Antique Hand Pump Well, Start to Finish, at our Remote Off Grid Property

how's it going everybody my name is dave whipple and you're watching bush radical in today's video we're going to take an old hand operated well pump and completely restore it we're going to take it to our remote property up north and drive a sand point well will we get water stay tuned now this is the unit we're going to be working with today this is an old wl davey pump corporation hand operated picture pump i bought this at a flea market in trufitt michigan for 20 bucks what we're gonna do is we're gonna clean this pump up the best we can and then we're gonna change the leathers inside the parts that actually make the pump pump water then it's going to go up north to our new property where we're going to drive a well hopefully we'll get good water now as we go through this pump you'll get to see all the pieces that are inside which are very few these are easy units to work on [Music] now what this pump really needs is it really needs to be sandblasted but i don't have a sandblaster so i'm just going to wire wheel it off clean it up paint it put all new leathers in it and then it's going to be ready to pump water again now if you take a look at this little piston assembly you'll kind of see how it goes there's a check valve there's our leather cup now that acts as a seal makes the whole thing work and then that steel base at the bottom i think my old wire wheel is pretty fitting to clean up this pump it's probably just about as old as the pump [Music] is one thing i've always loved to do is to clean up old useful things and put them back into use not only that but a lot of times you can find usable antiques that are built better than what you could buy now and they cost pennies on the dollar and all they really need is somebody's attention somebody to take a little bit of time and to knock the years off them so they're ready to go back into service not only is it frugal and practical it's just a satisfying [Music] [Applause] thing now the old paint on this pump is really tough so as opposed to going down to bare metal i just knocked off anything that was loose now we'll paint it up the paint i'm using here is a direct-to-metal farm implement paint so i imagine it's going to be good and sturdy now we're ready to rebuild the pump and it's a it's a study in simplicity how minimal these pumps are there's only a couple parts in them the first thing we need to do is we need to change that foot valve leather now i bought this leather pump replacement kit at menards you can get them at true value hardware places like that old-fashioned hardware stores lehman's of course always carry stuff like this this lower leather check valve lets the water come up into the pump but won't allow it to drop back down into the pipe once it's in the pump once this leather check valve gets wore out you just throw another one in i think this kit cost about nine bucks [Music] and here's a good look at how this check valve works it allows water up into the pump but that little weight closes that leather flap and doesn't let the water go back down the pipe this is one of the only parts of a pump rebuild you need to take a little bit of time with when you're tightening down the two bolts that hold the pitcher to the base you got to go a little bit at a time one side to the next that cast iron can break off if it gets too tight on either side so just snug them down a little on each side same goes for the bolts up top the bolt that holds the handle in place and the bolt that holds the rod into the handle these cast iron ears can get flexed and broke if you tighten those bolts down too much just stung them up now we're going to rebuild the piston or plunger assembly there's only four parts to this and we're gonna start with a fresh new leather cup now that cup acts as the seal inside the pump that makes it work there's the new one and there's the old one [Music] we're going to start with this cast iron base put on the leather cup we're going to put in our metal check valve and then the cage that holds it all together now what that check valve does is it lets water go past but it doesn't let water go back down [Music] [Music] and that leather cup that's acting as the seal that will suck the water up the [Music] pipe [Music] and when we put the top back on we only have two more bolts there's that one bolt that holds the handle to that plunger rod and then on the back there's one little set screw that holds the cap on to the pitcher itself and that's it the pump's ready to pump water again maybe for the first time in who knows how long now let's get serious the last time brook and i drove a well we had a major problem and that problem was a terrible oily taste to the water caused by dirty well pipe the pipe that we bought was from menards and it either had a lot of cutting fluid where they cut the threads on or it was full of junk on the inside waxes and oils and whatnot from the manufacturing process so this time we're not playing any games i'm going to clean every one of these pipes before we drive them into the ground and to do that i bought a five foot piece of pex and then just a a handy kitchen bottle brush get a good five gallon bucket of hot water a little bit of dish soap and we're going to make sure that these pipes are as clean as they can be before they go in the ground now that oily taste goes away but you don't even want to start with it you want to start with good clean fresh water bucket scrub brush a little bit of dish soap a little bit of thyme wash the ends wash the inside of the pipe rinse the pipe out good and you've eliminated any contaminants from the manufacturing process that could be in your well right from the get-go you don't want that be careful with the threads on the end of the pipe they're pretty sharp like most everything on the market today this well pipe was probably made in china and who knows what they used in the cutting and tapping process [Music] good rinse on the inside of the pipe a good scrubbing cleaning those threads out the threads might be more of a problem area than anywhere else because when they cut those threads in they use a cutting fluid or cutting oil driving a hand pump well is hard work hard physical work so i think the best thing you can do is get everything prepared as well as possible so that when you're done you don't have any regrets of things that you wish you had done before let's take a look at what came out of these pipes all that stuff came out of that pipe all the trimmings all the little black flecks of dirt whatever oils are in there all that was in that pipe [Music] now here we are at our remote wilderness property a couple chili dogs and we'll be ready to drive this well [Music] so now i've got all my pipe i've got my drive point couplers my pipe dope i got my pump totally rebuilt water to prime the pump and go find me some poles to build a tripod now growing up a lot of the wells that i saw driven people used a tripod i'm going to build a tripod today and on this property we have a big stand of pobble and it's all pretty small stuff and fairly straight it's just perfect for tripod pulls [Music] now this is new territory for me i've never built a tripod to drive a well so we'll figure it out as we go [Music] i'm going to cut me three poles and walk them off to about 12 [Music] feet just by looking at this stand popple you can tell it needs to be thinned anyway i'll take three poles out of here and you'll never know they were gone [Music] now ever since i rebuilt that pump i've been thinking about how i wanted to go about building this tripod i'm pretty sure i've got it figured out i'm going to put the top of these poles all together and i'm going to bind them together with a ratchet strap then i'm going to take another chunk of strap material and just weave it in through this ratchet strap now this red strap is going to hold my pulley just going to tie a good solid knot in that then we'll stand the whole thing up [Music] quite a contraption there's how the pulley works now on one end of that ropa we're going to tie the hammer that's going gonna drive this well [Music] now when you take a five foot section of well pipe and you connect it to a three foot point you've got eight feet of pipe so i've gotta dig a hole down into the ground where i can get most of that pipe below the surface then i can work at a height that's reasonable i'm going to use these post hole diggers to get down as far as i can and while i'm digging i'm going to dig the hole kind of uh like a triangle because the farther down you get the more you have to spread those handles to get it to bite that ground and and to pull the dirt out so you kind of have to keep the hole wide at the top it's exciting to finally be at this point we're ready to throw some pipe in the ground and start driving someone told me once that if you don't want to taste the pipe dope the best thing to do is to stay back from the first two threads well i don't want to taste anything in my well so i think that's good policy i'm going to try to stick to that and keep away from the first two threads on the pipe and the point [Music] now one thing that'll mess up a well is air leaks so make sure everything is tight [Music] this is going to be our sacrificial drive coupler this is the one that's going to take all the beating through the driving process when we change pipes we're going to put that beat up coupler on the next plate to take a beating and then when we go to the next stick we'll put a fresh coupler on to couple the two pipes together [Music] now here's the star of the show the well driver this well driver belongs to our friend scott harima who's taught me everything that i know about driving wells but don't go looking for one in a hardware store because you'll never find it it's homemade old school and it's quite a piece of equipment [Music] now i've had good ideas and i've had bad ideas and i'm not sure where this tripod falls in that scale we're just going to have to rig everything up and give it a shot but i have high hopes that it's going to work out just fine so far so good [Music] oh yeah yeah this is a good idea now that well driver has handles on it and you can run it by hand and we've done that before but it's a workout with a rope and a pulley like this it does take quite a lot of the load off it and it's driving that pipe just fine not only is the hammer working good and the tripod but the ground is cooperating too and the pipe is driving down fairly easy now this property has never had a well driven on it so i have no idea where the water is [Music] but to the west about 30 feet lower in elevation is a river and to the east probably 20 feet higher in elevation there's a lake and there's a spot in the road that's wet at times of the year so i think the water table kind of runs at an angle from east to west and i think where i'm at on the property i'm gonna hit water but there's no [Music] guarantees [Music] got to make sure that pipe dope is right down into the threads and make sure those connections are good and tight worst thing you can do is go through all this work and then have a well that's ruined by air leaks now this is the second section of pipe and it's a little crooked so i'm hanging on to it trying to pull it straight so it drives where i want it to drive i gotta say that hammer and tripod setup has made this job easier than the last time [Music] now i have to wonder what the odds are of finding water because everything has just gone too easy so far and i'm pretty nervous there's the water right there so here's where we're at we're 128 inches down to water and we're 161 inches down to the bottom of the point so the water is almost to the top of the sand point what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna put another five foot piece on there i'm gonna drive it down another two feet maybe just a little bit more than that and then i'll have a foot and a half of water over top of that sand point and we'll throw our pump on be good to go i'm excited now now i don't think we could be in better shape at this point the ground is letting the pipe be driven quite easy the tripod and the hammer are working great and we have water where we're driving so far everything's going our way one more stick and we can try that pump and if the pump works we should be solid [Music] gold [Music] we should be all ready to go for that last stick [Music] so far so good and to even make things easier i got help on the third stick and with brook and i swapping back and forth taking turns that thing was in the ground in no time [Music] [Applause] [Music] so now all the hard work is done the well is driven and we have water and there's only a couple questions left now how well does the pump work do we taste anything from the pipe and the most important of all how good is the water itself about to find out [Music] now before we put the well pump on i'm going to install a ball valve what this will do is once the well is primed you can lock that ball and keep the water up in the pipe so the next time you want to use the well you just open the ball valve and start pumping water primer up here we go oh my god it's our water right there oh my gosh that is so freaking cool oh my gosh that's awesome first bucket that first bucket looks like uh yoo-hoo that's freezing cold too now we're not gonna know what we have until about five or six or ten buckets we'll get all the dirt cleaned out of that well pipe and out of that point and then the sediment that's down in the sand that'll get sucked up into the well too and get cleaned out and more we pump this the cleaner the water gets clean right up so that first bucket there's the sixth bucket that looks so much better after about ten buckets the water is good and clear and it's time to give it a taste here we go looks pretty good so far it does it looks really good still taste it no it tastes fine yeah i don't taste i don't taste any pipe dope at all no oil nothing no that's good why'd you spit it out then i just wanted to gauge it yay good job i taste nothing that's sweet actually it's really good yay that's a good cup of water babe so just like that we have punched down 18 feet we've got good water it tastes good doesn't have any oily residue to it and it's just uh what a blessing the old pump works like it's brand new the drive couldn't have went easier the tripod worked fantastic it's never this easy now if you guys like today's video and you're looking for more information about old-fashioned hand pump wells click the video down here in the corner it's got everything that i know anyways about the pieces and parts that you're going to need to put down your own hand pump well thank you guys so much for watching bush radical be radical eh see you soon

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 1,500,573

Keywords: hand pump well, antique hand pump well, off grid well, off grid water, off grid well water, antique well pump, rebuilding a hand pump well, DIY water well, old fashioned well, sand point well, hand driven well, DIY well, drive a well

Id: q5GWEq3ExLs

Length: 24min 29sec (1469 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021