Driven Well w Point

[Supa Dexta]

Now who does water witching? I've done it a few times, I still cant convince myself its real, but damned if it hasn't worked where the rods told me it would. Have a local old timer around that does it too, I'll have him come out and then compare to where my rods moved as well, without telling him I did it first.

 

[Jogeephus]

Now who does water witching? I've done it a few times, I still cant convince myself its real, but damned if it hasn't worked where the rods told me it would. Have a local old timer around that does it too, I'll have him come out and then compare to where my rods moved as well, without telling him I did it first.

I do it before I ever wash a well. I can tell you which direction the water is moving and how wide the stream is. My well driller laughs at this because he says there is water everywhere all you need do is dig deep enough and you'll find it.

 

[Supa Dexta]

I'm no rocket surgeon, but I don't think there are 'streams' under ground - atleast not in the same sense as there is above ground. If there were it would wash itself out in no time and the weight of the ground above would always slough itself in. It would have to be cracks in some pretty hard rock, to have much flow at all.

Same as oil - there isn't vast open caverns under ground, its just tiny pore spaces in a permeable rock, and billions upon billions of pores create a reservior. So it 'flows' in a sense as it occupies this spaces and moves downwards due to gravity, as a new pore opens up lower than itself it moves along, but its fairly static and not like a running stream as I understand?

 

[Jogeephus]

I'm no rocket surgeon, but I don't think there are 'streams' under ground - atleast not in the same sense as there is above ground. If there were it would wash itself out in no time and the weight of the ground above would always slough itself in. It would have to be cracks in some pretty hard rock, to have much flow at all.

Same as oil - there isn't vast open caverns under ground, its just tiny pore spaces in a permeable rock, and billions upon billions of pores create a reservior. So it 'flows' in a sense as it occupies this spaces and moves downwards due to gravity, as a new pore opens up lower than itself it moves along, but its fairly static and not like a running stream as I understand?

I think you are partially right but there are streams as well as large open caves full of water. Think sink holes and one of the worst things that can happen to you if you are drilling a deep well here is to hit one of these caverns because you are liable to lose your gear. We hit one of these when I dug my last deep well. Thankfully the cave was only about 10' and he was able to manipulate things to keep the drill from binding up.

I have an underground creek that travels across my place. Its varies from 4-6' wide and is about 16' deep. I mapped this by witching and this is where I washed one of my wells. This creek runs across the state highway and on this side of the road is a hand dug well centered in this creek. I had to do some repair work it because the sides had collapsed and had to dig it deeper. After digging about 4 foot down I found a tunnel about 18" in diameter and when the mouth of this was cleaned out water flowed into the well faster than the mud pump could pump it out so I couldn't dig any deeper and had to climb out. So I know there are also tunnels but you are also right about water flowing through porous materials. If you go back and read my earlier post I mention hitting the pudding. This, I think, is what you are referring to and is essentially a porous quicksand-like stuff which is "the creek".

After I washed a well into this creek I was doing some clearing and I tore down an old barn near an old home site and found the casing of another well. It was centered in this same creek. So today you can go out with the rods and walk the creek channel and as you do you will come upon these three wells. We washed another about 60' away from this and never hit water. I have two other hand dug wells still open. One is dry as a bone and goes down 30' and the other is only 20' deep and the water is only six feet from the surface. If you witch around the dry hole you won't find any sign of water even though there is a 16 acre pond not 50 yards from the well.

 

[greybeard]

Can you witch for gold and oil Jo?

 

[Bigfoot]

I have watched some of the videos, on a digging a well with water. Looks simple enough. I have several springs on my place. It is also very common for me to dig a post hole, only to have the hole fill with water. Seldom hit a rock when digging. Think I'm a likely candidate?

PS
I can witch both wells and warts====not kidding

 

[Jogeephus]

Bigfoot, I don't know what your soil is like but its simple enough here with our sandy soils. It sucks when you hit a rock though. There is nothing you can do but start over. Here, its real simple to get down about six foot. Takes about 15 minutes. Then you hit a clay layer and it slows it down - maybe a foot every 15 minutes. Then you break through this and you hit the pudding and it goes like a charm. I imagine if you have clay it would take you longer but it is really simple. If you don't have a water source you can easily replumb a nurse tank and that will work. I like having water sources scattered around because you never know when you'll be without power and having a pitcher pump on one of these will do trick.

HomeDepot and Lowes used to carry the fittings you need to wash with. What I'd suggest is to take the piece with the ball valve and cut some better teeth. Also cut teeth in your 4" casing. You don't have to but it will speed things up because anything you can use that will help gnaw at the clay will help the digging process. Oh, and be sure to do it on a hot day because you will get wet. :lol2:

 

[Jogeephus]

Can you witch for gold and oil Jo?

Can't do that. You know, people laugh about this and question it but it really does work. My father taught me this and he said they used it on the beaches of France for detecting mines because they didn't have enough mine detectors. I can find water, survey corners, metal pipe, concrete pipe and plastic pipe (if the water is running). It all has to do with some distortion of the earth's magnetic field.

 

[M-5]

I can find water and metal and underground wires with my witching rods. I used to make them out of coat hangers but HT wire works much better .

 

[SteppedInIt]

I can find water and metal and underground wires with my witching rods. I used to make them out of coat hangers but HT wire works much better .

whats the specs on the rods? How long should they be?

 

[M-5]

24" is about right. I bend them 90degs with the pointer leg being a skosh longer

 

[Jogeephus]

Also, if you'll cut a couple pieces of the cardboard tubing off a coat hanger and stick the end of the rods in this you can clearly see that the user has no influence on the movement of the rods. Its pretty neat to watch. Once you locate the sides of the stream you can walk perpendicular to the stream with one rod and it will point in the direction of the flow.

I've only met one person who couldn't do it but they were odd in that they couldn't wear a wristwatch either.

 

[bbirder]

Make them from a 36" brass brazing rod. Best I have found.

 

[greybeard]

I'm no rocket surgeon, but I don't think there are 'streams' under ground - atleast not in the same sense as there is above ground. If there were it would wash itself out in no time and the weight of the ground above would always slough itself in. It would have to be cracks in some pretty hard rock, to have much flow at all.

Same as oil - there isn't vast open caverns under ground, its just tiny pore spaces in a permeable rock, and billions upon billions of pores create a reservior. So it 'flows' in a sense as it occupies this spaces and moves downwards due to gravity, as a new pore opens up lower than itself it moves along, but its fairly static and not like a running stream as I understand?

Not always. Historically, oil is produced from sand formations. The oil flow is horizontal into the perforations in the casing, and a fairly simple plunger pump is at the bottom of the sucker rod.
If not, the thousands of these things would not work. They're just a plunger pump.

 

[Supa Dexta]

True, but thats after it can't go any lower. Stratigraphic traps and structural traps will determine how its stored underground, but all of the pore spaces in the rocks (or space amongst sand) are filled with a fluid, be it water, gas, or oil. Gas, being the lightest, moves to the top. Oil right beneath the gas, and water at the bottom.

Once the oil and gas reach an impenetrable layer, a layer that is very dense or non-permeable, the movement stops.

So there will be more forces acting upon it other than just gravity, being under pressure - But I was keeping it basic. I''ve drilled 100s of miles of horizontal wells, if not 1000s. SAGD, huff and puff - both for new wells, re entries, multi laterals, extended reach, you name it.

 

[hurleyjd]

My great Aunt was a water witch. She used a green forked limb from a peach tree. Held the two forks in her hand with the single limb pointing away from her. After she located the water she had a copper penny and a silver dime and would split the long end of the single fork. If it pulled down with the dime you would have soft water. If it pulled down with the penny the water would be hard.

 

[Jogeephus]

My great Aunt was a water witch. She used a green forked limb from a peach tree. Held the two forks in her hand with the single limb pointing away from her. After she located the water she had a copper penny and a silver dime and would split the long end of the single fork. If it pulled down with the dime you would have soft water. If it pulled down with the penny the water would be hard.

That's neat stuff right there. I've only met a couple people who could use the peach branches. Never heard about the coins but that is interesting and I have no reason to doubt what you say. I knew a ....a....a.... witch for lack of better word. She wasn't a cast the spell type person but she could do all sorts of strange things. A root doctor I guess is the proper term.

 

[SteppedInIt]

I put one in the ground last week using a mini excavator. I started out auguring a 3' hole. Dropped the well point in with a 6' joint of pipe and carefully pushed in the ground, then adding another joint. Unfortunately I hit something that feels like wood that I couldn't push through. It would bounce. On the upside I had water in the pipe. Hooked up a pump and let her run for a couple hours. I didn't run out of water but the rate is poor. I may have to pull the well point out and try in a different location and hope not to hit anything.