removing soil using a rotating drill is both easier and more difficult. Simpler because less physical effort is required, but more complex because such installations have a more complex design, their dimensions are larger, and the costs of their creation are higher. It is impossible to create some elements for a reliable drilling rig yourself. Some things will have to be purchased from a specialized company, others can be ordered from an experienced turner. But the result will be a completely professional unit that can be used on the side, starting a very successful business as a hired driller.

Note! Homemade drilling rigs can be used not only for, but also for installation of pile foundations.

Experts distinguish four types of small-sized drilling rigs (MSDU):

1. Installation for UKB - percussion-rope drilling. It is a frame with a triangular base. The working elements are a cable and a chisel or bailer attached to it.
2. Auger drilling rigs, in which soil is removed using an auger, without flushing the well with water.
3. Rotary drilling rigs operating on the principle of hydraulic drilling.
4. Manual rotary installations are the simplest option, in which manual labor is used instead of an electric motor. Due to the high costs of physical labor, this type of MGBU is used quite rarely.

To make even the simplest device of this type yourself, you will need a welding machine, a drill and an angle grinder, as well as skills in working with all these tools.

A manual auger drilling rig is the simplest device for drilling wells using manual labor. You can use an electric motor to lift the drill to the surface

The simplest MGDU for cable percussion drilling

To create such a drilling rig you will need to do:

• collapsible bed;
• percussion cartridge (“glass”);
• bailer

To facilitate drilling work, the installation is connected to a gear motor, on the drum of which a cable with a fixed chuck or bailer is wound. To operate effectively, you will need a cartridge weighing about 80 kg. Using a bailer, the face is cleared of destroyed soil. The bailer is also quite effective on clay soils.

The main working element of this type of drilling rig is the cartridge or “glass”. To make it, you will need a piece of thick-walled pipe with a diameter of about 80-120 mm; the heavier the material, the better. Triangular “teeth” are usually cut out at the bottom, which loosen the soil, but you can leave this part of the cartridge flat. In addition, the lower edge of the “glass” is usually sharpened. Several holes are made on top to securely fasten the rope. The length of the cartridge can vary within 1-2 meters.

Making a drilling rig for percussion-rope drilling is not difficult; you will need a fairly heavy bailer (drilling tool), a strong rope, a frame and a winch with a motor to make the work easier

In cable percussion drilling, a bailer is used to excavate soil. The photo shows a homemade version of a tool for percussion-rope drilling, which allows you to loosen and extract soil

The simplest design of a screw MGBU

The working element of such an installation is a drill. To make it you will need a steel pipe with a cross section of 100 mm. The upper end of the pipe is equipped with an external screw thread. At the opposite end, a screw screw with a diameter of about 200 mm is made. One or two turns of the auger will be enough. Two steel knives should be welded to the ends of the auger so that in a vertical position they are at an angle to the horizontal surface of the soil.

To make it more convenient to rotate the drill, you need to take another piece of pipe about 1.5 meters long and weld it to a tee that has an internal screw thread. The tee is screwed onto part of the collapsible rod. The length of a section of such a rod is also 1.5 meters.

Drilling rig diagram: 1 - drill; 2 - knob; 3 - tee; 4 - collapsible rod; 5 - coupling; b - tripod; 7 - hole; 8 - winch; 9 - gear

The drill is driven into the ground, turned three times, then removed to remove loosened soil. The process is repeated until the depression reaches approximately one meter. Then the rod must be extended, for which another section of steel pipe is attached to it using a coupling.

To construct a well more than eight meters deep, you will need to secure the structure to a special tripod tower. In the upper part of this structure you need to make a hole in which the rod will move freely. Since the weight of the rod also becomes impressive as it increases, a winch should be used to lift the structure. The tower can be made of either metal or wood.

The operation of such a drilling rig is clearly demonstrated in the following video:

How to make a reliable design?

In order for a well drilling rig to be reliable and allow drilling work to be carried out at a professional level, it is necessary to purchase a number of elements manufactured in a factory using high-precision technology. You will need to purchase:

• swivel;
• drill rod;
• paddle drill;
• gear motor;
• motor pump with sleeve;
• hose for supplying drilling fluid.

The frame for mounting this equipment can be made independently from durable steel.

The diagram clearly shows the structure of a factory small-sized drilling rig with a swivel, drill rod, drill, electric motor, winch, pump, etc.

The swivel is necessary to transmit the driving moment from the gear motor to the drill, as well as to supply the flushing solution. The swivel body contains a moving part on which the drill rods are attached. Flushing liquid is supplied through a special sealed pipe. Although the design of this element is not complex, the service life of the entire drilling rig depends on the quality of its execution. Due to high loads, high-strength steel should be used to manufacture the swivel, while maintaining a minimum gap between the moving elements of the device. A low-quality swivel will fail after making several holes.

The drill rod is selected depending on the type of drilling (percussion, rotary, flushing, etc.). The rod can have a round or hexagonal cross-section. It transmits the driving moment directly to the drill. During operation, the bar goes down and needs to be increased. For connection, special locks with a special conical or trapezoidal (rectangular) thread are used, ensuring the most reliable connection. Liquid is supplied into the well along the internal section of the rod, which softens the soil and allows drilling to be carried out more quickly and successfully.

A drill is a working element designed to crush soil. For professional use, special three-bladed drills are suitable, which are rotated in a cyclic manner. The diameter of the drill can vary between 80-350 mm. This element is made from high-quality steel into which high-strength plates are fused, for example, VK-8. On hard soils, it is recommended to use multiple drilling passes. First, so-called exploratory drilling is carried out with an 80-mm drill, then the well is drilled with larger diameter drills until the hole reaches the required dimensions.

The simplest water intake device is the Abyssinian well. To arrange it you don’t need any complicated equipment or devices. It is enough to get a “baba”, which is a 20-25 kilogram load, and make a backstock - essentially, a clamp that reliably covers the pipe being clogged.

Fig.1. Abyssinian punching

1. Clamp for attaching blocks.

5. Grandmother.

6. Driven pipe.

7. Water intake pipe with a filter device. At the front end it is equipped with a spear-shaped tip, the diameter of which is larger than all other components. By raising and sharply lowering the woman, two people reach the water carrier at a depth of 10 meters in one daylight.

The drawing in Fig. 1 does not include a tripod. Without denying the effectiveness of this method, we note that with a tripod it is easier to control the direction of immersion, because the pit must be strictly vertical. It’s easy to make a tripod with your own hands from scrap materials.

Fig.2. Homemade drilling rig for Abyssinian wells

Drilling classic water wells can be done using the percussion-rope method; the equipment for implementing this technology is so simple that it “asks” to be made by hand.

Fig.3. Diagram of the installation for percussion-rope drilling

The simplest small-sized installations of this type allow drilling water wells to a depth of 100 meters. A characteristic disadvantage of this method is the low productivity during excavation, since the process is associated with constant lifting of the tool to unload soil from the wells after every 5 - 8 strokes.

At the same time, the percussion-rope method allows for the highest quality opening of aquifers. The simplest device, shown in Fig. 1, can be easily upgraded by installing a drive on a winch with a release clutch, as well as installing an additional manual lifting mechanism for assembling casing pipes, which can be done with your own hands at home.

Homemade installations for drilling water wells using auger tools are popular. This is a whole range of solutions from a simple garden auger, on which it is possible to increase the length of the drill rod, to quite complex mechanisms that fit the MGBU classification. They already use electric or internal combustion engines.

Fig.4. Homemade auger drill

If desired, you can make a simple auger drill with your own hands, because it will be useful not only for drilling water wells, but also when building site fences and when creating a pile grillage foundation, significantly reducing the volume of excavation work. To do this, you can use the drawing from Fig. 3, if necessary, changing the dimensions in accordance with the manufacturer’s preferences.

More complex devices for drilling holes in this way include a drilling derrick, which is a traditional tripod.

Fig.5. Scheme of manual auger drilling using a tripod

One worker can do the job, but there is a risk that the drill string will deviate from the vertical. Therefore, they usually work together, loading both sides of the lever evenly.

Considering the labor intensity of the work, it is advisable to mechanize the drilling process as much as possible. There are all the conditions for this; after a short search in the construction markets, you can purchase any parts or components and make a drill yourself.

Fig.6. Homemade drilling machine for auger drilling with flushing

As can be seen from Fig. 6, many industrial designs cannot compare with such a homemade product in terms of the elegance of execution and layout of such an installation. Judging by the type of conductors, the electrical circuit is designed and executed for a voltage of 220 volts. The size of the drilling tool shows that the installation is capable of producing medium and high flow rate wells.

To independently drill wells (for water and not only), you need at least a small drilling rig. The depth of wells is rarely less than 20 meters and it is very difficult to do without the use of even the simplest mechanisms. If we talk about drilling techniques and types of rubble rigs, then you can make the following drilling rigs with your own hands:

• Shock-rope installation. The operating principle of this type of equipment is based on gravity. At a certain height, a heavy drill bit is secured with sharpened edges - a glass or a bailer.
  o “dropped” several dozen times. Each time the projectile cuts through some part of the soil, and the rock gets stuck inside the hollow projectile (for loose soils they are equipped with valves). The glass is removed from the well and the soil is removed. The process then continues until the well reaches the required depth. For independent implementation, such devices are the simplest. In the most budget option, this is a kind of frame that allows you to secure the block above the well. A long cable with a bailer attached is thrown across the block. You can pull the cable “manually”, or you can install a gear motor with a drum.
• Auger drilling rig. Digging into the ground occurs using an auger - a rod with blades welded on by a screw. Using an auger, you can manually drill holes a couple of meters deep - under a pile foundation, for example. To pass through dense layers such as clay or dense sand, considerable effort is required. Therefore, a motor with high torque is required, and they operate on 380 V. And then, auger installations are practically useless on rocky soils. And all the same - it’s just a small stone such as crushed stone or rocks - the auger will not pass them.
• Rotary drilling. The principle of rotation is also used, but drilling fluid (water) is supplied inside the drill. This is an effective method - water carries slurry (crushed rock) to the surface, and the drill is very rarely removed to the surface. It is only constantly increased from above by installing additional rods. There are rotary “dry” drilling units - without solutions, but they require more effort, and the drilling speed is much lower. Therefore, such installations are rarely made and used.

The choice of the type of drilling rig for making it yourself depends on the geology of the area where they will drill, and the depth of the aquifers also affects. The most universal method is the shock-rope method. Various soils can be penetrated well using rotary equipment using water (this method is also called hydrodrilling). For different types of soil, different chisel shapes are used, and the crushed soil is washed to the surface with water.

The auger drill is the most capricious for soils, but it copes well with viscous soils - clays, loams, but with boulders and rocky soil it gets stuck.

Methods for purifying water from a well or well are described here.

When manufacturing a drilling rig for cable-percussion drilling, there are two important elements: the frame and the cup (chuck, bailer). For the simplest option, you can make a frame of three or four pipes, which are connected above the place where the drilling will take place. A block is attached there, and a flexible steel cable is thrown through it.

To reduce physical stress, a winch is installed, and for even greater automation, a motor with a gearbox that rotates the winch shaft is installed. At the same time, it is important to come up with a system that will allow you to release the winch shaft and reset the bailer.

A tripod frame is not always convenient - it requires a large area. Moreover, for stability, the “legs” must be at an equal distance from the center. Jumpers between all supports will also not hurt. In this case, the drilling rig will stand securely. There is another version of the frame - in the form of the letter “H” with telescopic rods (pictured below).

The vertical stand is also telescopic. It allows you to change the height from which the projectile is dropped. The rest of the equipment is the same.

Watch the video to see how a cable-percussion drilling rig, made with your own hands from scrap materials, works. This design is easy to accurately replicate.

More information on how to drill and equip a water well is described here.

Homemade MGBU designs are successfully used in the development of water wells for private households. Such equipment has many advantages:

• compact size and light weight;
• simple design;
• high efficiency and versatility;
• accessible transportation, quick installation and dismantling;
• no negative impact on the landscape of the area where the well is being developed;
• Possibility of use in small areas and in limited spaces (house extensions, garages and basements);
• connection to a standard power supply or autonomous power source;
• affordable cost of homemade devices;
• high maintainability.

5. Grandmother.

6. Driven pipe.

When manufacturing a mini drilling rig, a “RA-1000” winch is used. You can take another one, but preferably one with a carrying capacity of at least 1 ton (or better yet, more). Some drillers install two winches, one electric and the other mechanical. In the case of a drill string wedge, it is very helpful.

To make the work easier, it is advisable to buy and connect two remote controls: one for reverse and engine speed, the other for the winch. This will save a lot of effort.

A gear motor for a homemade mini drilling rig will need 60-70 rpm, with a power of 2.2 kW. Weaker will not do. If you use a more powerful one, you will need a generator, since it will not be possible to connect to a voltage of 220 Volts. Recommended gear motor models for hydraulic drilling: 3MP 31.5/3MP 40/3MP 50.

DIY Drilling Basics

1. Purchase of drill rods and swivel (note that the parts have the same thread, or use an adapter). To begin with, you don’t need to buy a lot, focus on a depth of 30 meters.

2. Purchase of a motor-gearbox. These purchases take a long time and there are often delays beyond your control, so it's best to buy in advance.

3. Manufacturing of frame and drill. When making a frame, it is advisable to have a motor, a swivel and a winch on hand, since all this needs to be attached to the frame. Making a carriage without a motor yourself is also problematic, since the mounts for different motors may differ.

4. We purchase the remaining components of the mini drilling rig after installing the main components on the frame.

To make a water well manually, auger or shock-rope technology is used. The hydraulic method will require a drilling rig. A collapsible model of a small-sized model can be made according to drawings from our website. And perhaps drilling water wells with your own hands will become your business.

Screw method

Working with an auger is the easiest manual method. It is used only to obtain shallow sources, the water from which will be used for technical purposes.

To perform independent drilling, you need a drill, which, when screwed into the ground, destroys the rock and grabs the soil with its blades. Periodic removal of the auger is necessary to clean it of sludge. This work is done without assistants.

In addition to the drill, you will need a tripod to which the auger is attached, and a lifting mechanism (manual with a winch or mechanized). Without these devices it is impossible to drill. Even several people will not be able to lift the drill with soil from a sufficient depth.

The greatest difficulty is drilling strictly vertically. Only a fixed drill will provide the necessary verticality, without which the pipes will be deformed. To ensure proper verticality, after passing 2 meters, you need to install a temporary metal pipe - a conductor, which will set the correct direction of movement.

The auger method can be used in soft soils. If the auger hits a moraine, you will have to repeat the process in another place. Quicksand are also more difficult. Softened soil is difficult to pull to the surface. Only an auger with blades curved towards the top helps.

To make a source in clayey and loamy soils, it is better to use the shock-rope method. This method is more labor-intensive, but reliable and simple. For work, a drill glass is used - it is a cylinder with sharpened edges.

The essence of the method is to raise the glass (in other words, the cartridge) to the height from which it is dropped. Upon impact, the cylinder becomes clogged with soil. Raising the glass to the surface, remove excess soil.

The shock-rope method is good for almost all soils. But it takes a lot of effort, so hydraulic systems are often used to lift the cartridge.

Impact-rope technology is also good because it shows when water-bearing sand will appear. When reached, a bailer with a valve is used, capable of lifting liquefied soil.

Manual hydro drilling

Drilling with water is effective for sandy soil. The problem with hydrodrilling is rocky soil. You can't get through the rocks manually; you need a percussion drilling rig.

Regardless of the method, when removing soil, you need to line the well with pipes. You will need to install a perforated filter and pump.

To make a well with your own hands without equipment using the specified technologies, you will need various tools and materials. Below we will consider the budget, pros and cons of the design of water intake sources.




Hand auger

• drilling - the height of a hand drill does not allow reaching even the horizons of the high water, therefore, after deepening by 1 - 1.5 m, the rod is increased by the next section;




• casing - usually made of polyethylene pipes, perforated in the lower part with slots or round holes, or a factory, home-made filter is attached to the bottom hole;



• flushing - usually 2 - 3 buckets of very dirty water are pumped out, then 1 - 2 cubes of liquid with sand are pumped out, after which the quality returns to normal;




• low construction budget – purchase of a drill, production of rods with locks for extension;
• speed of penetration - the auger is an Archimedes screw through which the soil independently moves upward.




• complex vertical positioning;
• numerous descents/ascents.

Drilling a well on a site is a large-scale task. Not every home owner can afford the services of a professional team, and hiring “handicraftsmen” is, in most cases, just throwing away money.

It’s easier to do all the work yourself: you work harder for yourself and have fewer expenses. In addition, if you make a drilling rig yourself, the costs will seem literally ridiculous compared to the real prices of drilling.

We will tell you how to make a machine for manually excavating a water intake on a site. The information we present is based on the practical experience of independent drillers. To complete the perception of a difficult topic, the proposed information is supplemented with useful diagrams, photo collections, and videos.

A novice driller needs to be patient and prepare to perform not the easiest work.

You will also need available tools and inexpensive materials to make a rig and a drilling rig, as well as common sense and a couple of friends to help.

Image gallery

Development of a private water well is an important stage in organizing an autonomous water supply and developing a site. In this case, a significant cost item is payment for the services of professional drillers.

An alternative solution to this issue for many site owners is a small-sized drilling rig that combines reliability and ease of operation. In addition, drilling equipment can be assembled with your own hands from scrap materials.

Types of downhole drilling rigs

A productive mini drilling rig is successfully designed for developing shallow aquifer wells.

Based on the available drilling methods, the units are divided into the following types:

1. Drum kits. They are represented by a triangular frame structure with a durable base, to which a flexible cable with a bailer and a chisel is attached. They are easy to install and reliable in operation.
2. Screw installations. The equipment is equipped with a drilling auger for excavating soil in the required volume without additional flushing of the hydraulic structure with water.
3. Rotary units. Production equipment that provides hydraulic drilling of wells. A manual rotary rig is the most affordable option, which does not use an electric motor, and all drilling work is performed manually.

The drilling rig is designed for operation on land plots where it is not possible to install full-fledged drilling units. It is compact and mobile, so it is easily transported and used in relief areas with difficult access roads.

Advantages of homemade drilling rigs

Homemade MGBU designs are successfully used in the development of water wells for private households. Such equipment has many advantages:

• compact size and light weight;
• simple design;
• high efficiency and versatility;
• accessible transportation, quick installation and dismantling;
• no negative impact on the landscape of the area where the well is being developed;
• Possibility of use in small areas and in limited spaces (house extensions, garages and basements);
• connection to a standard power supply or autonomous power source;
• affordable cost of homemade devices;
• high maintainability.

Percussion drilling

The most reliable way to develop a hydraulic structure for which a small rig is used is a metal pipe equipped with a bailer. The equipment is used in areas with moving and soft soils - the bailer captures part of the rock from the borehole channel, extracting it to the surface.

Impact drilling is a labor-intensive option for developing a borehole channel, which has special requirements:

• increased strength of the flexible cable for extracting large volumes of soil;
• safety of installation and operation;
• high performance.

The main advantages of such drilling include:

• long service life of the finished well;
• the possibility of arranging hydraulic structures with a large diameter;
• eliminating contamination of water with foreign impurities during well development;
• the ability to control the level of the aquifer;
• high efficiency of work in winter.

Among the disadvantages are:

• reduced speed of overcoming rocks if the depth of the structure is significant;
• mandatory arrangement of casing;
• the possibility of the collapse of individual layers of soil during the passage of quicksand.

Auger drilling

An effective and safe way to construct a shallow aquifer well in mobile and light soils with a high sand content. The development of a working channel for a hydraulic structure is carried out with an auger rod equipped with an end cutter and blade elements, which are designed to lift soil to the surface.

The advantages of this method are:

• speed of completion of a complex of drilling works;
• ease of assembly and installation of equipment on site;
• no need to attract qualified specialists and expensive equipment to lift soil to the surface;
• Possibility of use in small areas.

Rotary drilling

An effective way to install a private water-bearing well in hard and immobile soils with a high content of limestone, pebbles and gravel.

To develop a well, a hydraulic rotary rig is used - a drilling rig equipped with a rotating bit and a rotary mechanism.

Rotary drilling ensures efficient development of a well channel, rapid achievement of deep aquifers and stable well production.

In areas with loose and moving soils containing sand and clay, the well is drilled using a spoon drill - a cylindrical installation with spiral-shaped holes. For dense loamy soils, a coil drill is used, which works on the principle of a corkscrew. For rocky and dense soils, a pointed chisel is suitable.

This method has only two drawbacks: a significant consumption of solution for flushing the borehole channel and the possible penetration of clay particles into the aquifer.

Drilling with well flushing

The most highly productive and efficient way to develop a borehole channel with a depth of over 35 meters. A mini-rig for drilling water wells is capable of achieving penetration speeds of up to 12 m/hour, which is much higher than other methods.

The drilling process requires mandatory flushing of the well channel in a direct and reverse manner.

• Direct flushing - supplying a solution to wash out and release soil to the surface.
• Reverse flushing is the supply of solution into the borehole channel and subsequent pumping out of the soil mass using pumping equipment.

Drilling pipes or hoses are used as a channel for supplying the flushing solution.

The drilling fluid is designed to perform the following functions:

• cooling and lubrication of working elements of the drilling rig;
• washing out soil from the borehole channel;
• strengthening the casing.

Drilling pumping equipment or motor pumps are used to supply the flushing solution into the channel.

Assembly of a small-sized drilling rig with manual drive

To make the installation at home, you need to prepare the basic components and working tools:

• plumbing connecting cross;
• hacksaw on a metal surface;
• metal pipe with a diameter of 0.5 inches;
• steel plates;
• Adjustable wrench;
• 0.5 inch diameter squeegee.

Important! Some design elements for the drilling unit cannot be made by hand, so they must be purchased in advance.

Self-assembly of a manual structure involves preparing a section of pipe that will be used as a base for the drilling rig.

All work is carried out in the following order:

1. To create a cross structure, notches 2 cm long are made at the ends of the pipe.
2. Steel plates in the shape of a tip are welded to the end of the pipe.
3. The water supply hose is connected to a cross hole, and an adapter is used for more reliable fixation. Water is supplied to check the functionality of the structure.
4. A plumbing thread is installed in the cross hole; it is better if it is made of plastic or hemp fiber.
5. A section equipped with a tip is connected to the base of the pipe using a drive.

Important! After completion of drilling the well and when the depth is reached, the tip is replaced with an extended section of pipe.

Manufacturing of electric drilling rig

To make an electric drilling rig with your own hands, you should start by preparing working materials and tools:

• electric drill with drills;
• screwdriver;
• Bulgarian;
• welding machine;
• bailer (drill);
• cup;
• frame (bed);
• gearbox

For continuous supply of water to the borehole channel, the drilling rig is connected to a gearbox, which functions as an electric drive. The channel is cleaned with a bailer.

The manufacture of a drilling rig is carried out as follows:

1. Preliminary production of a glass from a piece of metal pipe with a diameter of up to 12 cm. The greater the mass of the installation, the higher the speed of soil passage.
2. A hole in the shape of triangular teeth is made in the lower part of the cut.
3. A pit is being prepared at the site for lowering the drilling rig.
4. The drill is made of a metal pipe with a diameter of 10 cm. A screw thread is screwed into the upper part, and a screw element with a diameter of up to 22 cm is installed on the opposite end.

1. Sharp metal knives are fixed to the auger by welding at an angle to increase the speed of soil passage.
2. To simplify the work with the auger, a piece of pipe up to 150 cm long is connected to the rod using a tee. This will ensure effective interception of the drill during manual operation of the installation.

Important! When developing a borehole channel with a depth of more than 8 meters, the drilling rig is mounted on a special tripod made of metal or wood.

A small-sized drilling rig is productive equipment for developing an aquifer well on a private plot of land. The design of drilling rigs is simple and reliable. However, there are significant differences between installations in terms of price, technical parameters and service life.

In addition, making homemade drilling units is quite simple, the main thing is to prepare high-quality components and follow the step-by-step instructions.