Describing Wayne Nash as a drilling veteran falls a little short of really getting at the truth of the matter. The expert in all things drilling has shared his experiences — some quite colorful — from National Driller’s pages for years. He’s worked in most every aspect of drilling, starting in the mid-1960s. That includes turning right on water wells, oil wells and everything in between, as well as being a go-to man for tool fishing. We recently spoke with the longtime driller and columnist about mud pumps, training new hands and a lot of other drilling topics. Our conversation here is edited for space and clarity.
A. I started in 1966. I started on a cable tool rig and I’ve tried to stay up with the progression of the industry pretty much ever since. ... My philosophy is that, no matter what kind of drilling that a person is doing, the object is to make a usable and profitable hole for the customer. This could be water wells or whatever. I’ve been in the oil field, but I’ve also done equipment manufacture and many other things — geotechnical drilling, soil exploration, about any kind of drilling that you could name. One thing I know is that almost no matter what product you want to talk about, if you can’t grow it, you’ve got to drill for it. If you think about minerals or energy, or water or anything else, we’re going to drill for it, which means there’s going to be a demand for drillers forever.