Our new drill rig is finally finished.  We took some pics at the demo.

Check em out

Looks good. Were you able to use the sonic thru that rock, or DTH? You'll have to let us know how it goes. What depths are you planning on going?
Dan

Hi Dan,

Yes we did sonic through the rock. It worked quite well. We are planning on 200' bore depths.

Impressive! What's the cost for the drill rig? Thanks.

what's your best guess?

Dewayne,

What is the maximum depth that your rig can do in rock?  Does it do 3" and 6" holes?  I ask because I have a friend that is trying to decide what to buy.

$200,000.00-$300,000.00?

Who is the manufacturer? Looks like an AMS Powerprobe (colors). Haven't they teamed up with Rotosonic? Sonic Drill Corp is pretty proud of their product, what made you decide to go that way? Were you able to personally compare the capabilities? I'm not trying to make you a salesman, just a serious serious question about a serious investment.

We know it will do a 4" hole to  200' ,  will find out about going deeper.  It will drill up to 6".

The rig was $301,000,   tooling  $22,000

It is AMS,  the head is not from Sonic Drill.  The head is from Sonic Sampling.

We looked at and have been around a lot of rigs.   We felt like this best fits our needs.

For the geology that you'll deal with the casing capablilites of the sonic rigs are great. Keep us updated on how it is going.
Dan

Dewayne, congrats!  I know you were talking a while back about making this kind of sizeable investment - looks like you 'pulled the plug.'  Now you do 'in house' vertical water loops.

Best wishes for continued business excellence!

Best regards,

Bill

P.S., you'd need to be able to do 300' per ton here in Dallas, in generally non-rocky soil.  Pretty country you live in - nothing like it around here (just hot).

Thanks Bill,

Bill - did you mean to say "pulled the trigger"

Dewayne - congrats on having the intestinal fortitude to make such a decision in this economy - though going by some of your earlier posts your business volume appears to justify it.

You'll be able to sequence jobs better and tighten quality.

We are a long way from being able to justify an in-house drill rig down here in sunny Florida.

What do you figure your total costs per vertical foot drilled will run?

Thanks....it has been a real roller coaster ride getting to this point.


Not sure yet on costs

Pipe, and grout is about $3 per foot.   Bits might add $1 -$2 depending on formation.  Fuel and labor another $2-$3.

I will know more after a few weeks

Sounds like your variable costs will run $7 per foot total. To that add depreciation of the rig and cost of capital tied up in it.

Our local cost of $10 per foot to subs starts looking OK by comparison.

OTOH you have bought a whole lot of control over quality and schedule - I haven't the foggiest notion how to cost that. If you paid using Mastercard, maybe it is priceless.