Seems a little strange to dope your pipes before you have them connected together.  I just dope them on the spot as a new section is needed while driving them into the ground.  As for the driving cap, I've always used dope, since it acts as both a lubricant and a sealant, it makes taking the cap off easier when it comes time to put another piece of pipe on.  You'd still want to redope the threads after taking the driving cap off and putting the coupling on though.  It may not be needed for the driving cap, but its never caused any problems for me.  

This last year I've spent a lot of hours working with 2 inch irrigation plumbing (both above ground and below) and if I've learned anything, its to put dope on everything.  You can never trust a connection to be air tight without it, and taking fittings apart that aren't doped can be an exercise in frustration.

lol remember we didnt drive it in, we just dug a 21ft hole so then we had to assemble the 2 10ft pipes to the sandpoint and just drop it all in at once

doh! I had a brain fart, yep that makes perfect sense.  Looking forward to a progress report and POST SOME PICS OP!

current situation of the pump, my yellow lab, 2 10ft water pipes, and a 3ft sandpoint





the auger blade, handle, and 2 10ft extensions.  and the chickenshit dag






This is my uncle,  was during the digging, only 16ft of auger extension shown here.  it was EXTREMELY awkward with 2 10 ft extensions.  i really shouldnt complain too much about her, she really is a sweet doggie.

Sure looks like you have 2 different types of soil that came up there.  That is a good sign.

That auger looks interesting.  Wouldn't do me much good here though, water is 138ft down.

Here is a short video of my cluster&^$^%  when I put my my submersible in the first time.  175ft of pipe using a rope and a pulley.

Well

Thanks for the pictures.  Sorry for a dumb question, but re: the auger.  So does it work like a post hole digger, and you are hauling it up and down to dig down?

different that a PHD in that you just twist it around about 10 times or so (depending on the soil) and it naturally drives itself down whilst collecting soul in between the blades.  then you pull it up, empty out the payload and continue.  eventually you go deep enough you have to add an extension.  to start off its just the blue handle and the auger blade

Update 2 - Oct 16, 2014
Decided to pump it dry again.  this time no mud!  wasnt crystal clear, but definitely NOTHING like it was last sat.  had a slight tan (not even brown) tint to it, i guess thats sand?  This time got about 3 mop buckets of water before I jheard the sandpoint sucking from its top holes down at the bottom so i stopped pumping.  I guess this weekend we will pump it dry as we can and continue augering so as to get as much water on top of the sandpoint as possible.  will prep some 4"casing as well and get a few bags of small rocks to pack the outside of the casing.  i guess ill also get a foot/check valve to use to keep my prime, and will also prob convert to all PVC and save this galv pipe for if i ever do another one and it requires driving.

Did I just get lucky?

We had a lot of rain in the last few days.

just spoke to the geologist again, he thought that may not be the case because of that very thick layer of clay I had.  well i guess there *is* a 7in hole in the ground though. its been a few days since the rain here.  

ill let it fill back up and see what happens again, and continue developing it to see how the water changes.

So i let the fence post driver come up a bit tooo far and wasnt paying close enough attention. Sitting in er now waiting for ct scan and some staples

Ouch, hope it's not too bad. Keep us posted.

Pic's. We need pic's!

Hope the injury is minor!

Im ok 3 staples and a headache.  We dug 2 more ft and pounded about 4 feet so now hole is abt 23 ft and sandpoint is 4ft under that. So about 7 ft of water above the point. Will flush it all out later and try to pound in a few feet more

This well better produce rivers of flowing water for all the trouble it's giving you....

so we pumped it dry and dug a bit more. its definitely wet sand im pulling up. then we drove the sandpoint in about 4 ft. so theres about a foot of wet sand above the sandpoint, and about 8 ft of water on top of that. then 15ft of air up to the surface, and 4ft of pipe to the pump.

So we filled the water pipe with water a few times and tried pumping. nothing. eventually the water slooooowly leaks out. we do this a few times, and finally get to the point we cannot keep water in the pipe, it quickly drains out below.

but we stilll cannot pump water up. everything was VERY tight, so im sure there is no air in the system. i guess possibly, ( ? ) the sandpoint is just allowing the water to drain from above , but when trying to prime then it tries to pump water, it sucks all the sand into itself, clogging itself? is this a feasable explanation? or is something else going on?

from the bottom of the handpump to the top of the water level is 19ft.

So you pumped it dry when the sand point was just resting at the bottom of the hole you augured?  I would bet the wet sand is still too thick to suck thru.  Did you take a sample of the last stuff you brought up to settle it out?  Take a mason jar, put in a handful of the last stuff you  brought up, fill it with water, then put the lid on and shake.  Wait and see how it settles out.  Its possible you still have too much clay in with it.  Pure sand should allow enough water to move in to at least prime the pump.  Hitting gravel would be better, but it might not happen.  

yes pumped it dry while resting at bottom.  well not dry, eventually the sandpoint starts sucking air and after that last column of water comes up thats it.  I took the last sample we dug just now.  it had hardened pretty hard overnight so was in a hard ball




i ran the jar full of hot water and shook real good and let it sit 20 mins




I wonder if i just need to shove a waterhose down to the bottom to try to flush and loosen up?  maybe some dry ice and cap it off?  or is just pulling it out of the sand my best bet here?

 
If it hardened overnight then it has too much clay in it.  The clay wont let water pass thru and into your sandpoint.  Even with 20% clay in your sample it will act completely like clay and plug your intake.

Here is a link to a page that will help you determine the content of your sample.  Looks like I didn't quite explain the sediment test right.

www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/214.pdf

How hard was to to drive down that 4 feet?  If its in sand it wont be very hard to drive considering your only resistance is the 4 feet at the bottom.  I would try to drive it down as far as you can.  If you can get a swing with a sledge I would try that.  If you just cant get it down any further, then that may be all she wrote.  If you can get it down into some gravel or course sand then the water will still travel up like we talked about earlier.

Id guess we took 30 mins or so trading off to get that sandpoint buried 4ft.  Could prob get it a bit more to see if its more coarser down.

We just stopped because with that last 6ft ext we put on it was where i wanted.  I could prob get another 4ft one and try for 5 more ft though

Btw i really appreciate all your input here. I def really had not much of an idea of what all is going on down there

No problem, just hope it works out for you.  It is possible that you have an insurmountable amount of clay and silt going deeper still.  I just know that if it was me I would try to get a little deeper every time. Im kind of hard headed like that.

I really would suggest using a sledge hammer over a post hole digger.  The sledge will get a LOT more movement out of your pipe with each swing.

Ouch OP! glad you are ok.  I've banged my knee on post drivers but never my head, can't be very fun.  Hang in there.

Ryan has you taken care of here, he's right that mud/clay you've got at the bottom definitely looks problematic.  I would probably be on the same page as him, just keep driving the point deeper.  But I can understand the hesitation to do so on your part.  If the well never pans out its that much harder to pull it all out....

One rule of thumb I'll throw in that may help you, is just remember you generally can't get more out of a well than you can put in.  For instance if you put a garden hose to the well and it fills up the pipe, then takes a long time to drain back down to the water level, your point is very clogged indeed, and you can never expect to get much water out of it.  

I've had limited success developing wells that were this clogged, but if you're completely done driving the point, you could try clearing the point out a bit via surging or another technique.  You obviously can't overpump it to clear it out, so its really your only option.  If you have a big enough air compressor you could certainly try it.  However if there isn't any sign of sand or gravel down there to move around its probably a wasted effort. This link has some good information on how to develop a well though.  http://www.lifewater.ca/drill_manual/Section_10.htm

Keep at it OP!

Ok pounded a total of about 6 ft down from the bottom on the hole.  Then progress just stopped.  Another 10 mins of pounding does absolutely nothing.  I either hit a rock or maybe hardpan?  Will a saandpoint breakthrough hardpan?

Ouch!  Well depends on what you are calling a hardpan.  Out here its considered a compacted layer of soil, no different texture than the other around it and a sand point would go thru that..  If you actually hit bedrock, shale, or a rock then it would stop.  Here even the pro water well drillers stop when they hit shale.

Sorry to hear it.

Now that you kind of know where the bottom is here is about the only thing you can do.

1. Pull your sand point, if possible.

2.  Then, also if possible, extend your auger another 6ft and take the hole all the way down.  

3. Then put your sand point back down the hole, being careful to suspend it right over the bottom.  Try to keep it centered in the hole so the sand point isn't laying against the side of the hole.  They sell a plastic part that can slide on the pipe and keep it centered in a casing, would work the same for this.

4.  Fill the hole with pea gravel, up to the top of the water line.

5.  Then fill the rest of the hole with bentonite to seal it from surface contamination.

You may not get huge amounts of water from it, but it may be enough to fill a handful of buckets each day.  Might be all you needed for a shtf hand pump well?

Well, that is a helluva project.

TRG

Here's a site giving good instruction on drilling your own. Drill Your Own Well

I considered going down this path until I talked to the local well driller to get the expected depth for this area. 700+ feet to get potable water which is what I want.

well hunting season hit, so this is on hold for now.  im just going to put it out of the muck i drove it down, and case it to the augered depth, and call it a 1GPM well.  check back in end of feb