WorldWide Drilling Resource

26 NOVEMBER 2016 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® A Perfectly Straight Hole, Part 1 by Art Beatty Antofagasta, Chile This is a memo- ry of an experience I had around 1960. We received an invitation to bid a hole at Ray Mines in Arizona. (I was living in Phoenix at the time.) The specs showed the lucky person who got this job wouldn’t be by money alone, it would be by the tactics they would use - the work plan. It called for a hole to be within one quarter of one degree vertical - and this was just too close. Not many people would even consider it. It was pretty tough specs. Most anyone would tell you in those days it was almost impossible to drill a perfectly straight hole. My boss, Joe Roberts in Phoenix, said he really wanted the job. He wanted to get a chance there, where other companies had already been established. He wanted me to give it very serious consideration - for a fool- proof way to get down to that depth. I had drilled in the area before, so when I went to the job site, I asked if they had encountered any quartzite. Maybe in the dump material that was 20 feet or more. I believe they called it the bad tooth quartzite. The feller I was talking to was an old acquaintance. He said no, he didn’t think there was. I said it was good because if we were to hit one of those big quartzite boulders it would be really hard to get around and keep the hole exactly straight. We had to drill from vertical to total depth, and if I remember right, it was only about 150 feet. It may not sound like much, but believe me, for those specs it was. So I came up with a plan to drill a 15-inch hole to the dump material. I was able to pick up a bunch of square drill collars used for blasthole drill pipe from a mine in Utah. I would take a piece of drill pipe, Failing 2-3/8, unscrew the drill pipe, cut both ends off to just exactly the right length, then stuff the drill pipe inside the square drill collar. Everything worked out alright. It would accept the whole 5 inch- es, and we could use a 5-5/8-inch rock bit. These things would barely fit behind the old drill collars - they had been used many times. Most of the corners were wore off a little so they were rounded some. After the 15-inch hole was drilled, my plan was to put these drill collars and the bits inside aluminum casing that could be drilled. They wanted to come back with a larger drill and put in a water well to get high-grade fluid out of it. I planned to take a survey on the progress every 50 feet. I told my boss we would hardly wear the paint or sharp off a bit, then we would pull it out and replace it. I told him not to bother to put a lot of money against the depth of the hole because we could use the same supplies since we had been drilling that diameter. So we chose to stick our necks out and try it. The old mine superintendent was hoping the other compa- ny would get the job since he really liked the other drilling com- pany better. Anyway, we did get the job. Next month, I’ll tell you how it went. Art Art Beatty may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com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