Features of arrangement and operation of a needle well. Self-production of a needle with a well Needle device for drilling an Abyssinian well

The needle well received its exotic name after it began to be used by English subjects in Abyssinia. Setting up an Abyssinian well is one of the simple and inexpensive ways to provide a summer cottage with water.

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

The most important requirement when constructing 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 diameter well into the sand or bury the pump.

Also, when constructing 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 a sand-crushed stone mixture. Water passes through soil of this composition unhindered and therefore it will be easily pumped out.

Device principle

The basic principle of constructing a needle well with your own hands is to pierce 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 are the following:

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

Advantages

Among the undeniable advantages of the well, the following should be especially highlighted:

1. Simplicity and speed of installation. Under favorable conditions, constructing a well with your own hands will take no more than 10 hours, and 1-2 people can handle the entire amount of work.
2. Compact, making it possible to fit in confined spaces. For example, in the basement of a house, garage or bathhouse.
3. Quite good performance indicators. The volume of pumped water can reach 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 that are characteristic of the aquifers located below.
5. Long service life. In some cases it can reach 50 years.

Abyssinian well construction technologies

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

Well construction should begin with the manufacture of the needle and filter itself. To do this, you will need a pipe about a meter long and a cone-shaped tip that is welded to the pipe.

The filter itself is made as follows. Small holes are drilled in the pipe, preferably in a checkerboard pattern. After that, a stainless mesh is attached to the top using clamps or soldered.

Attention! It is very important not to use solder with lead impurities. Because if they get into water they can cause severe poisoning.

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

1. Hammering with a barbell.
2. Hammering with grandma.
3. Drilling with an auger.

Hammering with a barbell

To install a well using this technology, you will need a rod, which is a metal rod with a length of 6 to 20 m. Usually it lengthens as it goes deeper.

The hammering technology itself is simple. Using a metal rod, strike the top of the pipe. As a result of this, the tip, made in the form of a cone, is immersed in the ground.

Hammering with a headstock

The headstock is a special device in the form of a heavy load, the average weight of which is 25-30 kg. During the hammering process, it is lifted up using special handles or, depending on the design, using ropes. Then it is released and falls onto a special headstock attachment (Fig. 3). As it is punched, it is moved up the pipe. And if necessary, this pipe is expanded.

Advice! If it is unknown 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 to avoid overshooting the aquifer.

Usually the first sign that a pipe has reached an aquifer is high water absorption, which is easy to check. To do this, take a watering can with water and pour its contents into the pipe. If the water drains very quickly, you should try pumping the well using a pump.

Drilling with an auger

Compared to others, this method of constructing a well with your own hands has one significant drawback. It is only suitable for soft to medium hard soils. If hard rocky layers enter, the auger will not be able to drill through them.

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

The whole principle of drilling with an auger is as follows: using a garden drill or a special installation, a well with a diameter of 5 cm and a depth of about 8 meters is created. During the drilling process, the rod going to the auger is expanded as necessary.

Construction of a finished well

After completing the work on constructing the well with your own hands, you can begin 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 constantly be sucked into the system and it will not be able to function normally.

To start the pumping station for the first time, you need to fill it with water. First, air will come out of the well, and only then dirty water. This is a normal process, this is how it should be. After a short pumping, clean water will flow out.

A do-it-yourself igloo well is a quick and economical option for providing water to a summer house or personal plot.

At a dacha, in a private house or country cottage, in areas where it is not possible to connect to a central water supply, and simply in order to gain independence and obtain water in the right quantity, they usually dig a well or drill a well.

There are many ways to obtain water, one of which is drilling an Abyssinian well (AW), which is often called an igloo well. The well is drilled to the level of aquiferous sand and water is supplied from there.

What is an Abyssinian well

The emergence of the Abyssinian well has a controversial history; according to one version, such water sources were used by the British during the colonial conquests in North America, namely in Abyssinia (which is where the name comes from), now Ethiopia.

Like any other successful invention, the Abyssinian well became widespread throughout the world. According to another version, an American (Norton) invented a well of this design in the 19th century.

The Abyssinian well is known by different names, for example, Abyssinian water well, needle well, Abyssinian tube well, sand well, driven well.

An Abyssinian well is considered to be a well drilled using a special method. It is a pipe of small diameter (an inch and a half) 10-20 meters long, driven into the ground. The water is raised using a vacuum method, using a manual or electric pump.

Drinking water from the Abyssinian well is obtained from surface aquifers filled with precipitation, the mineral composition of which is favorable for the human body (little manganese, iron salts, etc.).

Passing through soil and sand, the water is filtered from harmful impurities. It is believed that water from an Abyssinian well is better than from a deep well.

Abyssinian well - advantages and disadvantages

Based on experience of use and numerous reviews, we can highlight the pros and cons of extracting water from the Abyssinian Igla well.

Advantages:

• speed of work. The first water can be obtained within 6-7 hours (the speed is influenced by the type of soil and the depth of the aquifer);

• cheapness. The Abyssinian well is the most economical way to obtain water in terms of installation and operation;

• long service period. An Abyssinian well can function for up to 30 years. The lifespan is influenced by factors such as the chemical composition of water and sand fractions, which can clog the filter (which can be replaced and extend the service life for another 10-15 years);

• the ability to drill a well almost anywhere on the site, in the basement, in the garage, in the barbecue area, in the gazebo, on the veranda, etc.;

• hygiene. The well is protected from external debris;

• all-season use;

• high performance. Up to 3 cubic meters per hour.

Flaws:

• using an electric pump increases the cost of obtaining water. As a consequence, the need for mandatory electrification of the site;

• using a mechanical pump (column) will reduce the water flow rate and require some effort;

• impossibility of plugging an Abyssinian well in some areas.

Geological prerequisites for constructing an Abyssinian well

Unfortunately, not everyone has access to an AK. The engineering and geological conditions for the construction of an Abyssinian well depend on a number of reasons:

• The soil. The Abyssinian well only works in coarse sand or bedrock.

• Location. AK cannot be located near sources of pollution, such as a bathhouse, compost, barnyard, etc. It is also not recommended to dig AK near water - a stream or pond.

How to find a place for a well

Determining a place for an Abyssinian well is practically no different from searching for the installation of any other well. As a rule, indirect signs, the use of a copper frame and a banal survey of neighbors are taken into account.

All methods are good, the main thing is the result. Choosing a location is an important task, because... a mistake eliminates all labor costs and the long-awaited water simply won’t be available.

It depends on the water level whether you will need to use a pump or perhaps install only a manual column. The calculation is as follows: if the water level is below 8 meters, then the water will have to be pumped manually, if up to this limit, then with an electric pump.

Abyssinian well kit

To carry out the work you will need equipment for drilling an Abyssinian well:

• Abyssinian well needle (steel needle, cone or point). You can make the tip yourself on a lathe. For ease of drilling (driving), the diameter of the needle should exceed the diameter of the pipes by 10-30 mm. Tip length 200-300 mm. The needle can be screwed onto a thread or soldered to a pipe. If you use the welding method, then you need to choose tin as the solder, because... Lead compounds are dangerous (can cause water poisoning).

• Sections (main or pipeline). Water will be supplied through it. It is made simply - individual pipes with a diameter of 1 inch are connected to each other using couplings. In this case, couplings should only be made of steel. Cast iron ones burst when driven. And to avoid water leakage, rubber seals or plumbing linen and oil paint are used. As a rule, the length of the main line rarely exceeds 15 m. But in some areas there are wells driven to a depth of up to 40 m.

• Pump for the Abyssinian well - manual or electric. Installed at the top of the highway.

• Concrete rings.

All the described elements can be made independently or you can buy a kit for an Abyssinian well, made in an industrial environment.

Abyssinian well - DIY device technology

1. The drilling location is determined;
2. Soil is being excavated at the site of the future AK. It is enough to remove 1 cubic meter, this will make the work easier. Although, many users advise drilling a well without excavation, immediately punching a small well with a diameter of 80-100 mm. If you plan to use the AK all-season, you need to dig a hole with a depth below the freezing level of the soil. Then the equipment for the Abyssinian well will not freeze in winter. But the water from the pump will still have to be drained, otherwise it will be deformed from the thermal expansion of the water;
3. The line is clogged into the soil. To do this, you need to drill a hole; there are several ways to hammer a pipe for a well:

• By using a socket headstock. Here the operating principle is more than simple. Force is applied to the top of the headstock. The impulse from it is transmitted to the pipe. Thus, the tip for the well is driven into the ground. To avoid breaking the pipe thread, you can screw a plug onto it. And fix the grandmother on it.

• By screwing the tip into the soil. This method is the most labor-intensive and is therefore rarely used. Only if you need to drill to a shallow depth;

How to make a rig for drilling an Abyssinian well with your own hands

It was mentioned above that a well can be driven or drilled, it is difficult to say which method is better, it all depends on the soil, location and capabilities. If there is no specialized equipment for drilling a well, and you don’t want to hire a team, then you can build a drilling rig yourself - a driving machine.

Let's look at how to make a homemade installation for drilling a well needle

The result will be a drilling rig as in the photo

Two corners 2.5-2.7 m long are welded at an angle with a base length of 110-130 cm. We make 2 such parts. At the top point you need to provide a place to attach a block for hanging the headstock.
You can use timber or sleepers as a base (platform). The structure is installed and fixed so that the installation does not move during operation.

We hang a headstock weighing 30-40 kg on the block. The internal channel of the headstock must be of sufficient length, preferably 60 cm. If it is shorter, the headstock may fly off the trunk, plus the impact force is reduced (small amplitude). The presence of handles on the headstock will allow you to help with your hands at certain moments when hammering (in especially hard soil layers, one person lifts the headstock by pulling the rope, and the second, holding the handles, accelerates its downward movement).

We make the main line for driving the well from sections (pipes) one and a half meters long (there should be 6-8 such sections, depending on the depth of the aquifer, the estimated location of which is determined in advance - we find out from the neighbors, we check with a copper frame), plus one for reserve.

Sections can be made from stainless steel pipe (expensive) or black seamless steel pipe (affordable). You should not use galvanized pipe, it is softer.

The sections are connected using couplings (steel only, cast iron is brittle). The main thing here is to correctly make the thread of the coupling, which should remain outside half a turn or a turn. During the driving process, the impact must be on the end of the pipe, and in no case on the thread, otherwise it will not be possible to screw on the next section.

The cone (tip, needle) must be made of durable steel. There are several ways to construct a wedge: a round shape is turned on a lathe, but many advise making a faceted one. They are also made from a corner in the form of a tetrahedron. The main thing is that the spear-shaped tip is larger in diameter than the pipe itself.

Insert the filter pipe into the initially drilled hole (made with a hand drill). When hammering in the first section, make sure that it is strictly vertical relative to the ground level. We thoroughly compact the excavated soil.

We put the headstock on the centered trunk (pipe), the driving principle is simple - we pull the rope, the end of which is tied to the headstock, sharply release it, the impact force drives the headstock into the ground.

On the clogged section, screw on the coupling and the next section. Since the layers of soil may differ in their composition (clay, sand), it is natural that the speed of penetration will also vary, so do not be alarmed if it goes quickly in one place and is slow in another.

Before installing the last section, where in theory there should be water, fill the planted pipe with water. In the process, i.e. To soften the flow, you can fill it from a bucket with a watering can, and to check it, it must be under pressure. To do this, you need to connect an electric self-priming pump.

It should be understood that washing the mesh (needle filter) under pressure is an important step. During the drilling process, the pipe passes through different layers, and the filter mesh becomes clogged with rock, soil and clay, so when it reaches the aquifer, water may simply not penetrate into the pipe. If you supply water under pressure and it does not return like a fountain, then the goal has been achieved - you are in the sand. We pour water from a watering can into the pipe - it goes away, which means everything was done correctly.

All that remains is to make a tie around the pipe, connect the pump and pump water.

Conclusion

It is clear from the article that the technology for constructing an Abyssinian well is not particularly difficult. All materials, tools and equipment necessary for its full functioning are quite accessible and not expensive. Thus, after spending just one day on drilling, you gain complete independence from the central water supply for a long time.

Having made an Abyssinian well with your own hands, it will be possible to extract water from the soil layer closest to the surface - sand. In most cases, the water passing through the porous structure is of sufficiently high quality (this parameter must be tested in a laboratory), so there is no need to drill deeper and, accordingly, pay more.

Before drilling, you can ask your neighbors about the quality of water, and after the well is installed, its suitability for drinking and cooking is determined in a laboratory. At the same time, the Abyssinian well (needle well) has structural differences and certain advantages when compared with a classic well, which, in accordance with its depth (to the sand layer), is called a sand well.

To determine which is best for you, an Abyssinian well or a sand well, pay attention to the following:

• One of the main differences should be considered well size. The diameter of the casing pipe of an Abyssinian well is much smaller - most often 1 inch. Due to this, it is also called a needle hole.
• Is different water pumping principle– liquid enters the “needle” according to the principle of suction and is often under pressure. At the same time, water flows into a large-diameter well according to the principle of inflow.

Main technical characteristics of the Abyssinian well:

• well depth usually no more than 8-10 meters, although in certain cases it can reach 12-20 meters. But if the water level in it is lower 8-9 meters, there will be problems with water supply using a surface pump,
• performance– 0.5-3 m3/hour.

The needle well design is quite simple. For ease of immersion, the casing pipe consists of sections connected by couplings. The submersible end is equipped with a cone with a slot for water intake and a filter in its upper part.

Well components parameters:

• pipe diameter for the Abyssinian well – from 2.5 to 7.5 cm,
• the length of each segment is about 2 m,
• length of the cone-shaped tip – 20-30 cm,
• the cone diameter is selected 1-1.5 cm larger than the corresponding casing pipe parameter.

The pump for an Abyssinian well can be an external electric one, and in some cases (for periodic use, for example, only for watering a small garden), it is practiced to install a cheaper hand pump.

Advantages and disadvantages of needle well

Abyssinian wells have a number of advantages, which have led to their widespread use.

• With a smaller diameter, the Abyssinian well, made by hand, is not inferior to its larger counterparts.
• The source is equipped with surface pumps (more convenient for inspection and repair than submersible models).
• Thanks to its features, an Abyssinian well installed with your own hands can become a practical and convenient option where using a conventional well is impractical or completely impossible.
• With a small thickness of the sandy aquifer, it is easier to “catch” it with a thin casing pipe (in some cases, a do-it-yourself needle well is the only option).
• The construction of an Abyssinian well does not require much space, so it is often done right in the house, in the basement.
• The immersion of the casing pipe of an Abyssinian well with a large thickness of the aquifer is arbitrary, while a classic well must be drilled to the aquitard - the clay layer located after the sand. This eliminates the possibility of water being drawn from the lower part of the sand layer, which often contains a large amount of impurities, including dissolved iron. Thus, the mineral composition of water in an Abyssinian well, built according to all the rules, is usually better than in a large-diameter well.
• An igloo well, built and equipped with your own hands, silts up less, including due to the presence of pressure and intense water flow. In addition, it is easier to clean the “needle” casing.

For any owner of a house or cottage, the low cost of an Abyssinian well and the ability to drill and equip an “igloo” in one day are important.

You will learn more about what types there are by reading our separate article. The depth from which it can lift water also depends on the type of pump.

What an artesian well is and the features of its structure are described in the material.

The main disadvantage of the Abyssinian well should be considered the possibility of contaminants entering the water from the surface due to the shallow depth of the intake. Because of this, you should carefully choose the location for installing the needle well, ensuring maximum distance from landfills, latrines, cesspools and septic tanks, drainage ditches, showers, in which water goes directly into the soil under the booth, etc.).

Unfortunately, the Abyssinian well cannot be built on any soil, since hard rocky layers will be difficult to penetrate, and aquifers on a loam rather than a sandy layer will not provide water for such a design.

Ways to create an Abyssinian well yourself

The services of specialized companies performing water drilling and even renting special equipment are quite expensive. At the same time, there are several ways to make an Abyssinian well with your own hands.

Drilling

This method is often used to pass the soil to the quicksand, as a sandy layer saturated with water is called, which, due to its looseness, can crumble immediately after the drill moves through it. To avoid this, drilling a well is combined with immersing the casing.

Drills for the production of Abassinian needles can be welded in a home workshop. It is optimal to use two modifications:

• frame drill, which is a U-shaped structure, and is used to pass through a dense clay layer,
• a frame drill with a cylinder, which is installed inside the frame and serves to collect and subsequently evacuate soil from the canal.

The width of any type of drill must correspond to the diameter of the casing pipe.

The drilling technology is quite simple - the passage of soil layers is carried out sequentially, with a gradual increase in the working part using rods. At the stage of drilling with a drill with a cylinder, it is better to use a winch (purchased or assembled independently from a starter and cable, equipped with limit washers and installed on a stand). Such a device will make it easy to remove the drill, rods and soil accumulated in the cylinder from the channel, which together add up to considerable weight.

Hammering with a headstock and a headstock

The headstock is a cone-shaped element fixed to the rod using a thrust washer. The simple design allows for maximum efficiency.

The headstock sliding along the bar, falling after lifting, transfers energy to the headstock, due to which the bar enters the ground. In order to avoid destruction, the headstock cone must be made of a stronger material than the headstock. The thrust washer prevents the cone from flying off the bar even with very strong impacts. On the contrary, at this time it “sits down” even more firmly.

Headstock driving with plug

To implement this method, they use an end headstock rather than a sliding one on the rod. To protect the threads of the rod, a plug is installed in the upper part. It is recommended to use headstocks of 30 kg or more.

Barbell hammering

Equipment for driving with rods are hexagonal rods, the diameter of which allows them to be placed in the column. Each of them is equipped with a thread for increasing the length (internal on one side and external on the other). For reliable fastening, the length of the threaded sections must be at least 2 cm. The process of driving a casing pipe immersed in a drilled well involves throwing a rod into the cavity of the rod.

Necessary equipment

To independently build an Abyssinian well, you will need tools and materials, which in most cases are available to most home craftsmen. What you need is easy to acquire.

Electrical equipment for the Abyssinian well:

• welding machine,
• Bulgarian,
• drill.

Hand tools:

• gas keys,
• sledgehammer,
• hammer.

Materials:

• casing pipe in sections of 1-2 meters,
• steel couplings for connecting them,
• wire with a diameter of 0.2-0.3 mm and stainless steel galloon mesh for making a filter,
• FUM tape or other material for sealing threaded connections.

Well equipment:

• check valve,
• manual or electric pump.

May be useful:

• discs for rods up to 40 kg as an alternative to the driving headstock,
• car clamps,
• nuts and bolts,
• thrust washer (when using a headstock).

Making a tip with a filter

Making a filter for an Abyssinian well with your own hands is quite simple. A piece of pipe (approximately 80 cm) with a cone-shaped tip is perforated - thin cuts are made or round holes are drilled. After this, wire is wound around the perforated area and a braided mesh made of stainless material is applied. The latter is fixed with clamps or soldered using special non-toxic tin solder.

Sequence of work

In general, the construction of an Abyssinian borehole type well is carried out in the following sequence:

1. A hole is dug out.
2. The well is clogged.
3. The required depth is determined by sound (in clay soils, advancement occurs silently, in coarse sand a grinding sound is heard, in fine sand a rustling sound is heard).
4. After the sound appears, a control check is carried out - water is poured into the pipe, if it leaves quickly, then the depth is optimal, if it is slow, then the pipe must be immersed another 0.5 meters.
5. A manual or electric pump is installed in the well.
6. The well is pumped until clean water appears (if the characteristics of the electric pump do not allow it to be used for dirty water, pumping is performed using a manual or drainage unit).

All work can easily be completed in part-time work, so, having started creating a well in the morning, by the evening you can enjoy clean and tasty water.

There is information on what it is, its types and materials of manufacture on our website.

You can talk about the technology of drilling another type of well, in sand. Necessary equipment and sequence of work.

Video

How to make an Abyssinian well with your own hands - a video that demonstrates the process of creating a needle well.

The needle well (Abyssinian well) has become very popular in recent years. Its construction is cheaper than digging a well. Water is lifted from the needle well using surface electric pumps or special hand-held “rockers”. Therefore, many owners of summer cottages consider an igloo well or an Abyssinian well as a good solution for autonomous water supply. In this article we want to analyze the issue of needle well reliability from the point of view of durability and maintainability.

What should be understood by the durability of the Abyssinian well?
First of all, when considering the issue of durability, we are talking about how long a needle well can provide water at a dacha. To answer this question, you need to understand how water appears at depths of up to 8 meters, at which Abyssinian wells are placed.

What should be understood by the maintainability of a needle well?
The needle well consists of two main elements. First of all, this is the well itself, into which a pipe with a filter section is installed. Secondly, it is a device used to lift water to the surface. Thus, the maintainability of the needle well should be understood as the maintainability of both of these components.

Well needle - aspects of durability
The water supplies that can be accessed using a needle well can be of different types.

First of all, at depths of up to 8 meters, reserves of perched water can be found. High water is water that has fallen underground from the surface (rain, melted snow) and lingered on local “clay lenses.” If the well needle is placed on the “high water”, its durability depends on two factors:

• Water reserves on the lens;
• Dynamics of water replenishment.

It is practically impossible to make a forecast for each of these factors. The lens can be local (at the level of 1 - 2 plots of land), or it can occupy a larger space. Precipitation forecasts, even from the Hydrometeorological Center, do not always coincide with reality. The practice of the last 10–15 years shows that precipitation volumes tend to decrease. On the territory of the Vladimir region, this trend leads to the fact that in some areas wells and other water supply sources placed at shallow depths are drying up.

The second type of water that can occur at depths of up to 8 meters is groundwater. When exploiting this type of water using a needle well, the longevity of the well becomes more predictable. The groundwater level in a particular area has been stable for 10 years. True, you need to take into account the “good neighbor” factor. The fact is that if one of the neighbors decides to carry out drainage work on their site, they can drain groundwater using a drainage well to a deeper level. In this case, the well needle will stop working.

About the maintainability of the needle well
From the point of view of the maintainability of the well, the needles are convenient in their pumping part. Since the needle well pump is located on the surface, it can be easily accessed for inspection and repair.

But if problems arise in the well itself, then certain difficulties arise with repairs. If silt deposits form in a well, cleaning it using available means is problematic. If the filter on a well is destroyed, there is almost no way to repair it.

What do we mean by a well with a needle?
An igloo well is an autonomous source of water supply in which groundwater is extracted using surface self-priming devices. Either self-priming pumps or hand-held devices can be used as devices for lifting water.

It is very often impossible to connect a small country estate to a central water supply due to the remoteness of the water supply main. Digging a well or drilling a well is sometimes unaffordable, and to build an autonomous system you need your own source of water.

In such cases, you can equip an Abyssinian well with your own hands - the technology for organizing such a source of water intake is quite simple. Agree, before starting to implement the idea, it is necessary to understand the design and operating principle of the system.

We will tell you how to plan an Abyssinian well, what equipment you will need and how to make an igloo well yourself. Particular attention should be paid to the type of soil on the site.

An Abyssinian well is a simplified version of a well that allows you to obtain water from the first or second aquifer lying on top. Its design is extremely simple. It is a column of interconnected gas-supply steel pipes with a primitive filter and a metal tip at the bottom.

The thin trunk of the excavation looks like an ancient sewing device. Hence the second name: needle well.

The classic method of immersing an Abyssinian well into the ground is done by banal driving - the simplest method, actively used among independent craftsmen. They hammer until the lower pipe with the tip opens the aquifer.

Sometimes the column is partially buried by auger drilling, but renting a manual or mechanical drilling rig significantly increases the work budget.

The Abyssinian well was invented and tested during the war between colonial England and Ethiopia in 1867-68. The design proposed by the American engineer Norton tirelessly provided the British troops with water during their movements across the desert.

Image gallery

There are two main components in the design of an Abyssinian well:

• drill bit, including a tip that cuts the soil and a barrel that is expanded during the process of penetration into the ground. The trunk also serves as a channel for lifting water from the depths. Therefore, it is assembled from pipe sections, and not from a steel circle or rod.
• Koper, consisting of a metal tripod and a heavy woman playing the role of a hammer. At the top of the tripod there are two blocks with ropes stretched through them, to which the woman is tied.

When the ropes are pulled, the woman rises to the top of the installation. When weakened, it rapidly falls onto the headstock, which is rigidly fixed on the section of the trunk being driven in. The latter performs the function of an anvil, thanks to which the trunk is consistently immersed in the ground.

An alternative option for adapting the water intake needle to an unsuitable groundwater level is to construct a pit. Before driving the column into the ground, a hole is dug about a meter deep, the width of which is convenient for working with a shovel in it. Driving the rods then begins from the bottom of the hole. In such situations, the pump is installed in a pit.

For those who decide to make an Abyssinian well with a pit, information is needed about the structure and condition of the soil layers lying at the depth of the pit. If the section is composed of sandy loam, loam or their alternating layers, it is not necessary to strengthen the walls of the pit.

Loose, unstable walls of the pit should be strengthened so that the wellhead of the needle well and pumping equipment are not covered with loose soils

If the pit is dripping in sand, the walls should be reinforced with boards or concrete. Sandy sides are unstable and can collapse and cover the water intake point along with the pumping equipment.

Questions about the upper layers of soil are also necessary for those who plan to go through the upper part of the excavation with an auger. Auger drilling will significantly speed up the process, but may not bring the planned result. For work, use a simple device - purchased or.

With collapsing sand walls, an installation will be required, due to which the economic priorities of the Abyssinian well will be reduced.

Installing and operating an Abyssinian well is the simplest and cheapest method of obtaining water from the upper aquifers. To construct a water intake shaft, no equipment is required; all stages of the work can be easily completed with your own hands.

The invested efforts and minor funds will quickly pay off; the Abyssinian well will last no less than traditional water sources. It is important to get excited and implement the idea, armed with the information we present.

Do you have practical skills in constructing a needle well on your site? Please share your accumulated knowledge or ask questions on the topic in the comments below.