In a previous article, we discussed the advantages of in/out, side-to-side, and wiggle tail slide bases for positioning your rig prior to drilling. Any of these can help the crew re-align the drill head with tools in the hole, or reposition the drill over multiple drill spots. But another benefit to keep in mind with these base options is their effect on tool handling.
Deliberately moving the rig off the hole once the carrier is parked and the drilling starts can adversely affect tool handling efficiency. When using wet rotary drilling applications such as with water well, geothermal, or hard rock core drilling, the hydraulic drill head on the SIMCO 2800, or 7000 model rigs swings off hole and out of the way without needing to move the rig. The 2400 swings off manually. This gives the crew direct access to the drill string in the hole and the ability to use the winches for adding or removing drill rod. When the drill head is closed, the threads are lined up without having to guess where the “sweet alignment” spot is. In addition, this patented off-hole feature makes fetching a rod or returning it to the carousel a quicker and simpler process, reducing the potential to gall the threads.
During geotechnical drilling, adding the automatic SPT hammer to the drill rig on the 2400, 2800, or the 7000 models lets it swing on and off hole like a door, minimizing tool alignment problems. Minor in/out adjustments can be made to bring the tooling back into perfect alignment if the drilling process causes the tools or lateral to drift off-line and bind up. As an added value, the off-hole feature of the SIMCO drillheads allows drillers to raise and set well casings with ease.
There are numerous advantages to adding one of the slide base options to your own custom-built SIMCO drilling rig, but the ease of tool handling is at the top. Drilling efficiency is increased, tool damage is reduced, and tool handling is much easier with a SIMCO drilling equipment slide base option.
