D ee P H o L e DR i LL e R 1 2013 16 W hen contractors of lar ge commer cial and municipal projects need a hel pi ng hand to dri ll quickly through rock Dilden Bros W ell Drilling often gets the call The company s Atlas Copc o Se c oroc QL 120 downt he hol e hammer gives Dilden Bros access to a niche market in the multistate geography within reach of their Layfayette Ind head quarters Brothers W ayne and Don Findlay have coowned Dilden Bros W ell Drilling since t he y bought t he c om pa ny from Jude Di l de n back in 1985 W ayne Findlay said when he frst start ed using pneumatic technique on the oc cas ional rock he encountered he never dreamed hed eventually be hammering 15 inch diameter bores with his Atlas Copco T2W water well rig But after acquiring an auxiliary compre ssor to help their T2W rig run its frst 8inch 203 mm hammer Find lay said W e were doing so well that we knew we had more than enough air to go bigger That s how Dilden Bros worked its way up to the 12inch QL 120 Bigger holes faster On this particular job BastinLogan W ater Services of Franklin Ind subcontracted Dilden Bros to help with two replacement wells for IndianaAmerican W ater Co the company providing water services for Muncie Ind De l f o r d Du n n t h e B a st i n L o g a n p r o ject manager on the site said W e do have our own rigs for lar ge diameter sand and gravel drilling But on jobs like this it just makes sense to call Dilden because they can get through rock so much faster with their hammer Del ford said i n c omparison it mi ght take BastinLogan three to four weeks to com plete a well without bringing in Dildens QL 120 In spite of the soggy conditions Dilden spent just three and a half days on this hole start to fnish Fi ndl a y e xpl a i ned t ha t dri l l ing l a r ge well bores with air is really a sideline It works for his company because they made the investment in tooling and they have a rig with suffcient torque and pullback for tools this size In Dilden s case he said a new T2W Series III water well rig was working fne T orque was no problem for them either for 24inch rotary or 15inch percussion The threespeed rotary head has 12000 foot pounds of torque at 80 rpm 8000 foot pounds at 120 rpm and 3500 footpounds at 275 rpm W ith the rig s 410 hp 372 kW engine 30000pound 13607 kg pullba ck capabil ity and 15000pound 69 metric ton hoist Di l de n c o m fo r t a b l y bo r e s t o 2 4 i n c h e s a s pa r t of their normal well services repertoire Dilden driller helper John Baker guided the QL 120 as it was hoisted into position Smi l ing broadl y he sa id t he c ompa ny has had the QL 120 for six years now without any trouble and without having to rebuild or repair it Muncie s primar y source of drinking wa ter is actually the White River Whereas these water wells will produce hundreds of thou sands of gallons of water a day the river can supply millions The groundwater is blended with water from the river prior to Indiana American s treatment process T reatment of this blended source water results in improved water quality at lower cost for customers The aging 8inch wells needed a size upgrade to keep up with demand Dilden s assignment was to drill two 320foot well profles that began at 24inches in diameter These were to be cased with 18inch steel through sand clay and gravel layers and sealed 3 feet into limestone Once into lime stone the profle would narrow to 15 inches and continue down to shale lying just past 300 feet 90 m Drilling in a food plain It had rained a couple of days prior and the forecast was calling for more The site was just a few feet above river level and only a few dozen yards from the bank Any more moisture could threaten completion as the spongy saturated ground constantly wanted to swallow them Findlay had stopped once already to add more ground support under the rig right Pr oject manager in the feld Delfor d Dunn gives a tour of the completed frst well Dilden Br os did earlier The raised deck gives an indication of what water levels along the White River wer e during its 150year food Gr oundwater fr om both wells will be pumped to the nearby tr eatment facility wher e it will mix with water fr om the river IndianaAmerican W ater Co blends the water befor e tr eatment having found they can impr ove quality with lower cost to the customer