DIY Air-Lift Water Well Project – My Summer Challenge
This summer, I’m working on something a little different: drilling a groundwater well in my own backyard — not with heavy machinery, but with hand tools, a basic air pump, and some smart engineering. Inspired by a great YouTube video by the WOT Foundation, I’ve started designing and building my own setup, including a custom auger clamp and a drill bit in SolidWorks.
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What Is Air Lifting?
Air lifting is a simple but powerful technique to remove soil and sand from a borehole. By injecting air into a vertical pipe submerged in water, bubbles are formed that rise quickly, creating an upward flow that lifts water and sediment out of the hole. This method is used for low-cost well drilling and has a major benefit: only clean air passes through the pump, so there’s little wear and almost no maintenance required.
My Progress So Far
I’ve just started and reached 2.3 meters deep using an auger — a manual soil drilling tool. It’s slow but effective. Now I’m ready to start building the air lift setup to speed things up and go deeper.
To support the auger and drill pipes, I designed an auger clamp frame in SolidWorks. It’s a steel frame that keeps the pipe from falling into the drilled hole, while working on the pipe.
Here are the dimensions of the frame:
- Width: 200 mm
- Length: 450 mm
- Height: 50 mm
- Constructed from square tubing, with two welded side supports for stability
I’ve also modeled a simple drill bit that matches the concept from the video: a conical cutting head with teeth and fluid inlets, optimized to stir up sand and help it rise with the air bubbles.
What I Still Need
The WOT team uses 1″ gas pipe (I think, correct me if you think differently) with threaded ends. I plan to use something similar. For starters, I’ll need:
- 2 pieces of 1-meter pipe
- 2 to 4 pieces of 3-meter pipe
- A 90-degree elbow
- A 10 cm threaded pipe to connect the air hose
- A 600 mm T-handle for twisting the pipe manually
Want to Join or Help?
This is going to be a slow-paced summer project, but one that’s super fun and satisfying. If you’ve done something similar, have suggestions on air lift dimensions or pump tips — or just want to join in — I’d love to hear from you!
Let’s see if we can bring clean water to the surface, the DIY way!
Stay tuned for updates as I go deeper — literally.
