![]() Increased labor costs (due to a longer job). ![]() Renting or buying a bigger vacuum to manage the extra flow.More time spent sucking and dumping cuttings into pits.Additional 1-2 people to mix fluid and keep the reclaimer clean.Here's a quick run-down of the areas where you can expect greater investment than you might be used to: Plus, you'll incur added personnel costs since the jobs take longer. In addition to the investment in hard rock directional drilling equipment and accessories, rock drilling is, by nature, slower going than dirt drilling: it's a double whammy. See the chart below for a comparison of necessary drill fluid vs. Upping your additives protects your equipment. If not, rock chips build up at the bottom of the hole and can cause you to get stuck and lose your mud motor down hole. Drill fluid must have a higher viscosity to hold the weight of the cuttings and move them out of the hole. So, drilling an 8" final hole using a hole opener would set you back about $8,000.ĭrill fluid volume aside, you'll need more additives when you're drilling rock. ![]() The cost of a hole opener relates to its size - a good ballpark is about $1,000 per inch. Anything bigger than a 4"-6" hole will require a hole opener designed to back ream through solid rock. So far, we've only covered the rock drilling equipment necessary for your pilot shot. The bad news is that they're a bigger investment than a standard duckbill. The good news is that Tricone and PDC bits will get the job done efficiently. Without a bit like this, you'll spend hours drilling rock (or ineffectively grinding away at it) with little progress to show for it. Tricone bits or PDC bits are specialty HDD tooling solutions that are built to stand up to ultra-hard surfaces. A drill fluid reclaimer siphons off the cuttings, leaving you with clean drill fluid to reuse. Since your rock drilling operation will require so much drill fluid, it doesn't make economic sense to use the fluid just once. A high-flow housing provides better protection for your transmitter and other electronics in your drill string but, more importantly, it allows a larger volume of liquid to flow through without restriction. High-flow housingīecause of all the drill fluid required to move through your mud motor, you'll need a specialized high-flow transmitter housing. When using a mud motor, you'll also need a few critical pieces of additional hard rock directional drilling equipment before you even displace the first foot of earth. For comparison, conventional drilling (using a duckbill blade) may consume about 5-15 gallons per minute - but even the smallest mud motor will require at least 40 gallons per minute. ![]() This type of high-impact grinding requires significantly more drill fluid to power the mud motor and slurry out cuttings. A mud motor is specialty equipment - and its price reflects that. The only way to get through rock successfully is to invest in buying or renting hard rock directional drilling equipment.Ī mud motor tackles rock drilling by chipping away at the rocks' surface while a two-degree bend in its shaft enables steering. Trying to use a standard duckbill on the end of your drill string while upping the power of your rig will only result in frustration - and possibly broken HDD equipment. Here's what you need to know to assess true rock drilling cost. Rock drilling requires big-picture thinking about the full scope of needs that will enable you to tear through these challenging ground conditions that includes having a realistic idea of what you'll need to spend on equipment. Thinking of taking on a job that requires drilling rock ? Or, do you need a solution for a job that's unexpectedly hit rock? If so, you'll specifically need hard rock directional drilling solutions - but finding the right HDD rock bit for your job is about more than just buying the right bit.
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