Switched from wireline to sonic sampling on a muddy river job in Arkansas

I used to run wireline coring on soft riverbed jobs and it was ALWAYS a mess. The core kept washing out and we lost almost 30% of our samples last spring on the Arkansas River. Finally tried sonic drilling on a similar job near Little Rock and the difference was HUGE. Clean cores every time and we finished 2 days ahead of schedule. Has anyone else made that switch or found a better way to get good samples in muck?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixk6416d ago

Man, sonic is just flat out better for anything soft. Once you deal with the cleanup and maintenance its way less headache than fighting with a washed out core barrel.

lunar8916d ago

Ugh YES this is exactly how I feel about most "upgrades" in life - once you find the right tool for the job everything else just feels like you were making it harder on yourself for no reason.

betty_perry2415d ago

@phoenixk64 brings up a good point about the cleanup, but honestly I used to think sonic was overkill for soft stuff like mud. I remember telling my boss "why bother with that fancy rig when a wireline barrel works fine?" Boy was I wrong. After one job on the White River where we lost half the core to washouts, I gave sonic a try and it was night and day. We pulled perfect 5-foot tubes out of straight sludge with zero sloughing. Now I'm a total convert, even if I have to spend an extra hour washing down the rods at the end of the day.