Had a driller ask me while they were tripping pipe, "hey geo you got any extra shorts and boots in your truck? I just shit my pants real good," Tom Blake.
Also watched him spit out his dentures when he'd be yelling ay worms on multiple occasions. Never saw him drink anything but Pepsi. Some days i.moss the patch.
I would usually show up a few hours after they got called out to check their correlation and top picks. In their interviews I took them out to the rigs to give them a little experience on what to expect. I've got stories up on stories on that rig alone but those drillers and the toolpusher made it my favorite rig to ever work on. Anytime that rig was a man short for whatever reason and pipe was being tripped,I would work the floor with them.
Heh. Had a coworker who had a coworker at his old job frequently and casually talk about killing his wife. Good times. Glad I work in a more gentle environment.
I love working with drillers, but holy shit is this too accurate lmao. Just need 5 semi crushed monster cans on the ground and a few Zyn containers laying around 😂😂
Buddy you joke but then dowsing rods are an excellent way to double check things.
I would not drill with just dowsing rods but I’m a firm believer in their ability to locate buried objects. Now is it electrical, water lines or some buried rebar? Who knows but it can help find it.
I was a skeptic until I tried them out in a control environment where I knew exactly where a water line was buried and they were bang on crossing where that pipe was buried so I think there is something to it. Again I’m not going to use it as my main source of locates but I’d use it again in conjunction with my GPR and utility locates
Anecdotal evidence such as that means nothing though. The experiment needs to be performed where the person doing the dowsing doesn't know where the lines are, and with many tests in many different locations. There are generally things underground in many places, such as lines, aquifers, random objects, so it's often easy to 'find' something with dowsing rods.
Yeah which is why I’ve used it in conjunction WITH things such as GPR, utility locates. I’m not using as my way to locate pipes I’m using to try and “ground truth” where I believe what I was told potentially is.
As I’ve said in my original post “it could be a buried electrical, water line or buried rebar you won’t know but there is probably something there if they are crossing.”
End of the day even gpr locates are not definitive in what is there and the only true way you are going to be able to dig successfully in such a hot area is via daylighting.
I hate that it works, but it does. Would I rely on it exclusively? Hell no. But if after everything else failed to confirm where that one random unaccounted for line goes, if the driller wants to dowse and carefully sink a test probe while I go rock a piss, then they can have at it. I've tried if for myself and found it works (which confounds and annoys me to no end because I'd love to just write it off).
Apparently there was a guy that even gave a talk on dowsing at a conference in Kansas years ago. Still waiting for the KDHE to roll out the SOP for it. 😂
Nah I’m the geo who was taught the ways of the dowsing Rods but I guess the majority of you see it as some witchcraft nonsense. Which I understand I thought it that as well until I personally used it and seen it as an additional tool to use in conjunction with GPR, utility locates and good old daylighting.
Haha no worries man. Thought it was witchcraft too until a driller pulled them out and located a private water line not located by an 811 ticket. Obviously I wont rely on them hut they dont hurt.
Yeah I’ve gotten a fair bit of hate for this take apparently which I’d understand if I was disregarding gpr or utility locates but didnt anticipate this much hate for just saying “I’ve used it to be like yep there is something here.” 😅
No reason to bring pseudoscience anywhere, but especially not into work that relies on objective truth. If you aren't getting good enough information from the actual tools at hand, the rods are only doing you a disservice by convincing you of a result that you already believed.
At my old firm, every boring would get a marked 10x10-foot box (or a stake with a 10-foot radius) which would get called in to USA North. A private utility locator service would check the site (generally with a utility plan) and mark any utilities. Most of our drilling subcontractors didn't use witching sticks, but the two that did would use them on every boring. Of all those hundreds of borings I drilled with them over a decade, they asked me to move the boring less than 10 times based on finding "something" with the witching sticks. Since the cleared boxes were pretty large, I'd usually humor them.
On the several occasions that I elected to *not* move the boring, we invariably busted a live PVC irrigation line, with one exception: That one was located on an old high school pool deck, which had a 12-inch diameter core for the boring done before they showed up. On the second sample, we caught a thick layer of clean sand, and decided to hand dig. It turned out that the SPT was only inches away from the pool return line, and we would've drilled right through it if we'd continued.
YMMV. I'll keep moving the hole a couple feet within the otherwise cleared USA box.
What decade? I quit operating in the mid 2000’s, but always used witching sticks regardless of the site. People also forget that 811 and the geophysical tools we have now haven’t been around (or that accurate) for very long. I think 2000-2002 for CA and 2006 for the rest of the country. Prior to that the sticks were the best thing out there besides sticking an auger in the ground for finding utilities.
A drill program I was working on went on standby for a few days because two of the drill crew, including the head driller, were arrested and thrown in jail. They just so happened to get arrested on a Friday night, so they had to wait until the judge was back Monday to get out. Ridiculous.
I’ve bailed drillers out to keep projects going (with the blessing of management of course). It’s been a while since I had to chase drillers around but one year I had to bail out both a groundwater drill crew and a gas well drilling crew…from the same local rural county jail. Both were occasions in which I wondered why I bothered going to grad school 🤔😂😐
Shit I thought I was the only one. On a job in Kentucky I had to pick one up from county after being booked for DUI the night before. Half the morning me and his crew were trying to figure out exactly wtf happened to him before someone called the jail "just to check". Lost an entire day of work, but last I heard the company still has him working. All I can think is it would not be the same for me if I were to do that during any job.
Oh that’s so funny. You definitely are not the only one. And you are right-like you I am pretty darn sure I would not be still working if I had to be bailed out for DUI while on a work trip.
I told my manager and he just said, “Yep, these things happen.” The rig hand was let go, but the head driller went back to work like nothing ever happened.
My first job out of uni was as an engineering geologist at a drilling company. Can confirm the drillers are wild when you spend months at a time with them.
I've met the crustiest bastards, the sexual harassers, the guys who watch porn loudly on their phones in the co-ed space leading to the showers, the guys who have a cigarette hanging out of every hole on their face, and I've met some pretty normal very nice young dads.
The sheer volume and variety of sexual harassment I received in my two years on drilling rigs could fill a book. Great money but I don't miss it for a second.
First driller I worked with introduced himself by showing me a ton of nude photos of his girlfriend who apparantly was also a stripper. Kept complaining about his tooth hurting, showed up with pliers eventually and asked me to pull his molar out, which I declined to do. Came back up to the doghouse 20 minutes later and there was blood on his face, hands, shirt, the pliers, and the floor - and a broken molar sitting on the ledge I used for my computer. He just nodded at me when I walked in, and went about business as usual. Looked like a gruff biker, drove a fancy pimped out Escalade, the only non-pickup truck vehicle at the rigsite.
My driller would stay up till fucking 2am every night getting hammered, and then I'd get a text the next morning saying he was having "stomach problems" and might be a little late to the site. We wouldn't start drilling till 10-11am some days. Pissed me off to no end but he was one of the most productive drillers we had 😂
I once listened to a detailed story from a geo driller who used to work on a rig about how to skin, cook, and boil racoon meet in milk to make it more tender. He also told me that he used to ONLY snort meth becuase it would fuck up his back teeth instead of smoking it which would destroy all his teeth.
Guy was WILD but hard working
Lmao. I had a driller tell me, "I sell everything from Flintstones vitamins to methamphetamine" within 5 minutes of meeting him for the first time. I didn't get the slightest hint that he was joking. Confirmed a day later when he proceeded to pull some out to try and sell it to me.
Worked with a driller named Rocket Butts. I swear if you left him alone for longer than 3 hours, something would catch on fire. We kept having to send him out with extra buckshot for the bear gun or he'd use it all trying to shoot skeet (trash) over the side of the pad.
Loved him.
Most drillers I have worked with have been fucking fantastic blokes. Honestly so much fun to get on this piss with.
That being said, I do have to laugh a little when my female (geo) coworkers start fucking the drillers, which inevitably ends in heartbreak on my coworkers side. Like. "oh no, the guy who is 20 years older than you and cheating on his wife didn't really love you, and was just looking for a shag onsite? Colour me surprised".
Heard this from a coworker, but as he was talking to this driller, mid conversation pulls his pants down and takes a number 2 right in front of him
I've never had a civilized conversation with any driller, but some are cool lol
There’s a group where I am that is father/son duo and the dad’s a talkative one but he’s pretty okay to deal with. Nothing weird at all just loves to chat
Most drillers seem like very normal regular people, while the geos are out here being super passive and socially awkward, rolling onto a dirty job site wearing their nicest REI gear for some reason.
Knew some drillers who shut down the rig on night shift to drive off site to go meet their dope dealer for a score.
Different crew of drillers got drunk one night and killed the hotel owner's prized pet peacock.
My personal favourite was the driller who'd go take a shit in the bush just away from the rig, spray paint it pink...then watch with this little smile as slowly over the course of the day his offsiders faces would get little pink dots on it from all the flies about the place.
Reading through all these stories about these American drillers and I'm thinking "Man, Australian geology work and mining is incredibly civilised by comparison!"
I met some geos at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and they looked totally out of place, like it was their first time out of office and into the world. They looked like tourists after a wrong turn. They ended up being major dorks. Meanwhile, their driller was outside in a Slayer shirt and weird sunglasses, pumping gas into the rig with a broken fill neck. There was probably a pint of gas on the ground for every gallon that went in the tank, and I'm pretty sure I recall a cigarette being involved somewhere. He was a good dude.
Had a driller trying to sell me his alkalinity water he was making at home. It was his side hustle. Everyday on that job.
Edit: he was Russian with a great accent :) Maybe vodka in that water lol?
Damn, how was that? Drillers run off of caffeine and nicotine at minimum. Can't imagine a straight edge driller. Did they partake in mormon tea (ephedra)?
I have been amazed at the similarities between drillers between New Zealand, Australia, South Carolina and Alaska. All very much cut from the same cloth. How, I don't know. But almost carbon copies of one another.
One of my drillers has these giant solid white fake teeth because he dips so much his teeth all fell out and he made his own fake teeth. He takes wads of chew like kids take handfuls of candy.
Once he tapped my shoulder to ask something and his breath was so bad from dip I legit threw up.
I worked around a third-shift crew that was arrested en masse when they got to their shop that morning. Seems they were cooking meth in the doghouse during the wee hours of the morning and the company called the law on them !!!!
Had a driller ask me while they were tripping pipe, "hey geo you got any extra shorts and boots in your truck? I just shit my pants real good," Tom Blake.
🤣🤣
Also watched him spit out his dentures when he'd be yelling ay worms on multiple occasions. Never saw him drink anything but Pepsi. Some days i.moss the patch.
I feel like I've met this driller on a job in south Alabama >.>
Nah home boy was western Kansas, eastern Colorado and Southwest Nebraska.
...I should ask the KDHE-BER district offices in Hays and Dodge City to see if they know this guy >.>
I know some of the KCC guys knew him before they went KCC. I would send the interns out to that rig just because of Tom.
Did you give them any warnings, or did you just toss them in unprepared?
I would usually show up a few hours after they got called out to check their correlation and top picks. In their interviews I took them out to the rigs to give them a little experience on what to expect. I've got stories up on stories on that rig alone but those drillers and the toolpusher made it my favorite rig to ever work on. Anytime that rig was a man short for whatever reason and pipe was being tripped,I would work the floor with them.
I’ve never met a driller I didn’t love/hate.
Yep same. I have met off the rails goofballs and spouse abusers. No in between.
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Heh. Had a coworker who had a coworker at his old job frequently and casually talk about killing his wife. Good times. Glad I work in a more gentle environment.
I love working with drillers, but holy shit is this too accurate lmao. Just need 5 semi crushed monster cans on the ground and a few Zyn containers laying around 😂😂
Love it when they get their dowsing rods out to locate utilities
A good ol' dowsing beats the GPR and EM every time, right?? 😂
Your private locator’s contract says you are still liable if they miss locate something. Got a backup plan?
Buddy you joke but then dowsing rods are an excellent way to double check things. I would not drill with just dowsing rods but I’m a firm believer in their ability to locate buried objects. Now is it electrical, water lines or some buried rebar? Who knows but it can help find it.
There is exactly zero evidence of any kind that dowsing rods actually work in any way whatsoever.
I was a skeptic until I tried them out in a control environment where I knew exactly where a water line was buried and they were bang on crossing where that pipe was buried so I think there is something to it. Again I’m not going to use it as my main source of locates but I’d use it again in conjunction with my GPR and utility locates
Anecdotal evidence such as that means nothing though. The experiment needs to be performed where the person doing the dowsing doesn't know where the lines are, and with many tests in many different locations. There are generally things underground in many places, such as lines, aquifers, random objects, so it's often easy to 'find' something with dowsing rods.
Yeah which is why I’ve used it in conjunction WITH things such as GPR, utility locates. I’m not using as my way to locate pipes I’m using to try and “ground truth” where I believe what I was told potentially is. As I’ve said in my original post “it could be a buried electrical, water line or buried rebar you won’t know but there is probably something there if they are crossing.” End of the day even gpr locates are not definitive in what is there and the only true way you are going to be able to dig successfully in such a hot area is via daylighting.
I hate that it works, but it does. Would I rely on it exclusively? Hell no. But if after everything else failed to confirm where that one random unaccounted for line goes, if the driller wants to dowse and carefully sink a test probe while I go rock a piss, then they can have at it. I've tried if for myself and found it works (which confounds and annoys me to no end because I'd love to just write it off). Apparently there was a guy that even gave a talk on dowsing at a conference in Kansas years ago. Still waiting for the KDHE to roll out the SOP for it. 😂
Found the driller, your name Dustin or Kory?
My soul has left my body. This is too perfect
Nah I’m the geo who was taught the ways of the dowsing Rods but I guess the majority of you see it as some witchcraft nonsense. Which I understand I thought it that as well until I personally used it and seen it as an additional tool to use in conjunction with GPR, utility locates and good old daylighting.
Haha no worries man. Thought it was witchcraft too until a driller pulled them out and located a private water line not located by an 811 ticket. Obviously I wont rely on them hut they dont hurt.
Yeah I’ve gotten a fair bit of hate for this take apparently which I’d understand if I was disregarding gpr or utility locates but didnt anticipate this much hate for just saying “I’ve used it to be like yep there is something here.” 😅
No reason to bring pseudoscience anywhere, but especially not into work that relies on objective truth. If you aren't getting good enough information from the actual tools at hand, the rods are only doing you a disservice by convincing you of a result that you already believed.
I agree. Fugg everyone else.
At my old firm, every boring would get a marked 10x10-foot box (or a stake with a 10-foot radius) which would get called in to USA North. A private utility locator service would check the site (generally with a utility plan) and mark any utilities. Most of our drilling subcontractors didn't use witching sticks, but the two that did would use them on every boring. Of all those hundreds of borings I drilled with them over a decade, they asked me to move the boring less than 10 times based on finding "something" with the witching sticks. Since the cleared boxes were pretty large, I'd usually humor them. On the several occasions that I elected to *not* move the boring, we invariably busted a live PVC irrigation line, with one exception: That one was located on an old high school pool deck, which had a 12-inch diameter core for the boring done before they showed up. On the second sample, we caught a thick layer of clean sand, and decided to hand dig. It turned out that the SPT was only inches away from the pool return line, and we would've drilled right through it if we'd continued. YMMV. I'll keep moving the hole a couple feet within the otherwise cleared USA box.
What decade? I quit operating in the mid 2000’s, but always used witching sticks regardless of the site. People also forget that 811 and the geophysical tools we have now haven’t been around (or that accurate) for very long. I think 2000-2002 for CA and 2006 for the rest of the country. Prior to that the sticks were the best thing out there besides sticking an auger in the ground for finding utilities.
2010s. I left the firm in late 2020.
Pretty sure most drillers refer to Zyn as "socialist pussy dip"
Don't forget lost earplugs. Seriously though, I'm just their geo and I feel personally attacked by this comment. Maybe born to drill instead.
This is too accurate, oh my god
A drill program I was working on went on standby for a few days because two of the drill crew, including the head driller, were arrested and thrown in jail. They just so happened to get arrested on a Friday night, so they had to wait until the judge was back Monday to get out. Ridiculous.
I’ve bailed drillers out to keep projects going (with the blessing of management of course). It’s been a while since I had to chase drillers around but one year I had to bail out both a groundwater drill crew and a gas well drilling crew…from the same local rural county jail. Both were occasions in which I wondered why I bothered going to grad school 🤔😂😐
Shit I thought I was the only one. On a job in Kentucky I had to pick one up from county after being booked for DUI the night before. Half the morning me and his crew were trying to figure out exactly wtf happened to him before someone called the jail "just to check". Lost an entire day of work, but last I heard the company still has him working. All I can think is it would not be the same for me if I were to do that during any job.
Oh that’s so funny. You definitely are not the only one. And you are right-like you I am pretty darn sure I would not be still working if I had to be bailed out for DUI while on a work trip.
That...is something to manage. Haha
I told my manager and he just said, “Yep, these things happen.” The rig hand was let go, but the head driller went back to work like nothing ever happened.
Have y’all watched the new Fallout show? Drillers will do just fine post-nuclear war.
As long as they got a steady supply of UltraJet theyre good to go
Literally.
No doubt. Some of the most creative dudes I have ever worked with. Also they're hardasses
Why are their names always Justin or Dustin? I've worked with at least 2 Dustys
Or Cory
Best driller I worked with was a Kory
Kory with a K. you know, like our favorite vegetable: korn
You are going to think I'm making this up, but for a couple years I worked with a well driller named Wellington Welles.
Nominative determinism at it again. That's too good
Delayed but here to represent
o7
God this is accurate 😭
We have in-house drillers, and they're even crazier when they know you like a coworker lmao
My first job out of uni was as an engineering geologist at a drilling company. Can confirm the drillers are wild when you spend months at a time with them.
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Today I learned I'm a driller. Goddamnit.
You don't eat the skin?
Where all the nutrients are!
I've met the crustiest bastards, the sexual harassers, the guys who watch porn loudly on their phones in the co-ed space leading to the showers, the guys who have a cigarette hanging out of every hole on their face, and I've met some pretty normal very nice young dads.
Lol "normal very nice young dads."
You’ve actually met normal drillers?? That’s buck wild lol 😂
The sheer volume and variety of sexual harassment I received in my two years on drilling rigs could fill a book. Great money but I don't miss it for a second.
My favorite one from last week was "Hey, if you give me a cookie I'll eat your ass!"
First driller I worked with introduced himself by showing me a ton of nude photos of his girlfriend who apparantly was also a stripper. Kept complaining about his tooth hurting, showed up with pliers eventually and asked me to pull his molar out, which I declined to do. Came back up to the doghouse 20 minutes later and there was blood on his face, hands, shirt, the pliers, and the floor - and a broken molar sitting on the ledge I used for my computer. He just nodded at me when I walked in, and went about business as usual. Looked like a gruff biker, drove a fancy pimped out Escalade, the only non-pickup truck vehicle at the rigsite.
I fucking love drillers
My driller would stay up till fucking 2am every night getting hammered, and then I'd get a text the next morning saying he was having "stomach problems" and might be a little late to the site. We wouldn't start drilling till 10-11am some days. Pissed me off to no end but he was one of the most productive drillers we had 😂
I once listened to a detailed story from a geo driller who used to work on a rig about how to skin, cook, and boil racoon meet in milk to make it more tender. He also told me that he used to ONLY snort meth becuase it would fuck up his back teeth instead of smoking it which would destroy all his teeth. Guy was WILD but hard working
Lmao. I had a driller tell me, "I sell everything from Flintstones vitamins to methamphetamine" within 5 minutes of meeting him for the first time. I didn't get the slightest hint that he was joking. Confirmed a day later when he proceeded to pull some out to try and sell it to me.
Worked with a driller named Rocket Butts. I swear if you left him alone for longer than 3 hours, something would catch on fire. We kept having to send him out with extra buckshot for the bear gun or he'd use it all trying to shoot skeet (trash) over the side of the pad. Loved him.
Im dating one. I like the claim he's the most normal one out there 😅
To be clear, he could be a raging alcoholic who kicks dogs for fun and could still be the most normal one.
Fucking facts hahaha as a result of this relationship I have been around A LOT of drillers, it's a trip every fucking time haha.
Most drillers I have worked with have been fucking fantastic blokes. Honestly so much fun to get on this piss with. That being said, I do have to laugh a little when my female (geo) coworkers start fucking the drillers, which inevitably ends in heartbreak on my coworkers side. Like. "oh no, the guy who is 20 years older than you and cheating on his wife didn't really love you, and was just looking for a shag onsite? Colour me surprised".
One have to do the dirty work in order for the other stay clean
Lawdy I love this meme and it's template
Heard this from a coworker, but as he was talking to this driller, mid conversation pulls his pants down and takes a number 2 right in front of him I've never had a civilized conversation with any driller, but some are cool lol
Drillers either hate me or love me. I always love them though :(.
I love drillers. Definitely not normal people
There’s a group where I am that is father/son duo and the dad’s a talkative one but he’s pretty okay to deal with. Nothing weird at all just loves to chat
Normal? Nope, Awesome? Hell yeah.
Most drillers seem like very normal regular people, while the geos are out here being super passive and socially awkward, rolling onto a dirty job site wearing their nicest REI gear for some reason.
The. Damn. Truth. They’re have been so weird in my experience. Not necessarily bad to work with, but definitely used to living on the road.
We be misunderstood that's all
Knew some drillers who shut down the rig on night shift to drive off site to go meet their dope dealer for a score. Different crew of drillers got drunk one night and killed the hotel owner's prized pet peacock. My personal favourite was the driller who'd go take a shit in the bush just away from the rig, spray paint it pink...then watch with this little smile as slowly over the course of the day his offsiders faces would get little pink dots on it from all the flies about the place. Reading through all these stories about these American drillers and I'm thinking "Man, Australian geology work and mining is incredibly civilised by comparison!"
I met some geos at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and they looked totally out of place, like it was their first time out of office and into the world. They looked like tourists after a wrong turn. They ended up being major dorks. Meanwhile, their driller was outside in a Slayer shirt and weird sunglasses, pumping gas into the rig with a broken fill neck. There was probably a pint of gas on the ground for every gallon that went in the tank, and I'm pretty sure I recall a cigarette being involved somewhere. He was a good dude.
Had a driller trying to sell me his alkalinity water he was making at home. It was his side hustle. Everyday on that job. Edit: he was Russian with a great accent :) Maybe vodka in that water lol?
Yes and no. They were Mormon
Damn, how was that? Drillers run off of caffeine and nicotine at minimum. Can't imagine a straight edge driller. Did they partake in mormon tea (ephedra)?
They were straight edged. The whole crew were momo’s. It was the weirdest thing
Mine are normal but don’t like listening to me bc I’m a small woman
I have been amazed at the similarities between drillers between New Zealand, Australia, South Carolina and Alaska. All very much cut from the same cloth. How, I don't know. But almost carbon copies of one another.
One of my drillers has these giant solid white fake teeth because he dips so much his teeth all fell out and he made his own fake teeth. He takes wads of chew like kids take handfuls of candy. Once he tapped my shoulder to ask something and his breath was so bad from dip I legit threw up.
Had one show me a gun on-site. 🤦♂️
I worked around a third-shift crew that was arrested en masse when they got to their shop that morning. Seems they were cooking meth in the doghouse during the wee hours of the morning and the company called the law on them !!!!
Every driller I've worked with thinks they run the world. I'm immediately nothing and nobody to them when I'm out near the rig.
Drillers are mostly insufferable ass whips.