D ee P H o L e DR i LL e R 1 2013 4 A fter fve years working as a geologist and wireline engineer overseas as far away as Indonesia Mike Becker set his sights on Hill Country in Central T exas There s a lot going on here geological ly with seven to eight major and minor aq uifers He explained the Llano Uplift the preCambrian granite in the western portion of T exas Hill Country describing the math ematical wizardry of hydrologists here who do drawdown testing and complex formulas for each water district to determine the ul timate impact on the underlying aquifers In 1999 Becker established Apex Drill ing a water well specialist and pump ser vice 45 miles northwest of Austin in Mar ble Falls A T exas T ech graduate with an oil feld background Becker chose the name Apex the top or peak which represented the expectations he had for his water well bu si ne ss Andr e w Jo hnson h a s be e n wi t h him since the beginning as driller and pump installer Andy s brother Robert joined them shortly after and now runs the pump servic es side of the company In those frst years Be c ke r sa i d t he y worke d from da wn t o dusk Central T exas was just booming in 1999 Becker said One of their frst rigs was an Ingersoll Rand T4 Since then they have only had to make a couple of rig choices to dial in which rig works best for their operation s In 2004 they traded in the T4 for a 1999 T3W The T4 was just too big for us both regarding jobsite access and in the cost of running it The T3W was much more economical In February 2013 Apex Drilling traded the T3W in with 9980 hours on it for an At l a s Copc o T H60 pa c ka ge d wi t h a l l t he op tions from V enture Drilling in Geor getown T exas an authorized Atlas Copco distribu tor serving a sevenstate area from three lo cations Johnson said it took a little getting used to for him but he really likes the rig Doublechecking his logs he said in the frst six weeks they had drilled 28 wells with it logging 8200 drill feet Johnson explained the dif ferences The engine is much quieter It just has one And everything is ele ctronic There are so many more solenoids valves It took some getting used to but I actually like it better It s easier to run and easier to drive on the highway Jo h n so n a dd e d I t h a s m o r e p owe r T h e TH 60 engine generates up to 600 hp 477 kW and is rated for 40000 pounds pullback with a 18000pound single line winch And the feed rate is just the opposite from the T3W Johnson said On the T3W it s faster down The TH60 is faster up Atlas Copco had inverted the cylinder so the lar ger side of the piston would be used for pul l ba c k forc e T he c yl i nde r now a p page 3 Apex driller Andy Johnson has the TH60 rigged up along what will be a new r esidence s driveway in the Crystal Mountain subdivision of Round Mountain T exas Apex has completed 50 wells in the neighbor hood over the last 13 years with about 20 mor e to drill The good driving characteristics of a lighter single engine rig and its mor e compact size help Apex r each its cli ents even in tight rural settings such as this r esidential water well installa tion Johnson said W e just couldn t do befor e what we can do now Apex driller Andy Johnson talked about how the new Atlas Copco TH60 drills compar ed to the T3W he was used to Among the few differ ences Johnson noted was that the T3W had its fastest feed rate gear ed for r eturn ing to the bottom while the TH60 had a faster feed rate coming up